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THE RECKONING THAT COUNTS by Miles J. Stanford |
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THE RECKONING THAT COUNTS is sent forth in the assurance that there are many of the Lord's hungry-hearted ones who are aware of their need to understand more fully what the call to "reckon" involves, as found in Romans 6:11. We trust the Lord to prepare each mind and heart that takes up this brief study. For there must be Spirit-dependent study and concentration on the part of the believer if he is to enter into the spiritual growth that is realized through reckoning. "What we learn after we 'know it all' is what counts!" "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts 20:32). --Miles J. Stanford October 1966 Colorado Springs Colorado, USA
09 The Self-Life and Reckoning 10 Reckoning in Galatians 2:20 11 Reckoning in Philippians 3:10 12 Reckoning in Colossians Three 15 Foundation of Reckoning (Appendix) The purpose of THE GREEN LETTERS has been to set forth the truths of identification, as well as some of the basic principles by which God brings us into their reality. As a sequel to the LETTERS, this study deals with the essential principles having to do with our RECKONING upon the identification truths. It is an attempt to answer the question, "HOW do I reckon?" In order to facilitate our understanding of the subject, we will define at the outset the three basic elements of the reckoning that counts. PRINCIPLES According to Webster, a principle is "the law of nature [or the method] by which a thing operates." The HOW of reckoning is based on principles. Our Father works according to His spiritual principles in order to fulfill His purpose in our lives. For example: He brings us into the reality of our identification on the basis of THE PRINCIPLE OF KNOWLEDGE (know the scriptural truths), THE PRINCIPLE OF FAITH (reckon upon the truths known), and THE PRINCIPLE OF TIME (yield to His lifetime processing for growth in the truths known and reckoned upon). IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST The truths of identification are those facts in the Word which reveal our identification with Christ in His death unto sin, and our subsequent re-creation in His resurrection. As foreknown believers, our Father judicially placed us in His Son on the Cross --so that we died in Him unto sin, and are now alive in Him unto God. RECKON The word means "to regard as being, to count as true." Romans 6:11 calls upon us to count upon the truths of our identification with Christ: "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (ASV). We count upon the truth that is made known to us; we exercise faith by resting upon the facts. It may be helpful to observe that there is a PATTERN throughout our spiritual development. Whether it was realized or not, we began to "reckon" at the very beginning of our Christian life. As last sinners, we were convicted of our need and shown in the Word that the Savior died on the Cross to redeem us. By His grace we reckoned upon the truth, and received Him as our personal Savior. With hearts full of love and zeal, we became active for the Lord as the new life began to emerge. All went well for a time, possibly for several years. Then, imperceptibly, a deadly declension set in. We had been so busy enjoying the new experience and activities that we inadvertently began to neglect the Source of all true life and service -- both the written and the Living Word. The inevitable result was the reassertion of the enslaving influence of sin, self, law, and the world. Almost before we realized it, we were defeated, heartsick, and wretched. Finally, after years of failure in both life and service, we were prepared to see something of the wonderful truths concerning our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. We saw that He not only freed us from the guilt and penalty of sin, but also from the power and domination of THE PRINCIPLE OF SIN. Here we see the pattern of the experience of "babes in Christ": we believed, we struggled, we failed. Now, what of the pattern of our adulthood, when we come to the place of reckoning upon the identification truths? Just as in our counting upon the justification truths for the initial steps of birth and babyhood, so in our reckoning upon the identification truths for growth: we start immediately to work for the Lord in testifying of our new experience. We want everyone to know of our new joy and freedom through reckoning. Not only do we seek out opportunities to share and teach these new-to-us truths, but, where necessary, we MAKE openings. We are surprised to discover that few, if any, fellow-believers prove to be receptive. As a matter of fact, many become antagonistic, and some even accuse us of falling into error. There are times when we limp home not quite as sure or enthusiastic about it all as when we started. Then too, we begin to get careless about our reckoning. We forget about the liberating truths for longer and longer periods of time. Once again we are relying more upon our experience than we are upon our Source (the risen Christ) and the means (reckoning) of receiving His abundant life. And what is the sure result of concentrating upon experience rather than truth? Defeat! Thus the pattern is completed: our failure in the identification realm parallels our failure in the earlier justification phase. It is just at this point that many believers begin to waver in their hope and expectation of freedom from the old life and abundant growth in the new. Their confidence in the truths of identification begins to wane. How many defeated Christians have exclaimed bitterly, "I TRIED Romans Six, but reckoning didn't work for me"! Most discouraged ones turn back to the futile struggles of Romans Seven as a result of this seeming failure. Some even follow the alluring experience-centered errors of the so-called "holiness" groups. But whatever it may be, all, all outside the realm of Spirit-taught and Spirit-ministered identification truth results in compounded failure and bondage. "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect (mature) in the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3). Patterns spring from principles. There is a definite and essential principle underlying this pattern of seeing the truth, reckoning upon it, experiencing the good of it for a time, and then -- failure. Therefore, take heart, fellow-believer, for our Father is ever working according to His principles, patterns, and purpose for us. When the Holy Spirit brings us to a new and higher plateau of truth in the process of our growth, we see, we reckon upon, we appropriate that which we understand. But the important thing to remember is that this is only the beginning of a new spiritual plane. At the outset of our reckoning upon the identification truths, all is exciting and wonderful, and we are given a taste of the reality of that which we are counting upon. However, tasting is not eating. This initial experience is but a TOKEN of all that lies ahead in the long, slow growing process. Our early enthusiasm makes it all seem clear and simple, but there are infinite depths and heights in every realm of truth He intends to bring us into, and establish us in. This will require both time, and eternity. Hence, the Holy Spirit allows us to fail after our eager beginning. He applies THE PRINCIPLE OF NEED in every phase of our advance. The calculated failure is used to cause us to move beyond the early infant-enthusiasm to the place where we have to dig in and settle down upon the explicit truth of the Word. Before we can grow in any aspect of truth, we must be established in the knowledge of it. In every area of our spiritual development, it is one thing to begin on a new plateau, but it is quite another thing "through faith and patience to inherit the promises" (Hebrews 6:12). Our immaturity was understandable during the "milk-of-the-Gospel" stage of our Christian life, but now it is time to face up to adulthood. We have partaken of the meat of identification. "Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14). In our need and desperation we grasp a truth, but our initial knowledge is insufficient to enable us to persevere in it. In order that the truth may take hold of us and become a living part of our life, the Holy Spirit removes the token experience from us -- but the knowledge of the truth is retained. By this means we are to be ESTABLISHED IN THE TRUTH, that we might "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). The first taste of identification awakens our heart-hunger for its practical fulfillment. "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12). It will help us to bear in mind that THE PRINCIPLE OF TIME underlies all of God's dealings with us. Growth takes time! "The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect (mature), stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10). (This chapter has also been released in booklet form.) Everything that has to do with our Christian life, including the longed-for freedom from the power of sin and self, is IN our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our spiritual birth in Him, we know Him in His person to be the very SOURCE of our life. "Your life is hid with Christ in God... Christ, who is our life" (Colossians 3:3,4). Now, failure in reckoning is certainly not failure of the truths reckoned upon. Never! Without the Scriptures we would have absolutely nothing. Our authoritative Bible is the only means in the universe by which we can ever know anything rightly and personally of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Sad to say, even with the revealed Word, there is little enough of this all-important spiritual knowledge amongst believers today. We should remind ourselves that the written Word was designed specifically by God to bring us to know the Living Word. Never for a moment is the written revelation to be by-passed, or slighted in any way. We are to study, meditate, and count upon it through the ministry of the Spirit of Truth, in order that we may know the Lord Jesus. He is our all, BY MEANS OF THE WORD. "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life {9} and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: THAT BY THESE ye might be partakers of the divine nature." "By Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the Body." "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (2 Peter 1:3,4; Colossians 1:17; 2:9). Surely, it can be affirmed that the written Truth, authored and administered by the Holy Spirit, is the "vehicle" by which the Father and the Son come to us, and we to them. Still, as to reckoning upon the specific identification truths centered in Romans Six, nearly all of us STOP at the written Word. It is as though we stand there, with a deathgrip on a handful of truth, repeating with conviction: "I believe this is true, and I reckon, reckon, reckon!" Much of the failure of our reckoning is due to ERRONEOUS EXPECTATION. We are not delivered by belief only in the liberation truths! Certainly we must believe and appropriate these truths, but the actual liberation comes as the result of our intimate, personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The principle, simply put, is: liberation is in the Liberator. The reckoning that counts is made up of three essential steps. Most believers stop at the first, many stop at the second, but none can know the true results of reckoning apart from reliance upon all three factors. Our freedom from domination by the sinful Adamic life was completed POSITIONALLY through our identification with the Lord Jesus on Calvary. There we shared His death unto sin, and from there we entered into His life unto God. From this eternal position in Christ, our EXPERIENTIAL freedom and growth are carried out as we: (1) Know, and reckon upon, the identification truths; (2) Abide, and rest, in our Liberator; Depend upon, and walk in, the Spirit. Not just the first step, not even the first and second, but all three comprise the walk of reckoning! (1) KNOW AND RECKON When we first realize our identification with the Lord Jesus according to Romans 6:1-10, we begin to count upon these wonderful truths as we are enjoined in verse 11. Often there is a definite crisis in the life at this time, as some emancipation from bondage is experienced. But it isn't long before most "reckoners" go into spiritual shock; they do not understand that this initial taste of liberation is but a strengthening vision, a brief time of knowing something of what lies ahead. Our Lord removes fluctuating experience in order that eternal truth, clear and steady, may be our foundation. We are not to rely upon experiences for growth and maturity, no matter how wonderful and stimulating they seem to be. As we learn more of the truth upon which we are reckoning, our knowledge becomes a set heart-attitude: I have died unto sin; I am alive in Christ unto God (Romans 6:11). Although our initial reckoning may bring blessing, its primary purpose is to foster the twofold PROCESS OF GROWTH: "alway delivered unto DEATH... that the LIFE also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh [body]" (2 Corinthians 4:11). (2) ABIDE AND REST Each of us must become aware of our union of life in he risen Lord; we are a branch in he True Vine. It is by means of this awareness that we learn to abide. We simply rest where we have been newly created -- in Christ. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:4,5). Not only is the written Word to be counted upon, but the Living Word is to be rested in. (3) DEPEND AND WALK The liberating principle is fully embraced by including the final step: walking in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Deep within our spirit He abides forever, and there, through our study, He teaches us the truth of our position. Then, as we reckon upon the truth taught, He applies the crucifixion of the Cross to the old man, and ministers the life of Christ to the new. "Walk in [depend upon] the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." "For the low of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:2). Our reckoning becomes effective as we count upon the Word, abide in the Lord, and walk in the Spirit. Another subtle reason that our reckoning flounders in the midst of these steps is that our MOTIVES are centered in self. We know and count upon identification for OUR liberation; we abide and rest in Him for OUR growth and peace; and we seek to depend upon and walk in the Spirit for OUR empowering and fruitfulness. Is it any wonder that we have to be child-trained, and led into a Christ-centered attitude? The Father's purpose in justifying us in Christ and identifying us with Him is that we might be "conformed to the image of His Son" -- "that GOD in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 4:11). The following example from the experience of Jacob illustrates God's method of CENTERING OUR HEARTS IN HIMSELF. In this instance, He accomplished the spiritual by means of the physical. The wily, self-centered Jacob had taken the correct steps, and he was "in the land." But he still had to be turned from Jacob, to God. He needed to be rendered helpless in himself, in order to become wholly dependent upon God. The long night of the Father's dealings ("He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint") were coupled with Jacob's tursting and tenacious wrestlings with God ("I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me"). Through the merciful chastening of God, Jacob finally came to see his need. "And He blessed him there... and he halted upon his thigh." God blessed Jacob by crippling him in himself, thereby enabling him to limp the remainder of his life in blessed dependence upon God; he was God-centered. He was brought all the way from Jacob, the supplanter, to Israel, a prince with God. "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:24-29). It is through this same PRINCIPLE OF STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS that we are developed in the "not I, but Christ" life. "For My strength is made perfect in [your] weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:7,9). |
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