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"His faith is counted for righteousness" (5).
"Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness" (9).
"Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness" (22).
Where anything is `reckoned', be it a debt, righteousness or sin, it is conceived as
actually existing. Where faith is `reckoned for' righteousness, it is manifest that personal
righteousness is absent, and that by a gracious dispensation, righteousness is `attributed
by vicarious substitution'.
The O.T. usage of the word is the same as that set out above.
"Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy
servant did perversely . . . . . I have sinned" (II Sam. 19: 19, 20).
Here sin was an admitted fact.
"Thou dost count me for an enemy" (Job 13: 24).
"He counts me as an enemy" (Job 19: 11).
Here Job does not admit that he is rightly charged as being an enemy of God, but
expresses his perplexity at the treatment he has received.
When the golden sovereign was supplanted by the paper £1 note, so far as purchasing
power goes both were of equal value. But should either or both be thrown on the fire, the
essential difference becomes apparent. The sovereign, though melted, retains its worth,
but the £1 note vanishes in smoke and ashes and becomes intrinsically valueless. The
paper £1 was `counted for' twenty shillings; it purchased twenty shillings-worth, but
most certainly it was not twenty shillings. So faith is `counted for' righteousness: it is,
and will be accepted at heaven's bar as if it were `twenty shillings-worth' though, in
itself, it merits nothing. So it will be seen that while faith is `counted for' righteousness,
God does actually impute righteousness to the believer, "even the righteousness of God
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe"
(Rom. 3: 22).
The Scriptures speak of justification by faith (Rom. 5: 1) and justification by grace
(Rom. 3: 24; Titus 3: 7). It is important to keep these two statements in mind, as
otherwise it is easy for the mind to conceive of `faith' as some sort of work that merits
recognition or approval. Let us consider the meaning of the two terms `grace' and `faith'
and observe the part they play in the blessed process of justification.
Grace charis. The classic usage of the word is found in the N.T. words "favour"
(Luke 1: 30); "grace" (Luke 2: 40); "pleasure" (Acts 24: 27), but it is in the epistles of
Paul that the word realizes its full import, namely `grace, or favour to the unworthy'.
This highest of all meanings was impossible of attainment or expression until the love of
God was made manifest in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The peculiar character
of `grace' can be seen in the following passages:
"Reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt" (Rom. 4: 4).
"If by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace" (Rom. 11: 6).