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It would appear from this that "faith" has advanced and become "knowledge" as Peter
says:--
"Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge . . . . . For if these things be in you,
and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren, nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Pet. 1: 5-8).
The reader will observe that the end in view here is "fruit", and will immediately turn
back to Rom. 6: and 7: to see that this, too, is the goal before the apostle.
To return, then, to our theme: How is the believer to make these blessings something
more than a part of a creed, and so believe them that his knowledge shall be neither
barren nor unfruitful? The answer is found in Rom. 6: 11: "Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin; but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus."
As the true meaning of the word "reckon" is vital to our appreciation and
appropriation of the work of Christ, no pains must be spared to arrive at as true and
complete an understanding of it as possible. Logizomai, "to reckon", comes from leloga,
the middle perfect of lego, "to gather or collect" as in I Cor. 16: 1, 2. Its proper
meaning is to reckon arithmetically, and is so used in the LXX version of II Chron. 5: 6.
The usage of the word in the N.T. will enable us to get some idea of its general
bearing:--
(1) TO REASON OR ARGUE RATIONALLY.
"They reasoned with themselves" (Mark 11: 31).
"When I was a child . . . . . I thought as a child" (I Cor. 13: 11).
(2) TO INFER, CONCLUDE OR BALANCE AFTER HEARING REASONS.
"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith" (Rom. 3: 28).
"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time" (Rom. 8: 18).
"Accounting that God was able to raise him up" (Heb. 11: 19).
(3) TO THINK.
"And thinkest thou this, O man?" (Rom. 2: 3).
(4) TO ACCOUNT.
"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ" (I Cor. 4: 1).
"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves' (II Cor. 3: 5).
"To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean" (Rom. 14: 14).
"He was reckoned among the transgressors" (Luke 22: 37).
"We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter" (Rom. 8: 36).
(5) TO IMPUTE.
"Unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works" (Rom. 4: 6).
"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Rom. 4: 8).
"To whom it shall be imputed, if we believe" (Rom. 4: 24).
(6) TO IMPUTE FOR (logizomai eis).
"Shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?" (Rom. 2: 26).
"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Rom. 4: 3).
"His faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4: 5).
"The children of the promise are counted for the seed" (Rom. 9: 8).