every vestige of 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', but in the life to come the believer can be truly united with

the Risen Christ by 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.

Here at length all barriers to complete union will have been dissolved, and

what was hitherto enjoyed by the gracious principle of reckoning will then be

enjoyed in reality.

No believer has been actually 'crucified with Christ'; he can be

graciously 'reckoned' so, but no more.  No believer has actually 'died with

Christ'; he can only do so by 'reckoning'.  This principle of 'reckoning' is

the first true link between the Saviour and the saved.  He, the sinless One

was 'reckoned' with the transgressors, so that they could be 'reckoned' with

Him in His sacrificial work.  No longer is He 'with' us only (meta) in close

association; He is also one with us (sun) in a blessed and eternal union.

Meta indicates 'proximity', but sun indicates 'conjunction', and

implies something in common union, and the compound verb sustauroo 'to

crucify with' meets us for the first time (Matt. 27:44; Mark 15:32; John

19:32).  Be it noted, this same word sustauroo is used by the apostle Paul to

indicate the first of a series of links that unites the believer for ever

with His Lord: 'I have been crucified with Christ' (Gal. 2:20), 'Our old man

was crucified with Him' (Rom. 6:6).

At the birth at Bethlehem, Christ became Emmanuel, 'God with us', where

meta indicates the limits of this blessed proximity of God to man, but at the

Cross, the believing sinner becomes one 'with Christ' and now the preposition

of union and oneness is employed, sun.

In the sixth chapter of Romans, the whole wondrous teaching is found

expressed in two verses: the new bond of union 'crucified With' (6) and the

link 'reckon ye also yourselves to be dead' (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.  However, in

resurrection, what is ours only by reckoning will be ours in glorious

reality.  All barriers to complete union will then have gone and we shall

indeed be One with Him.

The sacrificial Work of Christ, while admittedly 'one Offering' (Heb.

9:28; 10:14), has many facets, being related, speaking broadly, to the work

of deliverance from bondage, which aspect is covered by the term Redemption,

and the work of perfecting, including acceptance and sanctification, which

ranges under the covering term Atonement.  This twofold division is

acknowledged in the Scriptures, especially in the types that set forth the

once offered Sacrifice of the Saviour.

In Exodus 6, where the great name, associated with Redemption is

revealed, namely Jehovah (Exod. 6:3), we have an insistence on the

twofoldness of the redemptive purpose.

The deliverance Out of bondage.