JOHN DUNN
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.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new (II Cor. 5:16-17).
Most fail to see the radical eschatological nature of the new creation, which is "living after the Spirit" over and against "living after the flesh". This is not a denial of our Lord's fleshly incarnation and glorified body resurrection. Rather, it is an attestation to it. Messiah's fleshly incarnation and glorified resurrection body is the Divine pattern for the entire transition/resurrection from the Old Covenant age to the New Covenant Eschaton. Therefore, flesh vs. Spirit is a Christ-centered eschatolotical distinction between the nature of the Old Covenant age and the New Covenant age. I Cor.15 clearly teaches the pattern of this *flesh-resurrection-Spirit* paradigm.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual (I Cor. 15:44-46).
The nature of the new creation is life in the Spirit. We are to live in the Spirit, know in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, etc., (Rom8:1, 4, 5, 9, 13; Gal. 3:3, 4:29, 5:16, 25; Eph. 6:18, Phil. 3:3, Col.1:8, I Pet.4:6). In accordance with this new spiritual creation, we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Therefore, to "know" Christ *after the flesh* is to see Him merely as a new (renewed) Moses with a new list of external written codes to subdue our flesh . . . in the old way of the written code.
But to "know" Christ *after the Spirit* is to see Him as the glorious Eschatological Moses (or David, or Seed, or High Priest), who mediates a Law which possesses the radical eschatological nature of the new creation itself . . . the new way of the Spirit. Christ engrafts/inscripturates Himself, as eschatological New Covenant law, upon the tables of our hearts by the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit, therefore effecting in us an internal heart resurrection/circumcision. In this way our dead nature is transformed from "walking in the flesh" through Spirit resurrection/circumcision to "walking in the Spirit". This internal new creation is the "already" aspect of the New Covenant Eschaton. It is the seal/down payment of the Spirit until the redemption of the purchased possession at that Day when the entire man will be completely resurrected to newness of life in the Spirit.
With II Corinthians 3 as our Charter passage for distinguishing Old Covenant age from New Covenant age, I would suggest that Romans 8 is the companion passage which highlights the radical difference between the two eschatological natures of the two ages, namely "life in the flesh" vs. "life in the Spirit."
The New Covenant indicative "life in the Spirit" is the bedrock upon which the entire New Covenant community/Body/Temple is built. Let us then walk abundantly in the Spirit!
yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet
now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new (II Cor. 5:16-17).
Most fail to see the radical eschatological nature of the new creation, which is "living after the Spirit" over and against "living after the flesh". This is not a denial of our Lord's fleshly incarnation and glorified body resurrection. Rather, it is an attestation to it. Messiah's fleshly incarnation and glorified resurrection body is the Divine pattern for the entire transition/resurrection from the Old Covenant age to the New Covenant Eschaton. Therefore, flesh vs. Spirit is a Christ-centered eschatolotical distinction between the nature of the Old Covenant age and the New Covenant age. I Cor.15 clearly teaches the pattern of this *flesh-resurrection-Spirit* paradigm.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual (I Cor. 15:44-46).
The nature of the new creation is life in the Spirit. We are to live in the Spirit, know in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, etc., (Rom8:1, 4, 5, 9, 13; Gal. 3:3, 4:29, 5:16, 25; Eph. 6:18, Phil. 3:3, Col.1:8, I Pet.4:6). In accordance with this new spiritual creation, we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Therefore, to "know" Christ *after the flesh* is to see Him merely as a new (renewed) Moses with a new list of external written codes to subdue our flesh . . . in the old way of the written code.
But to "know" Christ *after the Spirit* is to see Him as the glorious Eschatological Moses (or David, or Seed, or High Priest), who mediates a Law which possesses the radical eschatological nature of the new creation itself . . . the new way of the Spirit. Christ engrafts/inscripturates Himself, as eschatological New Covenant law, upon the tables of our hearts by the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit, therefore effecting in us an internal heart resurrection/circumcision. In this way our dead nature is transformed from "walking in the flesh" through Spirit resurrection/circumcision to "walking in the Spirit". This internal new creation is the "already" aspect of the New Covenant Eschaton. It is the seal/down payment of the Spirit until the redemption of the purchased possession at that Day when the entire man will be completely resurrected to newness of life in the Spirit.
With II Corinthians 3 as our Charter passage for distinguishing Old Covenant age from New Covenant age, I would suggest that Romans 8 is the companion passage which highlights the radical difference between the two eschatological natures of the two ages, namely "life in the flesh" vs. "life in the Spirit."
The New Covenant indicative "life in the Spirit" is the bedrock upon which the entire New Covenant community/Body/Temple is built. Let us then walk abundantly in the Spirit!