2 Corinthians, 5:14-17

Okay, we are going to pick up this morning in verse 14. And it would be nice if we got down through verse 16. That's kind of what I have. Or verse 17. That's what I have planned for us this morning. So we'll see how far we get this morning. So, let's start back up in verse 11. Page 7. of last week's handouts. Yeah, page 7. Would you like a copy? Okay. Yep, sure is. Right there. And just put the page 7 there. Does everybody have this week's handouts? Okay. All right.

Okay, verse 11, which is where we started last week, it says this, it says, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God, and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh. even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come." And that's where we're going to stop this morning. And hopefully we'll finish the next section there next week. here in verse 14.

It's interesting, as I was reading through this, I thought that it might have been better, in one thought, to put the beginning of verse 14 that connected to the end of verse 13. Because verse 13 is talking about their actions of being beside themselves, or being of a sound mind, being in one's right mind. And then verse 14 starts off by saying, For the love of Christ controls us. So I thought that it might have been better put that way. So it would have read like this.

If we are beside ourselves, it is for God. And if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Does that kind of catch the flow there? If we're of sound mind, it's for you guys. If we're what you think to be out of our minds, it's for Christ's sake. For the love of Christ is controlling us. I kind of thought that. Might be a little better fit there, just to kind of tuck that away.

It's interesting there that the love of Christ is what is controlling or constraining or compelling them so that they know that their actions are pure and right before God and man. Because remember, they were coming under a lot of criticism from the people there. And so, it's Christ's love which is controlling them. Thus, they know that their actions are going to be pure and right.

Very important for us to notice that it's the love of Christ and not their love for Christ. Big difference there. It is Christ's love for them and not their love for Christ. And see, this puts it in the right order. We know the verse says that we love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. See?

And oftentimes, there's lots of pressure for the Christian life you know, where's your love for God? You know, show us your love for God by doing X, Y, or Z. And there's lots of manipulation tactics that way, there's lots of pressure that way, you know, out of our duty, out of our love for Christ, we need to be doing these certain things. I think that's a really, they had the order flip-flopped.

So we see it very clearly here, for the love of Christ is controlling us. our love for Christ. So their ministry was sourced in Christ, and the love for them was not their love for Christ, but Christ's love for them. Now, Christ's love for us is going to lead to our love for Christ, which thus is going to lead to service.

Sure, no problem whatsoever with that, as long as we have things put in the proper order. So Christ's love controls, constrains, or compels, and it's in the present active indicative. And it really means here to keep within bounds. When we look at the word controls, or constrains, or compels, it really means to keep within bounds. So, when we think about Christ's love compelling us, or constraining us, His love is actually keeping us within bounds, is what it's talking about there.

Now, do we need to be kept within bounds? Sure, because when we walk in the flesh, we're out of bounds. We're going all over the place. So here we see that Christ's love is constraining us. It is keeping us within bounds. And again, the source is Him. The focus is on Him. It's not on us, upon our shoulders, to keep ourselves within bounds. But we can be dependent upon Christ and His love for us to keep us in bounds. And this is a motivating factor. Yet we are also actively involved.

Now if you think about the word love, the biblical word love is always active, right? If you think about Corinthians, love is kind, love is patient, long-suffering, holds no wrongs against people, and Corinthians would go down that list of the love chapter. So love is always active.

So if Christ's love is constraining or compelling, it's keeping us within bounds. Christ's love for us is active. Then, as we are walking by faith, in dependency upon Christ, walking in the Spirit, it's going to produce an activity within us of the same thing. So, it's Christ living His life in and through us, as His love is keeping us within bounds, constraining us, or compelling us, or controlling us. So, compelled by the love of Christ, it's a very strong word, to the point where there's almost nothing else that we can do than serve Him or please Him, as in verse 9, and then receive rewards, as in verse 10. Let's go back and let's read verse 9. Chapter 5, verse 9.

Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. Okay, there Paul's talking about that he wants to be pleasing to God. And then in verse 10 it says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be rewarded or recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

So there's going to be some rewards given out, and Hal's going to take a couple of weeks and cover that verse with us in a few weeks down the road. So, it's going to produce in us a life. It's going to produce a service. It's kind of like my love for Henry. It's growing as we continue to go through life together. But if I see Henry running out into the street, what am I going to do? I'm immediately going to go get him because he's out of bounds. And so my love for him is going to help keep him within those bounds. It's the same kind of idea there.

So Christ's love for us is compelling, is constraining us, and then that same kind of love is going to flow out of us because of the proper source of Christ in us, and then it's going to be coming out of us, which thus will be pleasing to God, which thus will be rewarded.

Why? Because it's not of us, but it's of Christ. Because our own works are wood, hay, and stubble. What Christ does through us are gold, gems, and precious stones, those kind of things. I love thinking about this verse because it puts the focus on Christ and it puts the emphasis on Christ. His love is what is constraining and what is compelling us.

And it's not something that I have to muster up from within myself to try to serve the Lord or try to do what is right, but it's His love. Very, very key and important for us to understand that. Any thoughts? Pretty straightforward? Alright. Let's continue on there to page 8 of your notes.

Okay, for the love of Christ constrains, controls, compels us, having concluded this, that one died for all, they are for all died. And he died for all, so they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him. So what he's saying is, because of Christ's love compelling or controlling us, we arrive at this conclusion. And this is kind of the evidence of Christ's love for us. His love for us is being seen in the fact that we come to this conclusion or to this judgment that He died for all, therefore all died.

Now the question before us this morning is, who is the all referring to? And I kind of alluded to this a little bit last week. Hal and Bob and I were still kind of talking about who is the all referring to and Bob was out of town, Hal went out of town, so we haven't had time to really sit down and really dig this thing apart, dissect this thing and see really what's going on. So I kind of threw that out to you all last week. Did anybody have any opportunity to look at it? Think about it at all? No? Okay.

So what we're going to do, and this is what what how Bob and I decided would be best to do, we're just going to I'm going to present a couple of thoughts about how this thing plays out. And when we come to a conclusion, once we get some time, we can all sit down and study it out. Then we'll we'll present that to the class. This is what I'm going to throw a couple options out to how to to you all. OK, one first option. is that the all is referring to believers. So let me read the verse again with this in mind. That's a question. Yeah, I don't know. They are. They are. Yes, they are.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, having come to this judgment, because of Christ's love, having come to this conclusion, that one died for all, therefore all died. So one thought is that the all is referring to to believers Christ died for all believers therefore all believers died so the verse would read like this for the love of Christ controls us or compels us having concluded this that one died for or on behalf of all believers therefore all the all believers died and he died for or on behalf of all believers that they who live believers would no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. So, seeing the word all there, referring to believers. Any thoughts? Questions? I have a reference here, back to John 12, verse 32. And it says, When I have lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Right. All mankind. Right.

There are, by saying this, I had a big problem with this at first. Because what it came across to me is that Christ only died for the believers. and obviously the idea of limited atonement. I don't agree with that. I'm not going there. But there's also lots of scripture to talk about. For example, let me see if I can put my finger on it, where it uses the word all. You can go over to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 23. It uses the word all and it's just talking about believers. So my point is that there is scripture that uses the word all where it's just talking about believers. But we're not supporting limited atonement at all. We don't want to go there. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Who gets filled? Believers. Unbelievers don't get filled. Believers. So he's filling all believers in all. My point is that, did Christ die for the whole world? Absolutely. That's a hands down. Is it possible that this word here, all means just for believers, but not supporting Lamenting and Atonement? It's possible. We have to leave room open for that. It's possible. Some shaking their heads no, but it's possible. All right. And we're not going to come away at this point with a conclusive answer. That's not my point.

The other option, which is kind of what you were referring to, and Scripture does support this as well, is that the awe is referring to unbelievers. Christ died for all unbelievers, therefore all unbelievers died. That's tough. That's where the question is the second awe. That makes it difficult. What's that talking about there?

Christ died for all, therefore all died. Therefore all died makes it tough to determine. That's really the harder all to come up with. So the verse would read like this, For the love of Christ controls or compels us, having concluded this, that one died for or on behalf of all mankind, therefore the all mankind died, and He died for or on behalf of all mankind, that they who live, believers, should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." That's another option. Sue?

I was thinking of Galatians 2.20, where it's the I's. Which I's? They're all I's, but which I refers to? Which all is it referring to? Exactly. Right. Right. Right.

Christ died for all appears to be Christ died for all mankind. Therefore, all died appears to be those who received Christ's death for all mankind died with Christ, which in a sense is a third option. I didn't put up here on your notes. So, it could be believers, believers, all, all believers, believers, all unbelievers, unbelievers, or could be all unbelievers, and all died, therefore all died, meaning believers. Does that make sense? Okay. Right. Because they haven't believed.

What I was saying is that the all, Christ died for all, mankind, Hands down, no argument about that. That's absolute. Therefore, all died. Who would be the all died? The all who died would be those who believed in Christ's substitutionary death. They died with Him in identification. Therefore, all died. So in that sense, it would be all died, the Christ died for all, the whole world, unbelievers. Therefore, all died, those believers who trusted in Him as their Savior, identified with Him on the cross.

So that's, in a sense, a third option there as well. Okay? We're going to throw it out and it's... Yes, it is. Yep. As far as I know. Yeah. It's going to... That's right. Yep. So there's your homework. Look at it, study it out, and it's our homework as well because obviously we haven't come to a conclusive answer yet either. So that's it. And in talking with Hal and Bob, that's the way that we wanted to go about it. There you go.

So with being open there about the conclusion of the interpretation in verse 14, we're going to come to verse 15. And one died for all. therefore all died the reason that one died for all is explained in verse 15 so that the believers who are alive will no longer live will live for God and no longer live for themselves that's very clear so let me just read verse 15 and he died for all so that there's the so that this would be the result kind of cause and effect type thing he died for all so that They who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. So, one of the reasons why he died for all is explained, so that the believers who are alive will live for God and will not live for themselves.

Real straightforward. And again, continuing the thought from verse 9, that believers will be pleasing to God. As one is living, for God and not for themselves, then they will be pleasing to God, and then they will be rewarded, as is talked about in verse 10.

I think it's very clear. But again, it's really clearly communicating to us the source. How is it possible for us to live pleasing to God, as verse 9 talks about? And how is it possible for us to receive rewards of gold, stones, and precious gems, as verse 10 talks about, the judgment seat of Christ? Only through Christ. because he died for all, therefore all died, depending on the interpretation there, still Christ is the source. That's, again, hands down, that's very clear. Christ is the only way that we're going to be able to live lives that are pleasing to God. And remember Hebrews 11, verse 6, who knows that? Who remembers that?

Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. So there, verse 9 says, live lives that are pleasing to God, going to be rewarded for things that Christ does through you, okay? It all must be done in faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. I can be here talking with you guys this morning. It's a good thing. If I'm not in faith and dependency upon God, what is it? Whatever is not of faith is sin. Woo! That's strong, isn't it? Okay, that's what we're getting at. It has to be done in faith. Okay.

So let's look at this verse here in terms of our position and our condition. Because I think it's good for us to look at things, you know, where does the rubber meet the road? How does all this kind of flush out? And I think this is important for us to take a look at. So, for the love of Christ compels us, verse 14, let's read verse 14 again. For the love of Christ compels us, having concluded this, that the one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.

So what part of that verse do you think is positional, and what part of that verse do you think is conditional? How about that? What do you think? What part of that verse is positional, talking about our position with Christ, and what part of that verse is conditional, talking about how does it play out in our daily walk or in our experience? Well, all guidance has to be positional, doesn't it? Right, exactly. How about for the love of Christ? How about that part? Is that positional or is that conditional? Okay. That's right.

For the love of Christ is positional. Compels us is conditional. He's compelling us, but we're involved. You know, we are involved in that. My love for Henry is what? It's going to compel me to where I'm going to be involved in running out and getting him out of the street. So we're involved in in showing love toward the people as Christ does it through us.

Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died, and He died for all, that's positional, exactly. That they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him. Conditional, right? That they who live, kind of like Sue, Galatians 2.20 kind of thought, that they who live, that's us. would no longer live for themselves, but for God. That's a conditional statement. Who died and rose again on their behalf. That's a positional statement.

So as we kind of break it down like that, that's the way that it looks. Does everybody agree with that? Any thoughts? It's interesting to look at the verses like that and see how they play out. Uh-huh. Meaning, here, therefore, all died? Talking about being dead? That's why, personally, I'm going to re-reveal my position here a little bit.

That's why, personally, I think this is talking about the believer's identification. Through the believer's identification death with Christ, what happens? We become alive. Through our death to the sin nature, we become alive unto God. Therefore, we are alive. Therefore, we live. And through that identification, now it's possible for us to no longer live for self, but to live for God. Only through that. I kind of played my cards a little bit, but I think that's... Yeah, Larry. Please say, but that's it. I think we're over digging through these in the first place.

I think everybody in this room probably has debts of some kind or other. Okay, let's say I won the lottery and I said, I'm going to pay everybody's debts in this room. Now, to do that, we have to make the assumption that everybody has debts in this room and that all those debts now are forgiven. Okay, they're gone. Therefore, we all had debts which are now gone.

I think it's just simply a matter that in order for Christ to die for all, And all have to be dead because of that. That's right. That's right. If that didn't include everybody, then Christ didn't die for all. He only died for a part of us. Right. So I just think, to think that this therefore all died, we're looking at the English and I don't know what it says in the Greek, for example, but I just think that the last three words are just clarifying the fact that When Christ died for all, then the logical assumption from that is that all after death, that all means all.

It's not believers, unbelievers. It's all. When we first look at scripture, we have to assume what it says, not try to make it say something that it doesn't say. Sure, sure. Christ clearly says Christ died for all, and if he didn't, If everybody wasn't dead because of that death, then he didn't die. There would have been no discussion. But if all were dead, he wouldn't have to die for all. They were all dead in Adam.

In the federal headship of Adam. Right. That's right. Because of what Adam said. That's right. Therefore, he had to die for all. Right, right. That's right. Here again, I don't think any of us disagree with the concept of the womb. Right, right. Sure. Absolutely. That's right. That's right. OK, well, let's we'll keep studying that and see see where we where we end up. So let me ask this question. And it's on slide 11 there. that you have.

How does what we just looked at play out in our daily lives? How does it practically work out in our lives for our position to be seen daily and experienced in our condition? That's what we're talking about there, that the love of Christ is controlling and compelling us so that we will live for God, then we will no longer live for ourselves. How does it play out daily in our lives? I put down these verses because I think it's important for us to talk practically a little bit. How does it flush out? How does it play out in our daily walk? We're going to go somewhere this afternoon, we're going to go through our activities tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday. How does it all play out?

So, we've already mentioned Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6, that without faith it is impossible to please Him. So, faith is first and foremost. I mean, without faith it is sin. So, the just shall live by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. Faith is key. Faith in the facts of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's look at Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Let's go there. 2.20, as you mentioned earlier, Sue. And anybody would just read that, as you find it.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live and the body I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. Okay. So when it talks about there, I have been crucified with Christ, who is the I? that we're talking about. What's being talked about there? Okay. Okay. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. I meaning what? The sin nature. That's exactly right.

It is no longer I who live in the flesh, but Christ lives in me. The new life there. We'll talk about that in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians in a minute. Christ lives in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. What are you talking about there? The life which I now live. Okay. The life which I now live. We get up in the morning. We go about our daily routine. We all have our activities that we go through. The life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith. There again is what we're talking about from Hebrews 11. And verse 6, I live by faith, and the Son of God who loved me gave himself up for me.

So we know that, that we have been co-crucified with Christ, that we no longer have to live our lives in the flesh, we no longer are enslaved or in bondage to the old man, that now we have Christ who is our life. So that takes us to Romans chapter 6, which really explains in greater detail Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. So, Romans chapter 6 and verse 3, which is the nuts and bolts of how all this practically works out, of the verses that we're looking at there in 2 Corinthians. Chapter 6 and verse 3, "...or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" Don't you know?

It's vitally important that we know it. See, you know, without that knowledge, there's no... Nothing for us to put our faith in without the knowledge of those biblical facts. There's nothing that we can put our faith in as far as our identification with Christ. And then verse 6, knowing this, he says that again, it's interesting, he says, know in verse 3, know in verse 6, and then know in verse 9.

Don't you know this? Knowing this, and knowing this, so it's vitally important that we know it. Key for us to know it. So, verse 6, knowing this, that our old self, the old man of sin nature, was crucified with him, In order that, the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

And then down in verse 11, even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. KJV uses the word reckon, so there's that initial knowledge, we have to know it. And then it comes to the point of reckoning, we have to count on it to be so, we have to reckon it, we have to depend on it to be so. Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive unto God and Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you would obey its lust. And do not go on presenting or yielding the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

So there's the know part, there's the reckon part, and then there's the yield or the present part. What do you think happens if all we do is no? We kind of stop at phase one there, so to speak. You think all three of those are important? That we know, and then that we reckon, and that we yield, or we present ourselves? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. All three of those are vitally important for us as we consider the practical Christian life.

Let's look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10. Somebody just read that out for us. Ephesians 2 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in Him.

Okay. God has this already worked out for us. It's incredible to me, the idea there. We are His workmanship, we are not our own workmanship. So to me, it's very encouraging. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. So the good works have already been created for us. He's already, in a sense, laid out the yellow brick road. You know, it's there for us.

We just have to, by faith, walk in it, knowing the truth, reckoning on it to be so, and presenting and yielding ourselves to God, and walk down the path. That's it. So we don't have to come up with our own good works? No. Yeah. The deeds of the flesh are... Galatians describes all those. Yeah. That's right. That's right.

So back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. End of verse 15. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and the end of verse 15 says this, So that they who live may no longer live for themselves, but for Him. And the verse that we just read says, We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

See? I just think it's important that we see how all that plays out practically. Any thoughts or questions before we move on to the next section? So now we're going to get to today's notes. That wrapped up last week. Last week's lesson. Did you get last week's notes? I think that's right. I did. Okay. So now we're going to go to verse 16. And verse 16 says, therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer.

What in the world is that talking about? We've got the word flesh being thrown around in there, we've got the word no being used three times, don't know this person this way, and know him this way, and what in the world is being said there? So let's see if we can make some sense of it. They no longer recognize anyone with the eyes of the flesh, the perspective of the unsaved, as mentioned of those who put their focus on the external appearance or the human viewpoint. Remember we talked about that last week in verse 12 and verse 13?

These guys were looking at Paul through a human, worldly, external viewpoint. Let's just read that again to refresh ourselves. So that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. There were those people who were looking at Paul and saying, your physical appearance is horrible. And we read a verse where Paul admitted that his physical appearance wasn't that great. You can't talk very well. You can't communicate very well. They were criticizing him. They were looking at him from the external, human, earthly viewpoint.

So, what this verse is saying is that we no longer Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh. But they're going to look at people with the spiritual eyes, spiritual insight. They're going to look at other people that way. Instead of looking at them from the fleshly external human viewpoint, they're now going to look at people with spiritual eyes or spiritual insight. Yeah, we recognize no one according to the flesh as those people were back in verse 12.

We have known Christ according to the flesh, so it's possible that before Paul's conversion, he looked at Christ as young believers looked at him. Paul hated believers. If there was contact between, you know, if Paul did have any interaction, like see Christ actually literally physically, he hated them.

He would have viewed Christ as people were viewing Him. Does that make sense there? The people were criticizing Paul for his appearance, for his lifestyle, thinking that he was out of his mind, looking at Paul from the external human viewpoint. And Paul would have looked at Christ exactly the same way.

So, looking at the externals, not looking at the inward heart with spiritual eyes. So, we have known Christ according to the flesh in that way. Yet now we know him in this way no longer. Spiritual insight, spiritual sight had changed Paul's perspective and outlook on people in life. Things had totally changed. He was no longer looking at people from the human viewpoint in the flesh based on the external appearances in the human viewpoints. But now But now they no longer look at Christ with eyes on the externals, but with spiritual eyes, and everything had changed.

How about us? How do we, number one, how do we look at people? Do we look at people with external eyes, from a human viewpoint? Or do we look at people with spiritual eyes, from a spiritual viewpoint, seeing people as brothers and sisters in Christ? And then how do we view Christ? view Christ from a human, external viewpoint, because it's difficult for us to do that. But, uh... Wouldn't that fall into, there's a lot of people, well, what would Jesus do? Are they looking at the external things?

I think so. Good point. You know, pattern your life after Christ. He did good things. He cared for the sick and all this. Right. And healed. Isn't that where all that comes from? Yes. That's right. They're still looking at the Right. And they get that picture of Christ, which is a good picture of Christ, out of the Gospels. That's where we can see Christ. Yeah. That's right. Any other thoughts? Okay.

Let's take this one step further. kind of break down these words a little bit for us here. Therefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. So I have the word know and known and know there in bold in the word flesh. They're underlined. So I want to try to make some sense out of this. The first know is to know factually or intuitively or absolutely. It's more of factual knowledge of of knowing someone there. So, wherefore, know we no man after the flesh, in a factual way there. And then the second one there says, we have known, is to know experientially, or to be acquainted with a person.

So, to know this person experientially, or to be acquainted experientially, so it's more the experiential knowledge, more like Romans 6.6. is a Gnosko-type knowledge. It's a familiarity gained through experience.

That's what's more of an experiential knowledge there in Romans 6.6. Similar word here, though we have known Christ after the flesh, so they have had interaction with him in that way, yet now henceforth know we him no more. So, the third usage of the word know is again to know experientially, to be acquainted with the person. Then when we look at the word flesh, sarka, it's used 151 times in the New Testament, and context is key to determining what is meant by the word flesh.

So, we do not factually know people in the flesh, the externals, as in verse 12, and in the past, we have experientially known Christ, But we are not to know Christ in its experiential way anymore. We are to factually know Christ, not based on the externals, but based on the internals. And how do we know this? The emphasis is to know Christ, not based on the experience, but on the facts. And look at the bottom bullet there. How do we know Christ factually?

By the Word, ministered to believers through the Holy Spirit. This, I think here, says it real well, the New Testament revelation gave believers a full knowledge of Christ. Even though they had known him by experience during his earthly ministry, this experience was no longer necessary, or it was no longer adequate. They knew Christ through experience, but that experience through which they knew Christ then was no longer adequate, nor was it no longer necessary. Why? Because they had the Word, which which is what it's saying, to know Christ factually, absolutely, and that's only going to be possible based on the Word. I think that's what the verse is wanting to communicate to us there. Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. We knew Him this way, let's not know Him that way anymore, let's know Him this way. absolute knowledge of Christ based on His Word, which is ministered to us through the Holy Spirit.

Any thoughts? I hope I'm not trying to make it say what it's not saying there. Larry, I want to be careful I'm not doing that. I don't want to be reading into it. I want to take it at face value, exegeting and let the scriptures speak for themselves, not eisegeting and reading into the passages. That's the last thing in the world, and if I do that, I shouldn't be up here at all.

So, in that, what we just talked about was talking about getting to know Him in the flesh, in a literal sense, seeing Him, experiencing Him in a human way. So that's the way we're looking at the word flesh there. We know each other in a real, literal, relational way. We are in the earth together.

Now, let's just look at another interpretation of the word flesh here, which I think can be an indirect application. We don't want to look at and get to know Christ or people in the flesh, meaning our sin nature. We're going to use a little bit different interpretation here of the word flesh. We don't want to look at them through our flesh, but we want to look at them while walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh. I'll just use myself as an example. Do I want to get to know Christ as I'm walking in the flesh, or do I want to get to know Christ as I'm walking in the Spirit? That's right. Exactly right. Yeah. So, let's know Him. Let's not get to know Him in the flesh. Let's get to know Him in the Spirit.

And so, how do I want to get to know you all? Do I want to get to know you all in the flesh? Or do I want to get to know you all in the Spirit? I want to get to know you all in the Spirit. I don't want to try to get to know you in my flesh. Okay? And then, when it comes to me getting to know you guys, do I want to know you guys in the flesh? Do I want to know your flesh as I'm getting to know you?

No. I want to know you all in the Spirit. I want to know you all in Christ, as we see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. So, I think that's also one indirect application that we can come away from here. Nor do we want to get to know people in the flesh. We want to get to know them as they are in Christ, in the Spirit. Regard no one from a human, fleshly point of view. Let's look at each other in Christ, as brothers and sisters. So, see people from God's point of view, as God sees them. Let's see people in Christ. I think that's also a kind of indirect application that we can come away from there.

Verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. So the idea here, if anyone is in Christ, well, who are those people that are in Christ? Let me just ask you that question. Absolutely. Those that have put their personal faith and trust in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, it says that by one spirit were we all baptized into Christ. Okay? Or placed into Christ. I think it's probably a concept that we are all very familiar with. So those, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.

The word new here is not new in time, but new as to form or quality of a new different nature from what it is contrasted to in the old. So it's not something that existed in the past, but now in time it's become a reality. That's not what it's talking about, because that would say that, okay, it's existed in the past, but it's being applied today. That's not what it's talking about.

It's new in quality. It never existed before. It's absolutely new, contrasted with that of the old. And then the word creation is original formation. It's not something that was ever there before. We're new creatures, I think the word, the KJV uses the word creature. Having come into a state of being that never existed before, so it's a new quality creation. In a simple definition, the word to create helps to support this.

Create means to make something out of nothing. So it's not a recreation of the old nature, but a completely new creation by God. So if God were to fix up the old nature, to fix up the sin nature, and through massaging and dissecting and doing a surgical procedure of the old nature, now we've got the new nature, that goes totally against the definition of creation, of a new creature. Because to create something means to make something out of nothing.

That's exactly what Christ did. He's not fixing up the old, but he's giving us something completely new. I think that's a concept that everyone's real familiar with. So, how does that kind of play out in our lives? We want to be walking in the Spirit in the new nature. We want to be walking in the Spirit in the life of Christ, not in the flesh trying to improve ourselves, trying to make ourselves have better habits, or trying to make ourselves look better, any self-improvement.

The flesh can never, ever, ever be improved upon. No bow tie. The flesh was so hopelessly unimprovable to the fact that God had to kill it. If there was any room for any hope or help of the flesh, why would God have killed it? That doesn't even make logical sense. It was so beyond hope or help, he said, I've got to kill it. Not eradication, not trying to promote that, but we're talking about separation. Separation from inner identification with Christ.

So we have become, it's a completed past action with ongoing results. Those of us that are in Christ, anyone who is in Christ, He is a new creation. We have become a new creation. The old things have passed away, the old new things have come. It's a completed past action that this has happened. The moment we trust that Christ is our Savior, we're identified with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection. And so it is ongoing results into the future. And then what I did here was these last three slides. There we go. I just went down and did some comparison and contrasting of these different things.

So in the old things, we're dead to sin, or we're dead in sin. The new things, we're dead to sin. There's spiritual death, there's spiritual life. One is we're lost, the new we're saved, the old we're condemned, the new there's no condemnation, the old we're a slave to sin, and the new we're a slave to Jesus Christ. Not in a bondage type of way of slavery, I think we've talked about that in the past, but one of just a relational way. Old things were under the law, new things were under grace, child of Satan, child of God, unrighteous were righteous, Continue on here.

In the old, we reject Christ and His Word. In the new, we trust Christ and His Word. In the old, the cross is foolishness. But in the new, the cross is the power of God. In the old, we suppress the truth. In the new, we are not ashamed of the truth. In the old, we live in darkness. In the new, we live in light. The old is without hope, no hope. And the new is with hope.

One makes God a liar, the other makes God the truth. One desires the world's wisdom, power and riches, and then the other desires Christ's wisdom, power and riches. And then one is unjust, the other is just, enmity with God as opposed to peace with God, and Adam and Christ, glory in self, glory in the Lord. We've seen that a lot in the past couple of verses that we've been looking at.

In the old, we walk by the spirit of the world. In the new, we walk by the spirit of God. In the old, we operate by man's wisdom. In the new, we operate by God's wisdom. In the old, is the natural man. In the new, is the spiritual man. In the old, cannot know the things of God, knows the things of God. In the old, it doesn't have eternal life. In the new, obviously it has eternal life. In the old, is eternity in the lake of fire, and eternity with Christ. And then, it's interesting, this last one here, in the old, God loves them, us, people, and in the new, God loves them, us. The only one that's the same there is God's perspective on humanity. He loves everybody.

So, we're going to walk in the flesh. We can guarantee that all the things of the old are going to be true. We're going to be discouraged because all those characteristics are going to be bombarding us. We want to walk in the spirit and the characteristics of the new life are going to be true. Old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come.

Incredible verses are for us to find encouragement in. Alright, let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning, for your word, and all that you have done for us. Lord, you have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. You've done a tremendous work for us. You've died for us. You've placed us in yourself, in your death, bearing on your resurrection. And because of all that, Lord, that old things have passed away and all things have become new. Thank you for that. And Lord, let it be in such a way that our focus will be on you and that we'll be knowing you more, not just self-centered about what it is that you've done for us. We just ask these things in your name. Amen.