righteousness-credit

Redemption 304: Righteousness on Credit
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can see from the quote above, just as Jesus used “opheilo” and “opheile” in the
context of “logos” which referred to the king’s accounting of his servant, Paul is
using “opheilema” in the very same breath as he is using “logizomai” to refer to
God’s accounting of Abraham.
Given these similarities and the simple idea that Paul’s teachings are based upon
those of Jesus Christ himself, when Paul uses the word “logizomai,” which is
derived from “logos” to also speak of accounting in the context of wages and
debt, we have good reason to think that “logizomai” is being used by Paul to
convey similar financial imagery. And given that the “accounting of
righteousness” is specifically being juxtaposed by Paul to wages or payment that
is earned or owed, we can further conclude that “logizomai” is meant to convey
financially accounting someone with an unearned credit.
While this still leaves the question of whether or not we are expected to live out
and work out that credit afterward, similar to how you pay off an unearned
financial credit, this comparison to Matthew 18 has at least demonstrated that
Paul is indeed speaking of a “credit” as we would think of it in modern financial
terms.
And Matthew 18 is not the only evidence for this interpretation of “logos” and
“logozomai” in reference to financial accounting when used in conjunction with
debt imagery. Matthew 25 provides another instance of this. And more
importantly, Matthew 25 has direct implications for our secondary question of
whether or not the idea of a “credit” implies working that credit out after the fact.
First, let’s establish that Matthew 25 is conceptually parallel to Matthew 18 and
Romans 4 in terms of it use of financial imagery to convey spiritual status before
God. This is simple enough to do. Both passages are included side by side for
comparison.
Matthew 18:23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain
king, which would take (4868) account (3056) of his servants. 24 And when
he had begun to reckon (4868), one was brought unto him, which owed him ten
thousand talents.
Matthew 25:19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and
reckoneth (4868) (3056) with them.
Just as Matthew 18 used “logos” in direct conjunction with “sunairo” (Strong’s
No. 4868) to denote the idea of taking a financial accounting, Matthew 25 also
uses these exact same two words for the exact same purpose. In both passages,
these same two Greek words are occurring in illustrations in which a ruler takes a
financial accounting of his servant. The only difference is that in Matthew 18,
each Greek word is translated into its own corresponding English word. “Sunairo”
is translated into the English word “take” and “logos” is translated into the
English word “account.” In contrast, Matthew 25 only uses one English word, the
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