Exhortation

“From now on,” Paul says in today’s sermon text, “we know no man according to the flesh.” Paul defends his ministry against Corinthians who find him unimpressive and weak. Paul understands this fleshly perspective because he once shared it. Before Jesus revealed His glory, Paul saw Jesus Himself as a pathetic failure.

In that moment on the Damascus road, everything changed. Everything . Now Paul knew that if Christ died for all, then all died. Now Paul knew that flesh itself died on the cross, and all fleshly values had been transvalued. Not flesh but the Risen Jesus is the lens through which we view everyone and everything.

Everyone , and that includes you .

Judging yourself by flesh is just as much an act of unbelief as judging your neighbor according to flesh.

You think God can never forgive you. You have forgotten the cross. You think you’re too weak to overcome this or that sinful habit. That’s not piety; it’s unbelief. You gaze at yourself in a mirror and think, “I’m poor, I’m a failure, I’m a nobody.” You’re acting as if Jesus never died to flesh and rose in the Spirit.

Solus Christus , Christ alone, is the mirror in which we examine ourselves; He is the only standard by which we measure ourselves. Anytime we look in another mirror or apply another standard, we deny the gospel. And that’s a sin of which we need to repent.