Identity in Christ pt 2
The emphasis is on “no longer” (mēketi), “from now on” (apo tou nun), and “no longer” (nun ouketi). The phrase “from now on,” however, has eschatological overtones and therefore refers to something beyond the point of Paul’s conversion when he surrendered all his evaluations and decisions to the wisdom of the cross. Christ’s death is the turning of the ages. It reveals that this world is passing away and shows that all attachments to it are unimportant and vain
Paul refers instead to the measuring scale by which he knows or judges others, namely, unspiritual, worldly standards. Paul does not reject knowledge of “Christ after the flesh,” just an “according to the flesh” view of Christ.
Paul confesses that he (using an authorial “we”) viewed reality and persons from a fleshly perspective which used only human yardsticks to measure others. False, superficial criteria led him to esteem those who appeared to be wise, influential, of noble birth, and strong, and to disdain those who were none of these things. Before he was captured by Christ, such worldly norms warped his judgments as they do all who live under the thralldom of sin and whose veiled, benighted minds screen out God’s truth
When we see that we are all sinners dead in our sins and needing reconciliation from God, and when we accept Christ’s shameful death on the cross as our death, then all previous canons we used to appraise others must be scrapped
Christians see the world in a new way and become new when they are joined to Christ
The individual’s whole being, value system, and behavior are also changed through conversion. We are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ (
This unit contains three key assertions. (1) God is the driving force behind the redemption of humankind. Reconciliation comes solely at God’s initiative. (2) God acted through Christ’s death, and Christ alone is the means of reconciliation. (3) God continues to act through those who have been reconciled. They have the privilege and responsibility to share in this great divine enterprise and are to call others to be reconciled to God
Another is the direct opposition of Satan: “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (
Given this condition, there is a lack of sensitivity (v. 19)* that precludes any response to God’s word. They are callous, beyond feeling. Further, there is a self-induced moral degeneration that is unending, since there is a continual lust for more. The difference noted above between God’s giving the Gentiles over to moral degeneration and the Gentiles’ giving themselves over to such impurity is comparable to the situation of the Egyptian pharaoh described in Exodus
the old self is simply the person I once was, the character I once bore, the personality that was being destroyed by sin. The new self is the new character I put on, the totality of Christian personal traits that is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (v. 24).
Between the putting off of verse 22 and the putting on of verse 24 stands the other content of the teaching the readers had received, mental renewal (v. 23)*. This is necessary because prior to conversion most of them had experienced the mental futility and darkness that characterized the unbelieving Gentiles (vv. 17–18). This renewal is apparently continual, since in contrast to the verbs of putting on and off, which are in the aorist tense, which represents simple action, this is in the present tense
He is Christ’s spokesman. He does not act on his own authority but under the commission of a greater power and authority who sent him. Paul therefore understands himself to be divinely authorized to announce to the world God’s terms for peace
the surviving documents and inscriptions that provide us with some record of ancient diplomacy make it quite clear that envoys were usually sent to others as a sign of friendship and good will, to establish a relationship, to renew friendly relations, or to make an alliance. Their purpose was to renew or establish “goodwill,” “friendship,” and “alliances.” God’s purpose in sending Christ and his envoys has the same end—to put an end to hostilities and to bring about a reconciliation. God sends out envoys to continue to announce that now is the day of salvation and reconciliation
