Second Corinthians 5:16 says, “So that we, from now on, know no one according to flesh; even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer.” Since the apostles judge that Christ’s death makes us all, through His resurrection, a new man, a man not according to flesh, they from now on would know no one according to flesh. They did know Christ in this way, but now they know Him so no longer.
To know others according to the flesh is to know them according to the old creation. But to know others according to the spirit is to know them according to the new creation. Formerly, as Saul of Tarsus, Paul knew Christ according to the flesh. He regarded Him merely as a Nazarene. The Jewish people all knew Christ in this way, according to the flesh. But after his experience on the way to Damascus, Paul’s concept changed from knowing Christ according to the flesh to knowing Him according to the spirit. He also learned to know the saints not according to flesh, but according to spirit.
Verse 17 says, “So that if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.” This confirms what is mentioned in verse 16. The apostles would know man no longer according to flesh, because anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old things of the flesh have passed away through the death of Christ, and all has become new in Christ’s resurrection. To be in Christ is to be one with Him in life and in nature. This is of God through our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:26-28).
The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, the believers born again of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, they are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of flesh, but according to the new nature of the divine life.
The words, “Behold, they have become new,” are a call to watch the marvelous change of the new creation. The word “they” refers to the old things.
Paul, on the one hand, regarded the Corinthians as the old creation, because they were still living in their flesh. Nevertheless, on the other hand, Paul regarded them the new creation, for he knew that they were in Christ. Because they were in Christ, the old things had passed away, and they were a new creation.
Verse 18 continues, “But all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” The “all things” here refer to all the positive things mentioned in verses 14 through 21, of which God is the Originator and Initiator. It is of God that Christ died to save us from death that we may live to Him. It is of God that we become a new creation in Christ. It is of God that Christ was made sin for us that we may become God’s righteousness in Him. It is of God to reconcile the world to Himself. And it is of God that the apostles are made ambassadors of Christ, commissioned to represent Him for reconciling men to God, that they may become God’s righteousness and a new creation for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Paul had the assurance that the apostles had been fully reconciled to God. They had experienced both steps of reconciliation and therefore were in the Holy of Holies. God had reconciled them to Himself through Christ and given them the ministry of reconciliation. Because they had been brought back to God, they had the ministry of reconciling others to God. In this Epistle Paul was not seeking to reconcile sinners to God. Rather, he was seeking to bring the believers into a full experience of reconciliation. He was seeking to bring them not from the outer court into the tabernacle, but to bring them from the Holy Place, where they were lingering, into the Holy of Holies.
In verse 19 Paul says, “How that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not accounting their offenses to them, and putting in us the word of reconciliation.” The word of reconciliation is the word for the ministry (v. 18).