AFTER THE FLESH
“Wherefore 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” (2Co 5:16 KJV).
After the flesh; that sounds pretty strange to say doesn’t it? Usually when someone says ‘after’ something they are talking about a period of time; “After work the girls went to dinner together.” We opened with the traditional King James Version. Let’s look at how the New King James Version puts it: “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (NKJV). “According to the flesh,” that makes a little more sense. I like the way The Message Bible puts it: “Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore” (MSG). I like that; we don’t look at Him, or evaluate Him, or view Him that way anymore.
What way? After the flesh (or according to His fleshly appearance). Did you know Isaiah said of Him “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isa 53:2)? This last part I don’t think was saying Jesus was ugly. I believe it was speaking of kingly pomp, or as we might put it today, He had no ‘movie-star’ attributes. In other words, He didn’t come on the scene all flashy and saying ‘Look at me’. I believe this is one of the reasons the Pharisees didn’t recognize Jesus as their Messiah. He didn’t fit their fleshly-mold (religious, natural-thinking way of what the Messiah would appear as). He grew-up among them as a carpenter’s son.
Let’s look at one more version of our opening passage: “Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (2Co 5:16 NAS, bold italics mine). When I read that revelation went off in my spirit. I emphasized the word ‘recognize’ on purpose. I want to couple it with the word ‘know’. Notice Paul speaks of recognizing someone according to the flesh (or, after the flesh). As life goes on, we all receive varying degrees of knowledge; knowledge about how things work, general knowledge in school about a little bit of everything (from math to language arts to working on cars). We also may have been introduced to someone in passing and later on see them somewhere and say “I recognize that person.” But none of those scenarios mean you know (have an intimate—working knowledge of) those things or that person. There are different types of knowledge.
There is knowledge we all accumulate throughout our lifetime by what we are exposed to—books, television and such. Then there is a deeper knowledge that comes through intimacy with someone; a knowledge that is acquired through spending time with them—getting to know them beyond general facts about them, but that is still a naturally gained knowledge. Spiritually speaking there is a knowledge that comes only through the Holy Spirit; Jesus called this revealed knowledge (I call it revelation knowledge after my spiritual father Kenneth Copeland). When Peter replied “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (see Matthew 16:13-17) Jesus said he was blessed because “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (v. 17). This type of knowledge does not come through the brain by figuring things out, but through the inner-man (spirit) by Holy Spirit communication.
COVENANT OF BLOOD—NOT HUMAN CONTRACTS
The Bible is a record of our Covenant with Almighty God that has been established in the Blood of Christ. Covenants are much more than a contract—especially the way we Westerners treat contracts. Here in the U. S. we have watered down contracts to the point they can be broken (it’s sad to say, but most of the judicial system has evolved to figuring out ways to get around honoring [or, get away with breaking] contracts). Covenants are not that way. A covenant is a sacred agreement between two parties that cannot be broken! It is an agreement that puts the lives of all involved on the line. In other words, if the covenant is violated in any way somebody is going to die. That’s where animal sacrifices came from in the Old Testament. God allowed for an animal to die as a substitute when someone broke the covenant rules (sinned) He had established between Himself and man. Jesus then became a Man to die in our place (thank You Lord!) and pay the price of our sin “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21). Paul, having grown-up with this type of understanding and mind-set of blood covenants, wrote those words to the Corinthian church, just after our opening Scripture.
The point of this teaching is for us to NOT ‘know’ Christ Jesus (including all portions of the Word of God—Who Jesus is, having become flesh and dwelling among us [see John 1:14]) according to natural human reasoning or thinking, but to develop an intimacy with Him and position ourselves to receive revelation knowledge of Him through the Holy Spirit. There is a gross dread that has come on the human race that has led to having no hope. Isaiah called it a “deep darkness” (60:2) that covers the people. But Paul said that lack of hope comes from not knowing God, being a stranger to the covenants of promise (see Ephesians 2:12). For the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope (1Timothy 1:1). He is the fulfillment of all the promises of God—“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2Co 1:20). We become partakers of God’s nature through these exceedingly great and precious promises (2Peter 1:4).
What do you think God’s nature is like? Do you think He ever has a bad day? Do you think He’s hope-less? Do you think He’s depressed—sick—grouchy?? Well, get in the Book and be an imitator of God (Ephesians 5:1) through revelation of all His precious promises! Don’t be guilty of trying to figure God out by trying to know Him after the flesh!