In Romans 5 we were born in Adam and were constituted sinners. In Romans 6 we have been baptized into Christ and we have been identified with His death and resurrection. Now we are in Christ. Since we are in Him, whatever He has passed through is our history. He has been crucified and resurrected. Thus, His crucifixion and resurrection are ours. This is a glorious fact. We need to see this, not just to understand it. We need to pray that the Lord will give us a clear vision of the glorious fact that we are in Him, and that we have been crucified and resurrected with Him. To know this we need to see such a vision. Such a vision is basic to our knowing. After we see a certain thing, we can never say that we do not know it. God has accomplished the glorious fact of putting us into Christ; we have been crucified and resurrected with Him.
Our knowing is based upon our seeing, and our seeing comes from the vision. We need a vision to see our co-crucifixion with Christ in Romans 6:6-7, and our co-resurrection with Christ in Romans 6:8-10. If we have seen these two aspects of the fact of our identification with Christ, we know that we are dead to sin and alive to God.
Here it is not a matter based upon our believing, but a matter absolutely based upon our seeing. When, by a vision, we see this glorious fact we cannot help but believe it and realize that we have died with Christ and also have been raised with Him. By this kind of seeing we know with full assurance that we are dead to sin and alive to God.
I must emphasize once again that we need a vision to see the glorious fact revealed in Romans 6. Many Christians have the doctrinal knowledge of Romans 6 but have never seen a vision of the fact unveiled in this chapter. To understand a thing doctrinally is altogether different from seeing that very thing in a vision. This problem regarding Romans 6 is prevalent among Christians. Many think that they understand the doctrine of Romans 6, but have not seen the fact by way of a vision. Many stress the matter of believing. But if you do not see the fact, it will be difficult for you to believe by your doctrinal understanding. Once you see it in a vision, you will have faith in it spontaneously. Hence, what Paul means by “Knowing this” is actually the seeing of a fact in a spiritual vision. Thus, we all must pray that the Lord will deliver us from contentment with a mere doctrinal understanding of Romans 6 and grant us a clear vision in our spirit that we may see the glorious fact revealed in this chapter. Then we will know it in its reality.
Based upon our seeing of the fact revealed in Romans 6, we must do our accounting work. We must reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God (6:11). On the one hand, we must reckon ourselves dead to sin; on the other hand, we must reckon ourselves alive to God. This reckoning is based upon our seeing. I have seen that I have died with Christ and that I am growing with Christ in His resurrection. Therefore, automatically and continually, I reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God. This is a matter of accounting. Under our account we have a great credit item—dead to sin and alive to God.
Reckoning is a matter of believing produced by seeing. Having seen the facts, we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God by believing that we have been crucified and resurrected with Christ. Once we have seen the fact, we believe that we are such. Then we reckon by believing what we have seen.
Many Christians have been taught the technique of reckoning themselves dead, and many have practiced this technique. Eventually, as all can prove, the technique does not work. It is not a matter of technique; it is a matter of seeing the fact that results in reckoning with a spontaneous faith. Simply using the technique of reckoning according to the doctrinal understanding without seeing the fact will always end in failure. Only after the Apostle Paul mentions the matter of knowing by seeing the fact (vv. 6-10) does he direct us to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God (v. 11). Reckoning needs the seeing which results in believing. If we have seen the fact, we will believe it and reckon on it accordingly.