An Alphabetical Analysis
Volume 7 - Doctrinal Truth - Page 113 of 297
INDEX
The word 'for' in 'counted for' is, strictly speaking, 'unto'.  Just as
in Romans 1:16 the power of God is said to be 'unto salvation', and in 10:10,
man with the heart 'believeth unto righteousness', so this 'righteousness of
God' is 'by faith of Jesus Christ unto all ... that believe' (Rom. 3:22).  It
is no fiction; it is a very blessed fact.  Righteousness is actually imputed,
but faith is imputed for or unto righteousness.
We have departed a little from our usual method, and spent a longer
time upon this illustration than space will generally permit, but we felt
that the distinction was important enough to warrant it.  Faith is precious,
it is blessed, it is the one thing necessary.  At the same time let us not
magnify it into a procuring cause, or a meritorious work.  There, in the
great Bank of Heaven, is the genuine gold of perfect righteousness, wrought
by Another on our behalf, and that alone makes our faith of any value.
Reckoning and Reality.  The following diagram and also that on page 171 are
intended to show that before ever we could be 'reckoned' righteous, the Son
of God, had to be 'reckoned' with transgressors.  Before all 'fulness' could
dwell in Him, He 'emptied Himself' (Phil. 2:7 kenoo).
Much of the truth that is here latent, comes to light by discriminating
between the word translated 'with', when the Saviour became Emmanuel, God
with us, and the word translated 'with', when the believer is reckoned to
have been 'crucified with' Christ.
Meta 'with' is a preposition of association, and not of actual oneness.
It consequently is sometimes translated 'among' and 'after', indicating
association rather than union.  When the angel said, 'Why seek ye the living
among the dead?' (Luke 24:5) the word 'among' is meta.  There can be no idea
of 'union' with the dead being read into this question.  When we read that
the Lord was 'with' the wild beasts while enduring the forty days' testing in
the wilderness (Mark 1:13), it is 'association' not 'unity' that is implied.