Viewing the World Spiritually

Today I wanted to offer a short reflection on one of my favorite passages of Scripture. Notice both gospel and mission clearly appear in this passage.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

Physical & Spiritual - v.16-17

In verses 16-17, Paul mentions that there are two basic ways of viewing the world. There is a physical way of viewing the world “according to the flesh,” and there is another way of viewing the world according to spiritual reality. When the New Testament uses the word “flesh” it is often referring to our natural inclination to sin. But in this case, I don’t think Paul is referring to sin. Instead, he simply means that there is a way of viewing life where we’re only concerned with physical reality—jobs, kids, retirement, dating, food, etc. At one time even the disciples viewed Christ in this way; they were walking with Jesus and only concerned with the physical things Jesus was doing everyday. But now Paul says that he and the other believers are focused on the spiritual reality of each person. 

A New Creation - v.17

In verse 17, Paul explains further what he means. Something amazing happens to us in salvation. When someone trusts in Christ, they become a new creation. Conversion to Christ is not merely adding a little bit of religion to our lives, instead it is a total transformation of who we are—we become new creations. When I think about this verse, the idea that always comes to mind is the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Once the caterpillar undergoes the transformation, he is forever a butterfly—he can’t go back. Everything about his existence has changed. And this is exactly what happens to us when we become Christians. However, unlike the caterpillar, we undergo a spiritual rather than a physical transformation. Because of Jesus, everything changes, and we become new people. But we don’t look like new people in a physical way; it’s a spiritual reality.

The Ministry of Reconciliation - v.18-21

In verses 18-21, Paul explains even more about our salvation, and also our mission as believers. Previously, it wasn’t simply that we didn’t know God, we were God’s enemies. In fact, according to Ephesians 2, all of us were following the way of the devil. But the gospel message is all about how Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allow us to be reconciled to God. In verse 21, Pauls says that Jesus “who knew no sin,” actually became sin for us, and then he killed the sin that he became, by dying on the cross. Now if we trust in Jesus, we are reconciled to God and no longer his enemies. Not only this, but because we are reconciled, we now have a mission. We want to help others become reconciled as well. We are ambassadors for Jesus who speak for him to the world about the gospel.

This is why we can’t have only a physical view of the world. We have to add to our physical view, a spiritual view that is concerned not only with jobs, and family, and bills, and relationships, but also with the eternal reality of each person. God has reconciled us to himself, and given us the ministry of reconciliation. We should be concerned about each person’s spiritual reality. We should seek to share the good news of Jesus with others, so that they too can be reconciled to God. We should be praying for those around us who don’t yet know Jesus, and asking God to open doors for us to share the good news of Jesus with them.
 

- Ben