https://youtu.be/TQu0zEFm3hc
We are in our verse by verse study of Romans and when we stopped last time we were in Rom 1:17; at the phrase "But the righteous shall live by faith."
We were noting the future middle indicative from the verb "zao", translated "live" in the phrase "the just shall live."
"Zao" translated "live" connotes the function of life. The future tense is a statement of fact or performance that is rightly expected when believers are consistent in their function under God's GASP system.
The middle voice of" zao" is the indirect middle, so it emphasizes the agent. God is the agent producing the action of the verb when the believer reaches maturity adjustment to God's justice.
It can be an intensive middle that would corresponds to the Hebrew piel stem used in Habakkuk chapter 2. It also is called the dynamic middle that emphasizes the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb, which indicate is the daily function under GASP.
The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that your personal life and your national life are related in your attitude toward doctrine. Apart from adjustment to God's justice on a daily basis there is no blessing from God for you personally, or for those associated with you, and in this case we are dealing with the nation.
The words translated "by faith" are "ek" plus the ablative of means of "pistis." The ablative is not used for means except under certain circumstances because the instrumental is the case that is used for means in the Greek.
However, if there is any implication as to the origin or the source involved then the ablative is used instead of the instrumental. So since the source of blessing, and the source of adjustment to God's justice, and the source of glorifying God, and the source of pleasing God, are all bound up in this prepositional phrase.
"Ek" plus the ablative is used instead of than "en "plus the instrumental so a better translation of 'ek pistis" is "by means of doctrine." "For the vindicated one lives by means of doctrine."
Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the means of attaining maturity or maximum adjustment to God's justice. So Bible doctrine is the sine qua non of spiritual maturity because there is no spiritual maturity without Bible doctrine.
Rom 1:17; expanded translation: "For by the same gospel the justice of (belonging to) God is revealed from faith (adjustment at salvation) to doctrine (maturity adjustment after salvation): as it stands written, but the righteous (the vindicated ones aka believers advancing to maturity adjustment to God's justice) shall live by means of doctrine."
This brings us to a brief study of the doctrine of adjustment to God's justice. God's grace is administered through God's essence so ultimately all blessing or discipline from God is filtered through His justice. This means that as goes God's justice of God, so goes blessing or cursing to mankind.
The principle here is that what God provides in grace must not and cannot compromise His perfect essence.
God's Love is the motivation for God's grace, but justice is the function of grace so God's love isn't a mechanic of grace because Love is the predicate of grace.
This means that God's justice must be free to give blessing to fallen sin infused mankind without violating or compromising His perfect integrity. Whatever you receive in blessing from God must be approved by God's justice first because God's justice must approve everything that comes from God to man.
God's motivation is love; His decision is sovereignty. But neither love nor sovereignty can go any farther than God's justice will permit them to go. Justice has the final say in whether God will provide blessing or cursing. Deut 30:19;
The question that believers must understand is how can God avoid compromising His perfect righteousness and still have a relationship with us in our fallen compromising state? The answer is our adjustment to God's justice and how God makes that possible.
This is why adjustment to God's justices is a function of our compliance with doctrine (faith) not our works. When believers understand this it changes their entire outlook on their relationship with God. It is also why salvation is on the basis of believing in Jesus Christ alone.
You cannot adjust to any of the other characteristics of God. You can only adjust to God's justice. Once you understand how to adjust to God's justice and you make the volitional choice to adjust to God's justice then everything else in your life will automatically fall into place.
Adjustment to God's justice provides God with the freedom to provide either blessing or cursing for us through grace without compromising or jeopardizing any aspect of His perfect essence.
Whether you are blessed or cursed, God's integrity is never violated or compromised. Adjustment to God's justice occurs in three categories: salvation, rebound, and spiritual maturity we will look at each of these categories individually.
The starting point is salvation adjustment to God's justice. God is fair; it is impossible for God to be unfair because He has perfect righteousness and immutability. God can't change what He is: perfect justice. When perfect righteousness and justice team up, the blessing of salvation must be provided without compromising His perfect essence.
God's justice administers what God's perfect righteousness demands. Therefore, perfect righteousness makes a demand upon justice: that justice cannot save anyone in the human race unless perfect righteousness is perfectly satisfied and remains in that status quo.
This means all the sins of the human race must be judged in someone qualified. Justice must judge to maintain the status quo of God's perfect righteousness.
Passages that address this include: Deut 32:4; 2Chron 19:7; Job 37:23; Psa 19:9; Psa 50:6; Psa 58:11 Psa 89:14; Isa 45:21; Jer 50:7; Rom 3:26; Heb 10:30-31; Heb 12:23.
When Jesus Christ was on the cross, our sins were poured out on Him and judged by God's justice. 1Pet 2:24; 2Cor 5:21;
The sins and the guilt of the entire human race were shifted to Jesus Christ on the cross, Rom 5:12; Rom 6:23. God's justice was propitiated by the efficacious sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We are born spiritually dead, but we are not born guilty.
The cross was a real and perfect courtroom. The work of Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of the Father, and freed anyone to believe in Jesus Christ, so that man is free to adjust to God's justice and God's justice is free to pardon, and even more, God's justice is free justify sinful mankind through man's non-meritorious adjustment to God's justice.