2 Corinthians 5:16, commentary and pictures

Life through Christ's death and resurrection makes people new, so that they no longer regard or judge anyone by merely human ties or outward, worldly standards. Though Christ was once known in His earthly life, He is now known as the risen Lord, and life in Christ changes how people regard one another in the light of His death and resurrection rather than in that former way.

Knowing Christ after the flesh means knowing Him only in merely human terms, without faith, through His earthly life and appearance as a man and heaven-sent teacher and through human ideas and outward appearance concerning who the Messiah would be and His character and work. Before his conversion Paul held the common conception of the coming Messiah shared with others, and rejected Jesus because He did not fit it. His fleshly knowledge was not personal acquaintance but the conceptions he in common with others cherished concerning Christ's character and work, leading him to reject Jesus of Nazareth as an impostor because He did not fulfill those expectations.

After conversion his views of Christ and His mission became far more spiritual and exalted than the Jewish conception of the promised Messiah, and he did not present or make Christ known after the flesh. Peter's knowledge of Christ was likewise no longer limited to human association with Him through His human life, for he now loved Him as God and understood Him as all in all. Merely seeing Christ in the days of His humanity does not discern Him spiritually, for Herod saw Him, Annas saw Him, Pilate and the chief priests and rulers saw Him, and the Roman soldiers saw Him, but without the eye of faith to recognize Him as the glorified Redeemer.

Believers now know Christ in the light of His death and resurrection as the risen Lord and glorified Redeemer, by faith and spiritual knowledge rather than former human acquaintance or merely having known Him in person on earth. To apprehend Him this way and to have communion with Him by faith is more to be desired, more intimate and more enduring than mere earthly and human companionship with Him as He appeared on earth.