have the same sense in both parts of the verse ; and in the former they do not designate the life before conversion, and therefore when spoken in reference to Christ are not to be understood of his earthly as opposed to his heavenly life. Paul had known Christ after the llesh in the sense of estimat- ing him entirely according to the outward appearance of things. Christ does not here mean the Messiah, but is the historical designation of our Lord as an individual. Paul had despised and hated him because he judged him only according to his outward appearance as a poor suifering man, yet claim- ing to be the Christ the Son of the living God. His JcAvish notions of what the Messiah was to be led him to regard with indignation the claims of Jesus to be the Christ. Yet now henceforth knoic ice {him) no more. The order of the words in the original shows that the words Kara a-dpKa are to be con- nected with the verb and not with its object ; ct Se koI iyvo)Ka- fiev Kara adpKa XpccrTov. That is, we no longer judge after the flesh concerning Christ ; w^e no longer estimate him according to appearance, but know him to be the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. Gal. 2, 20.
17. Therefore, if any man (be) in Christ, (he is) a new creature : old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new.
A further inference from what precedes. What was true in Paul's case, must be true in all analogous cases. If the revelation of Christ, the apprehension of his glory and love, had wrought such a change in him, the same illumination must produce a like change in others. He therefore says, If (my man he in Christ he is a new creature. The proposition is general ; it ai^plies to every man. To be in Christ is the common scriptural phrase to express the saving connection or union between him and his people. They are in him by cove- nant, as all men were in Adam ; they are in him as members of his body, through the indwelling of his Spirit ; and they are in him by faith, which lays hold of and appropriates him as the life and portion of the soul. Rom. 8, 1. 9. Gal. 5, G, &c. This union is transforming. It imparts a new life. It effects a new creation. This expression indicates not only the great- ness and radical nature of the change effected, but also its divine origin. It is a divine work, i. e. one due to the mighty power of God. It is therefore called a creation, the com-