Jim Van Gelderen: This is Jim Van Gelderen broadcasting from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Well, many of you know that we’re on a series. This is our third podcast on Romans chapter number six, the Magna Carta of the Christian life.

It declares freedom to all believers from the power of sin. In other words, you and I are going to battle our flesh and sin to the day we die. But there’s a way out.

There’s a way of escape every time you’re tempted. And Romans six is part of that. Now you’ll need to listen to the other two podcasts.

I can’t even really say enough about it, except the first point is you got to know the right facts. You got to know who you are in Jesus Christ. And Romans six says it three times.

Know you’re knowing this, knowing that, know ye not. But changing into verse eleven, there’s a new verb that comes up. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now what does reckon mean? Well, I’m going to put it this way. You got to know the right facts, but you got to think the right facts.

In other words, they have to become a part of how you think. Now, what does it say here? You need to reckon, which means account.

Account is a term we come out of mathematics or accounting. If you were balancing your checkbook or if you were working with a checkbook, what you would do is if you had five hundred dollars and you deposit them in the bank, then you would open up your checkbook or go online. And under the column deposit, you would write deposit the date and you would write five hundred dollars.

Why? Because that’s accounting. It doesn’t matter how you feel.

It doesn’t matter if it’s raining that day or if you’re melancholy. You wouldn’t sit there and say, you know, I don’t feel like I put in five hundred. No, you look at your deposit slip, five hundred dollars, and you write down five hundred.

Now you could write five thousand, but that’s called wishful thinking. That’s certainly not accounting. So accounting is all about facts about what is.

And God says right here you need to account it or reckon that you’re in Jesus, dead to sin and alive unto God because He is. Now what does that mean? What does it mean to reckon yourself dead to sin, alive unto God?

Now let me start with this. Every one of us understands that Satan tempts us. Have you ever felt like when you were tempted, you just had to sin?

Did you know, friend, that’s a lie. Satan’s one of his greatest powers is his ability to deceive. Could we put this?

He’s a master illusionist. Now, I ask you, have you ever been discouraged? If you have ever been discouraged, ever been discouraged like I have, or others, you know that sometimes it seems so real.

But actually you fell for an illusion because God was not in heaven wringing His hands about your situation. He wasn’t discouraged about your circumstances. He knew exactly what He was about to do and what He would do if you trust Him.

But the truth is, friend, we get discouraged. That’s an illusion. It’s not even true.

But we buy into the illusion every time we’re tempted. It’s an illusion because the sin that we’re being tempted with, we can say no to. We do not have to do it because God says there’s a way of escape.

So reckoning is saying, wait a second, I’m in Jesus. He’s dead to sin. I’m dead to sin.

I’m in Jesus. He’s alive, and I’m alive unto God. Sin’s not my boss anymore.

And based on that, friends, we can think the right facts. Now understanding illusion. Perhaps this will help.

Years ago, this would be probably anywhere, probably almost twenty years ago, maybe a little less. I took my two oldest girls to an IMAX in Milwaukee. It’s attached to our museum, and I think there was a homeschooling group from our church that had gone, and we watched an IMAX on flight.

It was primarily about the Blue Angels, and our IMAX is like half of an eggshell. So everywhere you look, you see screen and it’s very immersive and very sensory. And so we were sitting there and they had slapped one of those cameras on one of those jets.

So you at times felt like you were flying through the air. Now, you know, the Blue Angels do barrel rolls, and they do all kinds of things that are very sensory. And I remember at the end of that program, my daughters told me later they saw teenagers at the garbage can throwing up.

Now, you know why those teenagers threw up? Because they believed the lie. It was an illusion.

They weren’t spinning around, but they bought the lie. You might say, preacher, what about you? Well, I’m going to be honest.

It was extremely sensory, and there were a few times my stomach basically said to my brain, I’m in trouble. You know how sometimes you have little thought processes? I’m going to turn it into conversation.

But I had a thought process. It’s like my stomach said, man, I’m in trouble. And the guy in front of me is going to be in real trouble if you don’t do something.

And my brain, of course, logical, said, now, stomach, we’re not spinning around. We’re sitting in a seat. And that’s an illusion.

Of course, my stomach said, I really don’t care what you say. I’m in trouble. And I remember taking my eyes off the screen when my brain finally said, okay, stomach, I’m going to prove it to you.

And I looked at the seats next to me, and of course, my stomach said, hey, we’re seated completely still. I’m feeling better. You see, friends, what was happening at that moment?

I was taking my eyes off the illusion and putting them on reality—chairs that were not moving. And you know what I was doing? I was reckoning.

Now that’s what reckoning is. It’s taking your eyes off the illusion and putting them on reality, which is, I’m dead to sin in Jesus. That sin’s not my boss anymore.

He lost his power over me. We talked about that last podcast, and I’m alive unto God in Jesus Christ. Now, let me just help you with one other thought about reckoning.

Reckoning does not make you dead to sin and alive unto God. You are already dead to sin and alive unto God. So you say, well, preacher, why doesn’t it affect me then?

Okay. You see, it’s still true. You’re dead to sin, alive unto God.

But many times when we don’t reckon it to be true, we don’t believe it. It doesn’t affect our experience. The best way to describe that would be going through a beautiful botanical garden.

I’ve been to several botanical gardens that were very beautiful. Imagine going through those on a tour with your eyes closed. People are snapping pictures, oohing, ahhing, saying wonderful things.

You’d probably think, well, I don’t see anything here. Well, the problem is with you because the garden is beautiful, but you’ve got your eyes closed. So what do you have to do to benefit by the beauty of the garden?

And the answer is so obvious. We all know it. Open your eyes.

See? Opening your eyes is reckoning. The garden is beautiful.

I mean, you are dead to sin, alive unto God. But if you don’t reckon it to be so, you won’t benefit by the reality of it. And the moment you open your eyes, that garden, the beauty of that garden, becomes beneficial to you.

You know, you ever heard people talk about, oh, Jesus, wonderful? And you might say, well, I’m glad being saved. But I don’t know.

It’s just it’s not, you know, I’m not—I wouldn’t put it that strong of terms. You know what it means, friend? You’ve got your eyes closed.

And that other believer is enjoying the preciousness of Jesus because they have their eyes open to what they have in Jesus Christ, at least in some measure. Okay, so here’s our lesson today. You got to think the right facts.

You got to know them. We’ve talked about that in the two previous podcasts, but you have to think them and you have to believe them. You have to embrace them into your heart.

So I hope this encourages us. Next week we’re going to talk about the next step in our journey in Romans chapter number six. Join us if you would, please.

I hope you’ll listen to the first two if you want to understand where we’re going, where we’ve been, and where we’re going to go. But remember, total surrender to the will of God and total dependence on His grace to live in.