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.