Reckon It So: Count What God Counts

Reckoning Is Accounting, Not Pretending

The Greek word logizomai is a bookkeeping term: to count, to credit, to put to an account. Paul uses it of Abraham, who believed God and it "was counted unto him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3). Reckoning is not positive thinking or denial of facts. It is deliberate agreement with God's ledger. And what could be more reasonable than agreeing with the God who cannot lie?

Spiritual Realities — the truths that exist in the spirit realm and are established by God's Word, whether or not your senses register them — are what you are counting. Your senses report one set of facts; God's Word reports another. Faith does not ignore the first; it chooses the second as authoritative.

The Life of Faith — a life ordered by God's declarations rather than by appearances — is the practical expression of reckoning. And the New Creation — the brand-new spiritual person God made in Christ — is the reality you are counting as yours.

Think of a bank statement that contradicts your memory. You may feel sure you have less money than the statement shows, but the statement governs your spending. You do not argue with the bank; you update your understanding and act accordingly. Reckoning is updating your understanding to match God's statement and then acting on it.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Paul gives two sides of one accounting. Dead to sin: sin's legal claim on you was settled at the cross; you are no longer its property. Alive to God: you now belong to a new life, with new appetites, capacities, and allegiances. Both are stated as facts to reckon, not goals to achieve.

Notice the present tense of your experience and the past tense of God's work. Because the work is done, the reckoning is possible. You do not reckon to make something true; you reckon because it is true.

Here the two diverge. The uninformed believer fights sin as though it still owned him, and loses. The reckoning believer refuses sin as something already disowned, and stands. Same temptation, different accounting.

Why the Command Is "Reckon" and Not "Feel"

Paul's instruction in Romans 6:11 is grammatically striking. He does not say, "Become dead to sin," or, "Experience deadness to sin." He says, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The verb is an accounting verb, and it presumes a fact already recorded.

This is why the battle is fought at the level of instruction rather than sensation. Feelings report; reckonings rule. A woman who has paid off a mortgage can feel the weight of the years she spent paying it and still know the property is hers. The document is not undone by the memory.

Revelation Knowledge — what the Spirit makes real to your understanding — is what makes reckoning possible. You cannot count what you do not know. Which is why Paul prays so persistently for the church's understanding rather than for the church's circumstances.

The Word Says the Same Thing From Three Directions

• Romans 6:6–7 — "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him... For he that is dead is freed from sin." Paul grounds the reckoning in a completed crucifixion. Reckoning rests on redemption, not imagination.
• Colossians 3:3 — "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Paul states the same accounting in different words: dead to the old order, alive in a hidden union with Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 4:13 — "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." Faith speaks what it reckons. Confession is the voice of accounting.

Three witnesses, one ledger: crucified, hidden, and spoken — reckon what God has written.

What This Means for You

1. Reckon daily, not occasionally. Reckoning is a habit of mind, not a crisis decision. Each morning, state the accounting: dead to sin, alive to God in Christ. Let it frame the day before temptation frames it.

2. Answer feelings with the ledger. Feelings are real but not authoritative. When you feel condemned, answer with the verdict. When you feel powerless, answer with the resurrection life within you. Then act on the ledger.

3. Refuse sin's claims in specific terms. Reckoning becomes practical when you name the claim — this habit, this appetite, this fear — and refuse it as something that no longer owns you.

4. Faith and wisdom keep the books honestly. Faith counts what God says; wisdom keeps your conduct consistent with the count through boundaries, accountability, and honest confession. Declaring the ledger never excuses a careless life; it makes a careful one possible.

Putting It to Work This Week

• Read Romans 6:1–14 slowly and circle every occurrence of reckon, know, and yield. These three verbs map the whole chapter: know the fact, reckon it true, yield your members to God.
• Write your accounting statement. Two lines: "I am dead to sin" and "I am alive to God in Christ." Say them aloud each morning this week and notice how your choices shift.
• Refuse one specific claim. Identify a temptation that acts as though it still owns you, and answer it aloud with Romans 6:11 before you act.
• Yield one member deliberately. Choose one part of your life — tongue, eyes, hands, time — and consciously yield it to God this week for His purposes.