July 28 , 2002

RECKONING IS REAL

Mark 15:27, Luke 23:32

 

   We have enjoyed SANCTIFICATION in its SPHERE, "newness of life," its CONDITION, "union with Christ" since we are crucified with, dead with, buried with, and raised with Him, its STATE, "freedom" from the servitude of sin and death. All this is made ours by RECKONING!

   How do these blessings become ours experientially and effectively? One might answer, "By faith," except the word faith is not found once in our portion between Romans 5:12 and 8:39. And we might ask, "What is meant by 'faith'," for we read "know ye not...," "Knowing this..." and "Knowing that..." in Romans 6:3, 6, & 9. Peter wrote that we "add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance (or self control)...For if these things be in you and abound...they make you neither barren nor unfruitful in the know-ledge of our Lord..." (2 Pet.1:5-8). Thus faith grows into knowledge. Like Peter, Paul focused on bearing fruit. Not only did he challenge, "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?" but "now being made free from sin...ye have your fruit unto holiness ...fruit unto God" (Rom. 6:21,22, 7:4).

   The true meaning of "reckon" is very important. The Greek word has a wide range of English words to convey its breadth of meaning. It reads reasoned when "they reasoned with themselves," (Mk. 11:31), thought "when...I thought as a child" (1 Cor. 13:11), conclude in "we conclude that a man is justified by faith" (Rom. 3:28), account as in "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ" (1 Cor. 4:!).

   Our Lord was "reckoned among the transgressors" according to Luke 22:37 which refers to Christ. We must "reckon" with a reality as great as that by which Christ was reckoned with these transgressors. As a result of that reckoning He was treated as a criminal experiencing to the full all the horror of desertion, crucifixion, and death. Just as surely shall we be treated as justified and free from the dominion of sin, when we have died to sin on the one hand, and on the other hand are alive to God "in Christ Jesus." Such is the reckoning of faith grown unto the knowledge of Christ's finished work!

 

Ivan L. Burgener