Point of View

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NRSV)

A lot depends on our point of view. A lot of things in life is a matter of perspective. Included in your worship bulletin this morning are some well-known optical illusions. They show how our mind can perceive one thing when the reality is actually something different. The four figures of men are all the same size, but they look like they are different sizes. The background tricks our mind into seeing things from an illusory perspective. The two table tops are exactly the same, but the placement of the legs makes us see them as three-dimensional and make them appear to be different. Is that a horse or a frog? It depends how you hold the paper. Is that a rabbit or a duck? A swan or squirrel? It is all how you look at it. It is all a matter of perspective.

That is true in the spiritual life as well.  There is a shift in perspective that happens when one orients one’s life around Christ as the center. From the perspective of Christ we see everything from a different point of view. We see things from a spiritual perspective rather than a worldly perspective. The apostle Paul sums it up in our passage. He writes: “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The NKJV uses the phrase “according to the flesh,” instead of “from a human point of view.” That is a more accurate word-for-word translation, but it is harder to understand. In Paul’s theology flesh is not the same as body. That is why I like the NRSV translation “from a human point of view.” The apostle says, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.”  Paul talks about viewing Christ and others from a human point of view and from a spiritual point of view.

Let’s talk about Christ first. Viewing Christ from a human point of view means to see him as no different from any other human who has ever lived. The human point of view is to see Jesus simply as a human being who lived 2000 years ago. Some people would not even go that far. A very few historians question if there ever really was a man named Jesus. They say that the person of Jesus was made up by the early church. That he is really just a mythological figure created using the motifs found in other myths. But that radical view is rejected by the vast majority of serious historians. There is just too much evidence that is too early to think that the figure of Jesus is pure fiction.

99% of historians acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth really lived, and that he died by crucifixion at the hands of the Roman authorities in Jerusalem somewhere around the year 30 AD. Furthermore they acknowledge that the gospels contain his words. But that is about as far as historians can go. The discipline of historical science rules out the supernatural, the theological or the metaphysical. So it can say nothing about whether Jesus was the Son of God. It cannot talk about the virgin birth or the resurrection of Jesus or the miracles of Jesus or anything like that. It cannot say anything about any spiritual meaning of his crucifixion. The parameters of the academic discipline of historical science rule out any discussion of such things. It sees Jesus purely from a human point of view.

That is the way many people view Christ today – from a purely materialistic and humanistic perspective.  Consequently people will see Jesus as just one of many religious teachers in history. Every culture has religions and religious founders. China had Confucius. India had Buddha. Arabia had Muhammad. Ancient Israel had Moses. And later Roman Palestine had Jesus. The human point of view says they are all the same type of historical phenomenon. They are all religious teachers. Their teachings might be different but they are also much the same in some respects; they involve worship, ethics and rituals. That is the human point of view. That is the secular materialistic perspective. It is the dominant point of view in Western Europe and in much of America. We even see this influencing people who would consider themselves spiritual. They say that all religious teachers of world history are basically the same - just with some minor cultural differences. They say that their message is the same and their gods are the same. That is the human point of view of Jesus – that he is just one of many religious teachers around which a religion developed. That is the human point of view.

The apostle Paul says “even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.” As Christians we view Christ from a different point of view. What is different? What has changed? Christ has not changed. History has not changed. The facts have not changed. What has changed? We have changed! “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see,  everything has become new!” The difference is being “in Christ.” I like the KJV language here:, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”  When we are in Christ, we are different and everything else is different. “Everything has become new.” We change and our perspective on the world changes. We look at the optical illusion, and suddenly we see what we never saw before.  At first we just see the tiger, but then suddenly we see the hidden tiger. (Do you see it?) At first we see just Jesus the man, but then we have a new perspective and we see him as the Son of God!

We see things not just humanly but spiritually and theologically. Paul deals with both the spiritual and theological aspects in our passage. Let me deal with the spiritual first – because it is more experiential. I have found that people are much more interested in spirituality than theology, even though both are important. When we see ourselves as only human, then we see Christ as only human. When the Holy Spirit awakens us to the spiritual dimension of the universe, what Jesus called being born of the Spirit or born from above, then we see everything - including ourselves and Christ - from a spiritual perspective. We are a new creation, a new creature - not just homo sapiens but homo spiritus – a spiritual creature. And we see Christ not just as a man but as divine – as the spiritual Son of God.

I am not just talking about a change of mind here, even though thinking is part of it. This is where the optical illusion metaphor breaks down. Those are fun little tricks, but they don’t change our lives. I am talking about a change of heart and a change of soul. We are no longer simply human animals. We are still animals. That is clearly a big part of what humans are; there is no doubt about that. It is obvious that our bodies bear a great resemblance to our mammal relatives on this earth. But we are more than animals. We know intuitively that we are more than animals. We are aware of a bigger cosmic dimension of our lives. I have quoted Pierre Teilhard de Chardin before from this pulpit from his book the Phenomenon of Man. He writes: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” This is the source of the religious impulse in human beings. That is what gives rise to the spiritual search and to religion.

When by the grace of God, we look at Jesus of Nazareth and see him not just from a human perspective as another human, but from a spiritual perspective as a divine human, then that is the beginning of the transformation Paul describes. This insight into Christ is experienced as a revelation. All of a sudden we see it, whereas we did not see it before. It is a gift from God. But when we receive this insight, then we have a choice to make. We have to respond to this spiritual insight or not. To throw in our lot with Christ or not. That is faith in Christ. Faith is not believing something about Jesus. Faith is not believing something; faith is trusting someone. Faith is not about teachings; faith is about commitment. By grace we are granted a glimpse of Christ’s true nature. By faith we act upon that revelation. Many people experience God in nature; we can also experience God in Christ. But faith is more than experience; it takes a step beyond experience. Spiritual experiences and insights are great. Religious experiences are wonderful, but that is not faith. Faith is deciding to act on that new spiritual information.

Some people say that they are spiritual but not religious. By that phrase they normally mean they feel spiritual, but don’t go to church. They acknowledge a spiritual dimension, impulse, insight or experiences that are meaningful. This is often in connection with the beauty of nature, art, or music, or some other experience. That is wonderful, and it is true. I have that experience too. But that is just the vestibule to the spiritual life.  That is the lobby.  To put it in NH terms –  that is the mud room. You don’t live in the mud room. That is where we take off our boots and hang up our coats. It is meant only as an entryway to the living space of the house. Faith is stepping beyond the mud room into the spaciousness of God’s mansion. Jesus says “in my Father’s house are many rooms.” (the old language says “many mansions.”) Explore them all. Don’t be content with mud room. Unfortunately many people are.

This now brings me to the theological dimension. Theology is one of the inner rooms of God’s mansion. It is a wonderful room; it is the library with walls of bookshelves. That is where we sit down by the fire with our Heavenly Father and learn some things about the spiritual life and about how Jesus fits into it. Paul talks about this in our passage as well. He says in verse 18-21. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

There is a lot of theology in these few verses. Much more theology than I can adequately expound in the remaining minutes of this sermon. The main point that Paul makes here is reconciliation. He uses the word five times in these four verses. In Christ we have reconciliation with God. This is crucial to understanding Christ and the spiritual life. First, we have to understand the need for reconciliation. This is a big step for people. Many people in our society don’t see any need for reconciliation with God. You may have heard the old joke. A evangelist asked the man, “Have you found Christ?” The man replies, “I didn’t know he was lost!” In the same manner, if we asked the average person on the street if they were reconciled to God, they might respond, “I didn’t know we were arguing!” A lot of people don’t know there is a problem, and so they are not looking for a solution.

This is why the Christian gospel does not make much sense to a lot of people these days. It solves a problem that most people don’t think they have. But I see it this way. It is like a person with cancer or heart disease not thinking they have a problem because they don’t feel sick. They don’t see any symptoms, and so they don’t think they need a doctor because they don’t think there is a problem. But they might have very high blood pressure or very high cholesterol or have a tumor growing somewhere. Then one day they are rushed to the emergency room with pain or a heart attack or stroke or cancer. Then it may be too late. That is why it is good to have regular medical checkups – to monitor those invisible things like blood pressure or cholesterol levels or mammograms or other cancer screenings.

This is the way it is with spiritual health. Just because we aren’t in immediate crisis doesn’t mean everything is alright.  But when we examine our lives in light of the Word of God, we might be surprised by the test results. Scripture is like an x-ray, MRI or CT scan. It looks deep inside us. Scripture reveals to us what we could never see with human sight – that there is a problem at the heart of human existence. Once we understand scripture then our human condition becomes clear to us, and we wonder why we never saw it before. Like the optical illusions in the bulletin. Once we see the hidden tiger we wonder how we ever missed it.

Once we hear the voice of God analyze our condition, we notice symptoms everywhere. The symptom is the restlessness of the human heart. There is a search for security. There is a pursuit of happiness. We are always looking for something more. We are never satisfied. There is something that doesn’t feel quite right in our lives, and we can’t quite put our finger on it. It manifests in many types of dissatisfaction with life. People are dissatisfied with family or marriage relationships, with jobs, or our financial situation. We never quite have enough money to feel secure. Or it is our dissatisfaction with government and politicians; with hope the new candidate will be different, but he/she never is. We are dissatisfied with religion, religious leaders and churches. We are not quite as healthy as we want, and even when we are, we wonder what will happen in the future. Nothing is ever exactly right. And even when it is – when we get exactly what we think we want and need – after a while we are looking for something more.  

All these are symptoms of a deeper spiritual issue. Sometimes these symptoms can be quite acute and develop into mental illness or even suicide. I have been reading about gun violence in America and noticed a very interesting statistic. Everyone is all concerned about homicides and mass killings. But the statistics tell us that almost twice as many deaths from guns are from suicide rather than homicide. 19,000 gun-related deaths are suicides compared to 11,000 homicides. Why are we not talking about that? What does that tell us? It tells me there is a deeper issue here than background checks and gun shows. It shows that there is something deep in the human heart that needs to be addressed. The ancient Christian theologian Augustine put it this way: "God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” The problems of the human heart are signs of our need for peace with God and peace in God.

That is what God did in Christ. Christ opened up the way for us to find rest in God. “God … reconciled us to himself through Christ.” “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That is what the Cross is all about. I could get into the theological details of how the cross accomplished this. This is interesting and important. I plan to explore that in a couple of weeks on Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday. But right now in this message it is not so important that we understand the theology. Just like it is not so important that we understand the scientific details of a type of cancer we might have; what is important is that we find a physician who can cure of us that cancer. That is what is important spiritually. Christ is the Great Physician who has the cure for this spiritual disease that is called sin. Christ is the Physician and he is the cure. Thanks be to God for the healing that he grants to us through Jesus Christ.