For almost two thousand years now, Christian theologians and philosophers have reflected and argued about what new thing Christianity has brought into our world. Each person draws attention to what is closest to them, and there seems to be no end to the arguments. Paul, however, says...
For almost two thousand years now, Christian theologians and philosophers have reflected and argued about what new thing Christianity has brought into our world. Each person draws attention to what is closest to them, and there seems to be no end to the arguments. Paul, however, says that everything is now new, while the old has already passed away—irrevocably. At first sight, such a claim may seem exaggerated. Where, indeed, has everything old gone if, even two thousand years after Christ came into the world, everything seems to continue on its accustomed course? The Church has appeared in the world, of course, but historians usually see it as merely one more religious organization, once powerful and now increasingly losing its influence. That is something new; in every other respect, however, the world appears to be the same, and even the Church itself seems not to have changed it in the least. There are still the same wars—sometimes fought under Christian slogans—the same struggle for power—often accompanied in the Christian world by lofty words about the Church, the purity of its faith, and its interests—and the same revolutions and coups. So did the apostle simply mistake the birth of yet another religion for a worldwide upheaval? At first sight, it might seem so.
But Paul is not speaking about religion at all. He is speaking about the Kingdom that the Saviour brought into the world. It is precisely the Kingdom that he has in mind when he says that now “everything is new.” If this Kingdom had entered the world all at once, in a single moment, everyone would of course have understood what the apostle meant. The former order of things would then have been replaced by the new one in an instant, to the point that nature itself would have undergone a qualitative change and been transfigured.
But then the Kingdom would have had only one inhabitant—the One who brought it into the world—for no one besides Him is ready to enter the Kingdom. That is why the Kingdom enters the world gradually, changing it from within. In the Kingdom, “everything is new” indeed. In the untransfigured world, however, everything continues in the old way; it cannot be otherwise. Only at the end of time, after the whole creation has been transfigured, will everyone see clearly what Paul sees, just as everyone else who already lives in the Kingdom here and now sees it.
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5:14 For the love of Christ - To us, and our love to him.Constraineth us - Both to the one and the other; beareth us on with such a strong, steady, prevailing influence, as winds and tides exert when they waft the vessel to its destined harbour.While we thus judge, that if Christ died for all, then are all, even the best of men, naturally dead - In a state of spiritual death, and liable to death eternal. For had any man been otherwise, Christ had not needed to have died for him.
5:15 And that he died for all - That all might be saved.That they who live - That all who live upon the earth. Should not henceforth - From the moment they know him. Live unto themselves - Seek their own honour, profit, pleasure. But unto him - In all righteousness and true holiness.
5:16 So that we from this time - That we knew the love of Christ. Know no one - Neither ourselves, nor you, neither the rest of the apostles, Gal 2:6, nor any other person.After the flesh - According to his former state, country, descent, nobility, riches, power, wisdom. We fear not the great. We regard not the rich or wise. We account not the least less than ourselves. We consider all, only in order to save all.Who is he that thus knows no one after the flesh? ln what land do these Christians live? Yea, if we have known even Christ after the flesh - So as to love him barely with a natural love, so as to glory in having conversed with him on earth, so as to expect only temporal benefits from him.
5:17 Therefore if any one be in Christ - A true believer in him. There is a new creation - Only the power that makes a world can make a Christian. And when he is so created, the old things are passed away - Of their own accord, even as snow in spring.Behold - The present, visible, undeniable change! All things are become new - He has new life, new senses, new faculties, new affections, new appetites, new ideas and conceptions. His whole tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives, as it were, in a new world. God, men, the whole creation, heaven, earth, and all therein, appear in a new light, and stand related to him in a new manner, since he was created anew in Christ Jesus.