Tweets - May 26th - According to the Flesh

Being mindful of the Living Resurrection, I said to heaven tonight, "I really don't have to worry about anything". Then the spacecraft grew brighter and brighter and flashed very bright.

"From now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

This is one of those cringe-worthy scriptures. Christ often offended the Jewish leaders because he led people to understand that the laws of Moses were the laws of a tree-stump, and that they had nothing to do with the Living God.

He led all those young people astray, so the Jewish leaders convinced the Romans to hang him on a cross - teaching all of those lawbreakers a lesson. If this verse was written by Paul, then it's because he too found the life of Christ so very offensive.

The life of Christ was a bad influence on the Church, as Christ was sometimes called a "glutton" and a "drunkard" by Jewish leaders and could be found partying with prostitutes.

So the Church could no longer know Christ as the man he once was, but must be known as something new altogether.

In reality, Yeshua is Yeshua. To know Yeshua is to know him "according to the flesh" - unless we seek to know him according to our thoughts, feelings and beliefs (which has been a useless waste of 2000 years and has brought not a ray of light to this dark world).

There was no due cause for anyone to find Yeshua offensive. The soft flesh of Yeshua is liberating. It is liberating because the body is no longer a burden and prison of sadness and despair.

It is liberating because, in the footsteps of Christ and the mercy of God, I do not have to put off the old (by decaying) and be clothed with the new; God has permitted life to transform the old into new while the living remains living. This is the Living Resurrection.

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Intent and context are important. In hindsight, "cringe-worthy" comes across judgmental when I meant it to be relatable. The 5th chapter of 2 Corinthians gave me pause and concern because it appears Paul and the Church understood that salvation was delayed for some future date.

They were likely witnessing "the body of Christ" drop dead and decay like everyone else on the planet. So yes, for Paul and the Church, it became true that salvation was for some future date (because God was not saving them then and there).

The Church had abandoned simple human decency in favor of a moral code (such as sex laws), and God was not going to glorify such things and persist such things into something eternal. Eternal life is for children, 5 year old children and 2000 year old children.

I have been made new, but we are talking about the Living God here, and the method of becoming new does not mean the old must wait for the kindness of God by forgoing mercy and salvation and withering away.