Reckoning

"Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6.11). This word "reckon" is of utmost importance. We all want to "touch" and see if our old man is dead. We always like to "feel" whether our old man is dead or not. Yet, if it depends on our "touch" or "feel," our old man will never die, since he does not die simply because we "touch or "feel." As a matter of fact, the more we "touch," the livelier will be our old man; the more we "feel," the more present will be our old man. The old man is not crucified by "touch" or "feel"; he is crucified through "reckoning."

What is it to "reckon"? To "reckon" is to exercise faith, to "reckon" is to exercise the judgment as well as the execution of the will. "Reckoning" is totally different from "touching" or "feeling." For these latter are related to the senses; but "reckoning" is in the realm of faith and will. Hence, the way to deal with the old man does not lie in the realm of feeling. To say "I do not feel my old man is dead" is totally wrong. The death of the old man does not depend on whether or not you feel it so; it is determined by whether or not you reckon it so.

How do you "reckon"? To reckon yourself as dead to sin is to account yourself as already crucified, that is, to account your old man as already crucified. It is reckoning the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ to be also the cross of your old man. Thus you consider the death of the Lord Jesus to be likewise the death of your old man. Indeed, you deem the time when the Lord Jesus died nineteen hundred years ago as having been as well the exact time of the death of your old man. For the old man having been crucified with Christ is a fact, an accomplished fact. In the eyes of God, the sin factor is already dead; and so, we must reckon ourselves to be dead to this sin factor. In our believing from the heart that God will realize in us what we reckon, and in our deciding with the will that we have died to sin, we shall no longer be bondservants of sin.

This "reckoning" is an attitude as well as an action. An action is taken once, but an attitude is constantly maintained. An action is taken as a timely move against a certain matter; an attitude is maintained as a lasting estimation of that matter. We ought to reckon ourselves as dead to sin. This is to say that we should take a singular action of reckoning ourselves as dead, and then follow through by a permanent attitude of reckoning ourselves as indeed dead to sin. Action commences; attitude continues. We ought once and singularly to reckon before God, believing ourselves to be dead from that day onward. Having taking that action, we then need to affirm it daily with a corresponding attitude—that is to say, with maintaining the belief of our being dead to sin.