2 Corinthians 5:16

2 Corinthians 5:16 says, 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.   Paul declared that they knew no man after the flesh, even though they had once known Christ after the flesh.  Christ's time on the earth as a human being had ended with His death, so He could no longer be known after the flesh.  Paul was also saying that those who did know Christ in the flesh had no spiritual advantage over those who came to Him after his death.  Even those who walked with Christ while He was on the earth could only be saved by faith.  A close proximity to Christ, or to the church today, cannot bring salvation.  Only a personal relationship with Christ as Savior and Lord can bring salvation, and this is a spiritual condition.  Verse seventeen adds, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  Paul tells us that if we are followers of Christ that we are a new creature.  We may not want to think of ourselves as creatures, but we are all a part of God's creation, and compared to God we will always be but a creature, a part of His creation.  We will never be gods.  Still, when we accept Christ as Savior and Lord we become a new creature.  Old things, those things ruled by the flesh pass away and all things become new.  We live by faith and not by sight.  Verse eighteen continues, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;  Paul acknowledged that everything that we do as followers of Christ is to be for God and because of His empowering us.  God reconciled Himself to all who will accept Christ through faith.  Since God redeemed us and made us a new creature, we are the be ministers, or witnesses, for Him.   Verse nineteen states, To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  Here Paul declared the heart of the gospel.  God was in Christ.  Christ was not just a human but was Himself God.  God reconciled the world to Himself through the life and death of Christ.  We can be reconciled to God only by believing in Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Paul also said that God had committed to them the word of reconciliation, as He has with every Christian.  Verse twenty adds, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  Paul said that followers of Christ were ambassadors for Him.  We represent Christ to the world in all that we do.  Verse twenty-one continues, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.  Christ Who was sinless, took on the sins of all people for all time so that by our faith in Him our sins might be forgiven.  Yet, many people refuse to accept this forgiveness and choose instead to be eternally separated from God.