Life-out-of-death reckoning results in our becoming a “living sacrifice.” Such a one is always delivered unto death—but, out of that daily death, new life is constantly manifested.
THE above quotation is from what is to follow as we commence our reading in the next to last chapter of our study in The Complete Green Letters – Part 4, The Realization of Spiritual Growth– Chapter 53 – Results of Reckoning.
WHEREAS I had some minor reservations about the previous chapter, there are none here. In fact, I would bold and underline all in this chapter as an excellent summary instruction. It centers rightly upon the Cross and resultant manifestation and two directional outworking. I’m going to limit my introduction comments so as to get right to this important reading, saving my observations and illustrations for later.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas. 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 53—Results of Reckoning
It should be evident by now that the truths we have been studying are interrelated, and interdependent. Together, they form a single unit of truth—centered in the cross and our risen Lord. Their express purpose is to conform us to the image of God’s Son. To consolidate and conclude our study, let us consider a few of the results of reckoning.
The Continuity of the Cross
“Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin” (Rom. 6:11, ASV). Having reckoned upon a finished work, we must be prepared to experience the results of the position taken. Counting ourselves to have died unto sin at Calvary is synonymous with taking up that cross. It is to be expected that the result of this is daily crucifixion. In this connection, the principle of distinctions in Chapter 49 [Gal. 2:20 Reckoning] is to be remembered: our dead-unto-sin reckoning includes two factors—the old man as crucified, and the new man as having died unto sin.
The old man crucified. Our reckoning the old man as crucified results in the Spirit’s leading us daily in the path of the cross. He allows us, chiefly through our own mistakes and willfulness, to become enmeshed in situations and circumstances that hold the self-life on the cross, that crucify it and break its power. There is nothing easy or pleasant about the cross, but we learn to glory in it because its crucifying power frees us from the “law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
The new man dead unto sin. As we exercise the reckoning-attitude of having died unto sin, and hence take up our cross daily, the result is that we enjoy increasingly the freedom and the abundance of our new life in the risen Lord we find that the death which we passed through at Calvary now stands between us and the grip of sin and self. In our standing, we count upon the crucifixion of the old Adamic source; in our state, we find ourselves “alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:11). This dying daily both holds the self-life crucified, and manifests the Christ-life in us. The continuity of the cross in our lives produces continual freedom from the reign of sin.
The Continuity of Manifestation
“Reckon ye also yourselves to be … alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11, ASV). The foremost reason for reckoning ourselves to be in the glorified Lord is that His risen life may be manifested. …to be continued
