Even so reckon ye yourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11

What does reckoning mean? I assure you it is not a form of make-believe! The Greek word “reckoning” means doing accounts, bookkeeping. Accounting is the one thing in the world we humans can do correctly. Can an artist paint a landscape with photographic accuracy? Can a historian vouch for the absolute correctness of any record, or the mapmaker for the perfect precision of any map? They can make, at best, fair approximations. What then can man do that is utterly reliable? Arithmetic! There is no scope for error there. One chair plus one chair equals two chairs. That is true in London or Cape Town, New York or Singapore. All the world over and for all time, one plus one equals two.

Can God’s affirmations be any less true? Could he conceivably ask me to put down something false in my account book? Of course not! If then he tells us to reckon ourselves dead to sin, it is simply because, in Christ, our death to sin is a fact, one eternally to be relied on.

Watchman Nee

Faith is not subjective but factual for faith relies not so much on feeling or perception but God’s reality. Someone has said, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Truth is that if God says it, it’s settled whether we believe it or not. Much of our struggles as Christians comes from the fact that our reason and doubts outweigh our faith. It’s easier to believe our feelings, our perceptions and the commonly accepted beliefs than it is to take God completely at His Word.

Scripture says that it’s impossible for God to lie.

“Indeed men swear [an oath] by one greater than themselves, and with them [in all disputes] the oath serves as confirmation [of what has been said] and is an end of the dispute. In the same way God, in His desire to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable nature of His purpose, intervened and guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge would have strong encouragement and indwelling strength to hold tightly to the hope set before us. This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells], where Jesus has entered [in advance] as a forerunner for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Hebrews 6: 16-20

All this means that those who live by faith are those who simply have accepted what God has said as unquestionably the truth and live their lives accordingly.

For example, they don’t constantly question their salvation. Even when doubts arise, they turn from feeling to the facts of scripture:

“If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].”

1 John 1:9

As Paul encourages us, let us count, reckon every promise of God to be true and all else false when it conflicts with the scriptures.

If God has said we are forgiven, let us reckon ourselves to be guilt free. If God has promised to supply our need (Philippians 4:19) then let us cease to worry whether we will be sustained by Him. If God has promised to never abandon us, the let us not entertain feelings of loneliness as though not a single soul cares. And if God has promised to bring us to live with Him in heaven, let the fear of death lose its hold on us.

To reckon means to accept something as true and completely factual in the same way we accept that one plus one equals two. Reckoning is the act of accepting as true everything God has said even in those times when it appears to be otherwise. In the end, all that opposes and resists the truths of God will be exposed for what they are. But those who embrace the truths of God will be validated by the revealing.

While the world around us may increasingly pressure to accept things as true other than what God’s Word calls true, let us as the people of God reckon Him to speak truth and all that opposes liars. We’ll be glad we did when all is said and done.