https://youtu.be/mz5ceKQ-9hc
In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we finished Rom 4:13; with the Expanded Translation Rom 4:13; "For not through the law is that promise to Abraham and to his seed, that he will be the heir of the world, but through righteousness (imputed) by means of faith."
We see here that justification from God is the predicate for all direct blessing from God because only the possessor of God's righteousness is justified. Justification means to be recognized by God as righteous.
Justification must precede all other blessings from God's justice. Justification only occurs at the moment of faith in Christ as a result of the imputation of God's righteousness.
The chronological sequence for these events is faith in Christ, then the imputation of God's righteousness, followed by the judicial act from God's justice called justification.
God recognizes His own righteousness wherever it is found. It is the recognition of God's righteousness that establishes the basis for all direct blessing from God's justice because justification is the prerequisite, for all direct blessing from God's justice.
Justification is the advantage the blessings from God's justice are the advantages. The advantages are not advantageous without the advantage. Advantage is a judicial procedure resulting from faith in Christ also described as salvation adjustment to God's justice.
Imputed righteousness followed by God's judicial function of declaring the new believer righteous or justified is the gate that unlocks every blessing from God's justice.
Only those who are justified because they possess God's righteousness are qualified to inherit the world so only Jews who believe in Jesus Christ are qualified for this blessing because to be qualified to receive it they have to possess God's perfect righteousness that is only available through the imputation that comes exclusively from believing in Jesus Christ.
Rom 4:14; In this verse Paul uses the debater's technique in the form of a conditional sentence that sets up another straw man to emphasize the blasphemous implications of the erroneous conclusion of assuming that the Mosaic law can be distorted into a system of works righteousness to produce a relationship with God in order to become an heir of God in order to become a recipient His blessings.
In the conditional sentence we have a protasis and an apodosis that creates an "if then" statement where the "if" clause sets up a condition that the apodosis references to establish a result.
"For if those who are of the law are heirs." These are the people who are working through the law for salvation. It begins with the postpositive conjunctive particle "gar" (for or because) introducing the debater's technique, followed by the conditional particle "ei" (if) that introduces the protasis of a debater's first class condition (if and we assume it to be true).
Using debater's technique Paul assumes the position of the legalistic Jews in order to refute their assumption. We have the nominative plural from the definite article "ho" (the) and the preposition "ek" (from or of) with the ablative of "nomos" (law).
This is an ablative of means because the source or origin of (law keeping) is implied. Next is the predicate nominative plural from "kleronomos" (heirs). Expanded Translation: "For if they from the law are heirs (and we assume that they are)."
Paul states their position that assumes that that by self-righteousness derived from law keeping one can be saved. It is a debater's technique because it is not actually true; it is an assumption taken to refute their false belief that it is true.
The conclusion or then statement: "faith is made void" the nominative singular subject "pistis" (faith) with the definite article "ho" (the) (the faith). The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasize the true means of salvation.
The mechanics of salvation adjustment to God's justice is monadic because it is only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we call it "the faith." Plus the perfect passive indicative of the verb "kenow" (void) that means to make empty, to cancel, or to render ineffective in the passive it means to be voided or cancelled.
The perfect tense is completed action with emphasis on existing results being intensified, so this is called the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect in the Greek is an emphatic method for presenting a fact or a condition. It is the strong way of saying that something is true.
There is no exact equivalent for the this Greek idiom in the English language so it is generally translated by saying, "void in the past with the result that it keeps on being void forever." So our Expanded Translation is: "the faith has been voided with the result that it is permanently cancelled."
That is a cumbersome way to say it but it is exactly what it means. The passive voice: faith receives the action of the verb of being deprived of its prerogative and consequently faith is invalidated or cancelled.
The indicative mood is potential for a condition that keeps the door open for faith in Christ for salvation, as long as the confused person is still alive. It means these people haven't believed in Jesus Christ yet but they still have the opportunity to believe if they want to.
"and the promise is nullified" the nominative singular subject "epaggelia" (promise) refers to the blessings from God's justice that are listed in the Abrahamic covenant, and by application to us referring to all of the blessings that come from God because of maximum adjustment to God's justice.
Plus the connective use of the conjunction "kai" (and) the nominative singular from the definite article "ho" (the) used as a demonstrative pronoun emphasizing the unconditional parts of the Abrahamic covenant that were blessings from God's justice when Abraham attained spiritual maturity.
"is nullified;" the perfect passive indicative "katargew" (cancel, nullify or abrogate). The perfect tense is a consummative perfect that emphasizes a process that has been completed.
However, existing results are not entirely ruled out since the writer has in mind both the past action and present reality. This is very similar to a culminative aorist except that it places equal stress on what has happened in past and the consequences of that action.
The passive voice that describes the promise of blessing from God's justice receives the action of the verb; it is cancelled. The indicative mood is a potential indicative, the condition used as a part of debater's technique.
The principle being explained by Paul using the debater's technique is that legalism cancels blessing from God's justice.
Rom 4:14; Expanded Translation: "For if they by means of the law are heirs (and we assume they are), then that faith has been voided with the result that it is permanently invalidated, and that promise has been cancelled."
We see from this that legalism and grace are mutually exclusive. They cannot co-exist because works always cancel grace.
Works cancel grace so legalism cancels blessing from God's justice.
Trying to use the law as an instrument for adjustment to God's justice produces arrogance that motivates a system of self-righteousness. Arrogance and self-righteousness are tandems that always travel together.
That means that God's righteousness that is one half of His integrity that is imputed on the basis of faith, and man's self-righteousness that are the product of human works are mutually exclusive.
There is no place in salvation adjustment to God's justice for man's self-righteousness or righteous works from compliance with the Mosaic Law.
There is no place in rebound or maturity adjustment to God's justice for man's self-righteousness or righteous works from compliance with the Mosaic Law.
The point is that being a good person doesn't make you a good person from God's point of view.
Self-righteousness directed toward God is the blasphemous legalistic assumption that the imputation of God's righteousness is not sufficient and man must add righteous works from the keeping the law to it.
It is blasphemy to assume that either man's self-righteousness or righteous works from the law can promote God's integrity. God's integrity has eternally existed in the status of infinite perfection so no creature's works can improve on God's perfect integrity.
Since integrity demands integrity, holiness demands holiness, righteousness demands righteousness, justice demands justice, self-righteousness or works righteousness from keeping the law is totally excluded from the grace mechanics of any of the adjustments to God's justice.
This verse presents two systems of grace mechanics so two systems of adjustment to God's justice are described here.
The first system is "faith" in Christ as the grace mechanic of salvation adjustment to God's justice. The word "promise" introduces the second system that refers to blessings from maturity adjustment to God's justice.
God's justice demands integrity for blessing. This integrity includes God's imputed righteousness at salvation that is combined with maximum doctrine resident in the soul's stream of consciousness for spiritual maturity.
God in His grace provides all that His integrity demands. Imputed righteousness at salvation, rebound and spirituality for grace perception, and living life under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit combined with the recall and application of Bible doctrine as the means of attaining maturity adjustment to God's justice.
God's integrity has always existed in a state of absolute perfection. Man is a creature of time. God's integrity is a part of His eternal existence so there is nothing man can do in self-righteousness or righteous works that adds or subtracts from God's perfect eternal integrity.
Man's self-righteousness or righteous work does not glorify or impress God. Actually God's righteousness rejects the righteousness of man and God's justice condemns the legalistic works of man.
There is no point in history where God's integrity gains anything from man's self-righteousness or works of the law. God can add something to our integrity but we cannot add anything to God's integrity.
The faith that saves is the exclusive principle whereby the human race enters into a relationship with God's integrity through salvation adjustment to God's justice by simply believing in Jesus Christ.
There is no merit in faith; all of the merit belongs exclusively to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the object of faith.
All of the believing in the world receives nothing but condemnation from God's justice but the smallest amount of faith in Jesus Christ secures God's righteousness and eternal salvation.
Therefore faith is not something we do. It is the channel whereby we appropriate what God has done for us through Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus' work on the cross is how God found a way to bless us from His perfect integrity without compromising His perfect essence.
Under the principle of legalism, self-righteousness or the works of the law, man strives for a status of humanly produced righteousness that he falsely assumes pleases God.
Striving for works righteousness cancels faith in Jesus Christ and rejects God's integrity.
Only that grace provision that is sourced from God's integrity is compatible with God's essence and His attributes. Self-righteousness through keeping the law is a principle of works that is totally incompatible with God's integrity.
Justification by faith recognizes both God's integrity and the fact that God loves His own integrity and God's integrity excludes human works.
The principle of righteousness by works of the law is an evil satanic principle that was presented to man in the garden as the alternative to God's perfect environment. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the presentation of the satanic plan of good and evils as an alternative to God's perfect environment.
Perfect environment is from God's justice as the result of God's perfect creation by God's perfect integrity. In the Garden of Eden the works of the law were described as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Good refers to human good from self-righteousness and evil refers to satan's plan that functions in opposition to God. This means that under the law of works good and evil are synonyms because the "good" being produces is evil.
The purpose of the law is to condemn mankind, not commend him. The law eliminates human self-righteousness and condemns arrogance that is the source of human self-righteousness.
The law confirms man's sinfulness and resultant spiritual death therefore the law reveals the need for salvation adjustment to God's justice.
While the law cannot save it can provide awareness of the need of salvation as well as the means of salvation that is faith in Jesus Christ alone.
In Gal 3:24; the law is described as a tutor or school bus that brings us to salvation. It is not the instrument of salvation; it carries us to the point where we can understand the issue of salvation.
Therefore the law is an instrument of condemnation and a means of evangelization.
The fact that millions of Jews used the law properly in recognizing their condemnation and turning to Jesus Christ for salvation emphasizes the fact that every Jew did not distort the law.
In fact, throughout history the Mosaic Law has been employed with compatibility with God's purpose by condemning and evangelizing by bringing people to the point of salvation adjustment to God's justice by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.