A New Creation

¹⁶ So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. ¹⁷ So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

This passage is one of the lectionary readings for this week. Here Paul reminds us that as Christ followers we need a new way of viewing those around us.

When our kids were a little younger, as a family we sometimes liked to watch the show Undercover Boss. The show’s website gives this description, “Each week, a different [business] leader will sacrifice the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their operation.” It was fun to watch the boss put on a disguise and sneak into different aspects of their business and pretend to be a regular worker. Then somehow cameras would follow the boss in this undercover operation.

The catch is that if workers knew the boss was among them, they would act differently. I think this is part of what Paul means that we “won’t recognize people by human standards.” By human standards we tend to think certain people are more important than others. For example, I think it is human nature to think a person panhandling on a street corner is somehow in a different human category than a business executive.

I’m challenged by Paul to examine the categories I put people in, based on what he calls, “human standards.” Instead, we need recognize all people “in Christ” are part of the new creation. There’s a lot that could be said about the biblical idea of new creation, but a summary is that God’s work of renewal and restoration at the end of the story parallels his work of creation in the beginning. In other words, a person who is a “new creation” is in some ways being restored to how God originally intended them to be.

At the end of each episode of Undercover Boss, the boss removes their disguise and reveals their true identity to those in the organization. It is always interesting to see people’s responses. For many bosses the experience of getting to spend time in someone else shoes leads to some introspection and humility, with them often recalling where they started, before they were the boss.

It almost seems like Paul is pointing to a similar scenario in this passage. In Christ we now all stand equally before God, no disguises, no false pretenses. We are equal in Christ, ^“There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

As I interact with other people this week, I’m praying can retrain myself to not immediately assign people a category based on “human standards,” but that I can see them as God sees them. I invite you to do the same, will you pray with me.

Lord, remind me that everyone in Christ is a new creation, and by your Spirit we all are being restored into your likeness.
We confess that too often we judge others by human standards, not seeing in them what you see.
Create in me a clean heart, a heart patterned after the heart of God.
We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

-Pastor Shawn