The title might lead you to think of the Final Judgment, but what I mean by the "Great Reckoning" has nothing to do with judgment but, rather, with faith. In Romans 6, the apostle Paul laid out the spiritual state-of-affairs in every genuine born-again believer's life, explaining that all true children of God have been co-crucified with Christ, united to him in his death, burial and resurrection, and so live in "newness of life" unto God and in Jesus, dead unto sin, dead to its power. What Paul described is, especially the first time one reads his words, very...peculiar. Many Christians I've encountered find Paul's teaching in Romans 6 so arcane, so outside of what makes sense to them, that they reflexively dismiss his teaching, relegating it to the domain of spiritual gobbledy-gook. They are content to wait 'til eternity to understand what Paul was getting at.
A big part of what stymies folks when they read Romans 6, is that what Paul says is true of them as born-again believers just isn't actually true.
Romans 6:1-12
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
I've discipled guys for a long time now and when we get into Romans 6 (which I always make sure we do) the conversation goes something like this:
"I don't get this. What Paul has described here isn't true of me."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, I sin all the time. Every day. I'm sure I'm a born-again person, but sin still has power over me. What is Paul saying, here, then? Am I supposed to think I'm not saved?"
"No, he's not saying you aren't saved. Remember: Paul was writing this chapter to believers. They were not living like they knew and understood what Paul explained to them in the chapter. He didn't tell them they weren't saved, though, only that they weren't living in the truth of who they actually were in Christ."
"So, you're saying a Christian can be both free from sin and living in sin at the same time? Isn't that a contradiction? You can't be both things at once."
"Can you think of any circumstance in life where you can be two opposite things at the same time?"
"Umm...no, not really."
"Okay. Imagine a homeless man who has just inherited a million dollars. He doesn't know he has, though. Lawyers of his distant dead relative are searching for him to tell him he's now a millionaire but until the homeless man knows he's actually a millionaire, how will he live?"
"Like a homeless man, I guess."
"Right. The homeless man is two opposite things simultaneously; he's both rich and poor at once."
"Hmm...okay. I can see what you're saying, I suppose. So, this is the situation when it comes to what Paul wrote in Romans 6? I don't know I'm dead to sin and so I'm not living like I am?"
"Sort of. Yes. Imagine that the homeless man is found by the lawyers who tell him he's inherited a million dollars, but he doesn't believe them. The homeless man tells them to look at how he's living, how shabbily he's dressed, how gaunt and dirty he is, how badly he smells. He turns out his pockets to show the lawyers they are empty. And then he says to them that the way he is living does not bear out their claim that he is, in fact, a millionaire. What he is experiencing, what he feels is true about himself, is what is real, he declares, and stalks off, annoyed at the lawyers for telling him to believe nonsense."
*Laughs* "That would be stupid! No one would do that."
"Christians do this all the time with Romans 6."
*Long silence* "I'm not sure I follow you..."
"You just told me that you sinned every day. You seemed to be challenging Paul's claim that you are dead to sin, denying that it was true that your 'old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed that, henceforth, you should not serve sin.'"
"Yeah, I did, didn't I?"
"Yup."
I've had this exchange many times with men when they begin to consider Romans 6. Their resistance to Paul's claims reveals a lack of understanding about what it means to "walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) There are a wide array of things the Bible says become immediately true of the lost person when they are born-again. All of these things must, especially at first, be taken entirely on faith as having become true. That is, there is nothing in the mundane condition of the new believer that concretely bears out that they are, in fact, all that Scripture says they are as freshly-adopted children of God. They may feel nothing and they certainly have nothing - yet - in the content of their living that bears out that they are truly new creatures in Christ. They must do what Paul tells the Roman believers in Romans 6:11 to do:
Romans 6:11
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
In the King James version of this verse, instead of "consider" the word is "reckon," or "count on." The idea of "reckoning" is well-pictured in the analogy of stepping out onto a rope-bridge with your full weight, trusting your entire self to the capacity of the bridge to support you. In doing so, you're counting on the bridge to bear your weight. It is one thing to say to yourself, "The bridge is perfectly safe, though its bouncing and swaying about, and the ropes aren't terribly thick. I'm sure it would support me if I stepped out onto it"; but it's quite another to actually do so. No amount of intellectual agreement about the strength of the bridge can equal the experience that can only come by trusting yourself utterly to the bridge. You can't truly know the bridge will hold you until you are standing on it; you can't experience the bridge's power to support you by simply acknowledging that it can.
Paul urged the Roman believers concerning their co-crucifixion with Christ and the freedom from sin's power that was theirs in their union with Christ, to "step out onto the bridge" of this truth, to "reckon it so," to consider their death to sin a fully-accomplished fact upon which they should stand with their full weight every day.
In God's economy of things, not until such trust is exercised in the spiritual truth of one's death to sin can this truth be realized in one's living. If a believer acts like the skeptical homeless man, denying the declaration of God's word about their death to sin, and freedom from it's power, they will continue to live bound under the power of sin, unable to live the holy life God says in His word is necessary to deep, joyful fellowship with Himself.
Hebrews 12:14
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
The "Great Reckoning," then, is the life of faith that is absolutely vital to walking with God. It is the setting aside of what one feels and even experiences and trusting that what God says is true, standing unmoved upon it, reckoning it so in the face of temptation and doubt.
What should one expect when one does this, when one lives by faith, not by sight? Will one suddenly and fully step into complete freedom from sin in one's daily experience? Will every temptation be immediately dissolved before the power of "reckoning it so"? No. Just as the Israelites progressively possessed the Promised Land, the born-again believer progressively possesses the spiritual "Promised Land" that is theirs in Christ. There will be battles of faith against deeply-ingrained habits of thought and action; struggles to stand unmoved on the truth of God's word; a wrestling with old patterns that took time to create and will take time to undo and replace with new biblical patterns. But the spiritual inheritance of the believer can be possessed - and must be - if the believer is ever to truly enjoy and honor God as He made them to do.
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Romans 1:17
17 ...as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38)
Hebrews 3:12-19
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
15 while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."
16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
A big part of what stymies folks when they read Romans 6, is that what Paul says is true of them as born-again believers just isn't actually true.
Romans 6:1-12
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
I've discipled guys for a long time now and when we get into Romans 6 (which I always make sure we do) the conversation goes something like this:
"I don't get this. What Paul has described here isn't true of me."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, I sin all the time. Every day. I'm sure I'm a born-again person, but sin still has power over me. What is Paul saying, here, then? Am I supposed to think I'm not saved?"
"No, he's not saying you aren't saved. Remember: Paul was writing this chapter to believers. They were not living like they knew and understood what Paul explained to them in the chapter. He didn't tell them they weren't saved, though, only that they weren't living in the truth of who they actually were in Christ."
"So, you're saying a Christian can be both free from sin and living in sin at the same time? Isn't that a contradiction? You can't be both things at once."
"Can you think of any circumstance in life where you can be two opposite things at the same time?"
"Umm...no, not really."
"Okay. Imagine a homeless man who has just inherited a million dollars. He doesn't know he has, though. Lawyers of his distant dead relative are searching for him to tell him he's now a millionaire but until the homeless man knows he's actually a millionaire, how will he live?"
"Like a homeless man, I guess."
"Right. The homeless man is two opposite things simultaneously; he's both rich and poor at once."
"Hmm...okay. I can see what you're saying, I suppose. So, this is the situation when it comes to what Paul wrote in Romans 6? I don't know I'm dead to sin and so I'm not living like I am?"
"Sort of. Yes. Imagine that the homeless man is found by the lawyers who tell him he's inherited a million dollars, but he doesn't believe them. The homeless man tells them to look at how he's living, how shabbily he's dressed, how gaunt and dirty he is, how badly he smells. He turns out his pockets to show the lawyers they are empty. And then he says to them that the way he is living does not bear out their claim that he is, in fact, a millionaire. What he is experiencing, what he feels is true about himself, is what is real, he declares, and stalks off, annoyed at the lawyers for telling him to believe nonsense."
*Laughs* "That would be stupid! No one would do that."
"Christians do this all the time with Romans 6."
*Long silence* "I'm not sure I follow you..."
"You just told me that you sinned every day. You seemed to be challenging Paul's claim that you are dead to sin, denying that it was true that your 'old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed that, henceforth, you should not serve sin.'"
"Yeah, I did, didn't I?"
"Yup."
I've had this exchange many times with men when they begin to consider Romans 6. Their resistance to Paul's claims reveals a lack of understanding about what it means to "walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) There are a wide array of things the Bible says become immediately true of the lost person when they are born-again. All of these things must, especially at first, be taken entirely on faith as having become true. That is, there is nothing in the mundane condition of the new believer that concretely bears out that they are, in fact, all that Scripture says they are as freshly-adopted children of God. They may feel nothing and they certainly have nothing - yet - in the content of their living that bears out that they are truly new creatures in Christ. They must do what Paul tells the Roman believers in Romans 6:11 to do:
Romans 6:11
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
In the King James version of this verse, instead of "consider" the word is "reckon," or "count on." The idea of "reckoning" is well-pictured in the analogy of stepping out onto a rope-bridge with your full weight, trusting your entire self to the capacity of the bridge to support you. In doing so, you're counting on the bridge to bear your weight. It is one thing to say to yourself, "The bridge is perfectly safe, though its bouncing and swaying about, and the ropes aren't terribly thick. I'm sure it would support me if I stepped out onto it"; but it's quite another to actually do so. No amount of intellectual agreement about the strength of the bridge can equal the experience that can only come by trusting yourself utterly to the bridge. You can't truly know the bridge will hold you until you are standing on it; you can't experience the bridge's power to support you by simply acknowledging that it can.
Paul urged the Roman believers concerning their co-crucifixion with Christ and the freedom from sin's power that was theirs in their union with Christ, to "step out onto the bridge" of this truth, to "reckon it so," to consider their death to sin a fully-accomplished fact upon which they should stand with their full weight every day.
In God's economy of things, not until such trust is exercised in the spiritual truth of one's death to sin can this truth be realized in one's living. If a believer acts like the skeptical homeless man, denying the declaration of God's word about their death to sin, and freedom from it's power, they will continue to live bound under the power of sin, unable to live the holy life God says in His word is necessary to deep, joyful fellowship with Himself.
Hebrews 12:14
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
The "Great Reckoning," then, is the life of faith that is absolutely vital to walking with God. It is the setting aside of what one feels and even experiences and trusting that what God says is true, standing unmoved upon it, reckoning it so in the face of temptation and doubt.
"Faith is believing a thing is so,
When it appears it is not so,
In order for it to be so,
Because it is so."
When it appears it is not so,
In order for it to be so,
Because it is so."
What should one expect when one does this, when one lives by faith, not by sight? Will one suddenly and fully step into complete freedom from sin in one's daily experience? Will every temptation be immediately dissolved before the power of "reckoning it so"? No. Just as the Israelites progressively possessed the Promised Land, the born-again believer progressively possesses the spiritual "Promised Land" that is theirs in Christ. There will be battles of faith against deeply-ingrained habits of thought and action; struggles to stand unmoved on the truth of God's word; a wrestling with old patterns that took time to create and will take time to undo and replace with new biblical patterns. But the spiritual inheritance of the believer can be possessed - and must be - if the believer is ever to truly enjoy and honor God as He made them to do.
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Romans 1:17
17 ...as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38)
Hebrews 3:12-19
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
15 while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."
16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
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