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but of debt, and God is seen `imputing' righteousness without works, and
`reckoning' faith for righteousness. In Romans 6, the whole blessed teaching
is found expressed in two verses:
(1)
The new bond of union `crucified With' (Rom. 6:6).
(2)
The link `reckon ye also yourselves to be dead' (Rom. 6:11).
Because He was sinless, He could only be reckoned with, meta, sinners, but
inasmuch as His sacrificial death put away our sin, we, the sinners, can be
reckoned with, sun, Him, not in His birth, but in that new relationship made
possible first by reckoning and then by substitution. At present our union
with Christ is by reckoning only, for we are still in ourselves mortal and
sinful. In resurrection, however, what is ours only by reckoning now will be
ours in glorious reality. All barriers to complete union will then have gone
and we shall indeed be one.
There are seven rungs in this ladder of grace, commencing with the
Cross and ending in Glory, that demand attention. We will arrange these
seven passages in the order in which they appear in the development of the
doctrine, so that the first rung in the ladder shall be the lowest on the
page, the list being read upwards.
(7)
`Manifested with',
sun phaneroo
Realization
in glory (Col. 3:4)
(6)
`Seated with' in
sugkathizo
Reckoning
heavenly places
(Eph. 2:6)
(5)
`Raised with'
sunegeiro
Reckoning
(Col. 3:1)
(4)
`Quickened with'
suzoopoieo
Reckoning
(Eph. 2:5)
(3)
`Buried with'
sunthapto
Reckoning
(Rom. 6:4)
(2)
`Dead with'
sunapothnesko
Reckoning
(2 Tim. 2:11)
(1)
`Crucified with'
sustauroo
Reckoning
(Rom. 6:6)
The first six steps in this blessed ascent are taken during this life.
The seventh and last step awaits the resurrection. The first six steps are
taken while we are still mortal. The seventh and last step, awaits
immortality. The first six steps are only ours by `reckoning'. The seventh
and the last step is ours in `reality'. Not until every vestige of the old
man and the old nature has gone completely can there be any `real' union with
the holy Son of God. During this life that union is by `reckoning'. When,
however, the believer has actually died, the only possible ground of union
with the Risen Christ is in virtue of the New Life which is the gift of God
through the offering of His Son, and conferred upon the believer at the
resurrection.