2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (HCSB)
From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
These verses are the very heart and soul of the life-giving gospel of Jesus.
Paul admits that before he surrendered to Jesus’ lordship, he saw only as a fleshly human being can see. Though he was intelligent and well-educated, and religious to boot, he could only see as a mere human being sees. His heart and mind were veiled, darkened by sin and pride.
But when he encountered the risen Lord, he was not merely enlightened, he was transformed. His heart was changed, his spiritual eyes were opened (although his physical eyes temporarily lost their sight (Acts 9:8-9,18)), and his mind received divine light. Saul of Tarsus fell to the ground before the glory of the Lord Jesus, and it was a different man entirely, a transformed man, who then rose and was led into Damascus.
Far from being an exception, Paul understood that his experience of transformation into a new creation was supposed to be the norm. Paul allowed no theological salvations, no mere assent to soteriological (The branch of theology dealing with the nature and means of salvation) truths. When someone surrendered to the living Lord, when their sins were suddenly forgiven and the burden of them was lifted from their shoulders, when the Holy Spirit entered their heart and took up residence there, transformation had to be the result. If the person was the same, unenlightened, unrelieved, untransformed, then they had not been truly saved.
This is not talking about some kind of emotional experience, which can be manufactured with the right atmosphere. There are many who weep copious amounts of tears as they say the sinner’s prayer, but who then go away unchanged. Paul is talking about a transformation from death to life, from being blind to seeing clearly, from being deaf to hearing. It is not about emotion; it is about the real transformation that must inevitably take place in the heart, and thus in the life and lifestyle, of those who truly come to Jesus, and who receive redemption, salvation, eternal life, and the presence of the Godhead taking up residence in the core of who they are.
Father, I see so often those who “say the prayer”, who then go immediately back to their old life and lifestyle. Sometimes we comfort ourselves by saying that they are merely hard soil, or shallow soil (Luke 8:11-13). Or we believe that they must simply be put into a solid program of “discipleship”, so that they can be taught more about the Bible and about Jesus. But if there has been no transformation, we will be attempting to educate dead people, hoping they will become alive by learning. We will be showing pictures of scenic beauty to the blind, hoping that exposure to beauty will give them eyes to see. We will be playing symphonies to the profoundly deaf, hoping that the notes will restore their hearing. But there is no fix on the back end for what is not received from you on the front end. Lord, help us to relook at how we are trying to bring people to you. Show us where we are working to do that in mere human strength, by persuasion, coaxing, and even bullying, tactics that cannot produce real life. Help us instead to allow you to teach us Your way of bringing people to salvation, the way the people did it in the early Church, the only way that brings real transformation, real life, real world-changing power, so that we can truly bring new life and transformation to people in Your strength and power. Amen.