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"FAITH COUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Justification is `by faith', `freely by grace', `by His blood', `in the name of Christ', `by
the faith (or faithfulness) of Christ'. Yet the question remains, "How does it become
mine?" The answer is provided in Rom. 4: 3 which quotes the words of Gen. 15: 6,
"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness". Let us discover
more fully the meaning of this word `counted'.
Logizomai occurs eleven times in Rom. 4:; it is translated in that chapter by three
different English equivalents, `count', `reckon' and `impute'. Moreover, it is found in
two forms in that chapter. Logizomai, "to count, reckon or impute", and logizomai eis,
"to count, reckon or impute for". In the one case the thing itself is `counted', i.e. sin
(Rom. 4: 8) which actually existed, and in the other, one thing is counted, or `reckoned
for' another, as in Rom. 4: 5, where faith which did exist, was `counted for' a
righteousness that did not exist, except as in the gift-by-grace of God.
Logizomai occurs some 40 times in the N.T. Of these all but six occur in Paul's
epistles, and of this remainder, nineteen occur in the one epistle to the Romans. Paul's
use of the term in Rom. 2: 26 makes his meaning clear. Confessedly the Gentiles had
not the law in the sense that Israel had, nor were they given the covenant of circumcision;
yet the Apostle says:
"If the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision" (Rom. 2: 26).
Now, keeping `the work of the law written in their heart' (Rom. 2: 15) could by no
manner of means be looked upon, or called `circumcision', yet if, in His mercy, God so
chose, it could be `counted for' it. In the same way, no man, whether he be Jew or
Gentile, has produced or ever can produce righteousness in the sense demanded by God;
yet, as an act of free favour, He has been pleased, through the redemption accomplished
by His beloved Son, to `count' faith `for' righteousness.
"To impute, in theology, means, To attribute or ascribe (righteousness, guilt, etc.) to a
person by vicarious substitution" (Shorter Oxford Dictionary).
Let us now set out in two groups the passages in Rom. 4: that us logizomai, and
logizomai eis:
Logizomai.
"Reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (4).
"God imputeth righteousness without works" (6).
"To whom the Lord will not impute sin" (8).
"How was it then reckoned?" (10).
"Righteousness might be imputed unto them" (11).
"It was imputed to him" (23).
"To whom it hall be imputed" (24).
Logizomai eis.
"It was counted unto him for righteousness" (3).