Apologetics

The Renewing of Our Mind

by Lawrence Walkup 
04/07/14
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THE RENEWING OF OUR MIND

by

Lawrence Walkup

It says in Romans 12:2: 'Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.' In order for us to know what God's will is, and to be changed from the pattern of this world, there first has to be a renewing of our minds.

Proverbs 23:7 says: 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. This means that our behavior is determined by how we think. If within my thinking, I see myself as an alcoholic, then I'm going to act accordingly. Actually because of the way we are made our thinking stirs our emotions and then we act according to how we feel. I do whatever I do because I feel like doing it. Our emotions or feelings have no intelligence. They are nothing more than responders to what we are thinking. For example if you go to a movie theater and watch a scary movie, you get scared because your emotions are reacting to what is going on in your mind, while all the time you are in no real danger.

The renewing of our minds means we are not going to think like we use to, and therefore our behavior is not going to be like it use to. If we input the right thinking, that will lead to the right emotions and that will lead to the right behavior. The right behavior ultimately is the love of God. Love for ourselves and love for others. The renewing of our minds means we are going to see ourselves and our circumstances as God sees them. As a Christian, God now sees me as his child. That is my identity. That is my self-image. For example, why would a Christian go to alcoholics anonymous to be told he is an alcoholic, when the truth is , he is a child of God with a drinking problem. Remember, if I think I'm an alcoholic, then my behavior is going to act accordingly. If my identity is a child of God, then I'm going to act like a child of God. As a Christian, God now sees my circumstances, no matter how bad they may seem from my perspective, as always working for my good. I can understand the lost seeing their bad circumstances only in a negative light; but not for us who believe in a God that is in control of everything.

The input of right thinking comes from the Word of God (the truth-John 17:17). The truth will set us free. It will set us free from how we use to think. We use to think according to the pattern of this world, because we did not know any better. The pattern of this world is defined for us in 1 John 2:16 as: 'the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does.' This is nothing more than flesh; and if you look at the beginning of Matt. 4, you will see this is what Satan (the god of this world) tried to elicit from Jesus' flesh in tempting him to sin. Satan was unsuccessful because Jesus has no sinful nature. With us it's an entirely different story.

Now that we are Christians, we have the power because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, to choose to not be a slave to the world system. But our problem is; we like the Israelites, want to go back to Egypt. We want to go back to being a slave again. Even though we are Christians, we all still have that love for darkness that Jesus talked about in John 3:19. This is our flesh fighting for its existence and satisfaction that will never end until the day we die. That's why the renewing of our minds is an ongoing process that's going to last until we leave this place.

When Jesus was asked in John 6:28-29, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" 'Jesus answered,' "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Jesus is specifically defining for us, the works God requires. Nothing more than to believe in the one he has sent. And there is nothing more because there is nothing else needed. Everything in our Christian life springs from the word believe, as far as us understanding the word, the way Jesus intended for us to understand it.

For the most part Christians are taught to understand the meaning of this word and how it relates only up to the point of the cross, but not how it relates beyond the cross. I understand that Jesus lives in me, and because of that I'm going to heaven is the point up to the cross. The fact that Jesus lives in me for the purpose of living his life through me is teaching beyond the cross. When we understand this, then we are starting to understand what the word believe means, the way Jesus intended it to be understood. John 15: 4-5 gives us a perfect illustration of how the word believe was meant to be understood. In this passage the words remain or abide are synonomous with the word believe. The Christian life is about Christ and only he can live it. According to John 15, if we don't have the understanding of Christ living through us, then the Christian life is about us living it without Christ, which results in nothing. Or you could say it results in the works of the flesh.

Remember the scripture in Romans says; there has to be a renewing of our minds in order for us to know what God's will is. When we are taught the entirety of the gospel and not just part of it then we will know what God's will is because we will know what believe means. Jesus told us that we are not of this world. We are in it, but not of it. So why do Christians want to take on the world as if God needs our help. He doesn't need us down at the local abortion clinic protesting. He doesn't need us to show to the world how committed we are to one another by getting one hundred thousand men together into a stadium to make promises to each other when we can't even keep the law he gave us. God didn't call you to take on the world. He called you to believe. Christians get caught up in what they think in their minds are noble endeavors, but end up being nothing more than works of the flesh. What is it that is missing in a church when it feels it has to employ the methods of the world in order to be successful? What happened to our faith in the God who controls everything? I guess there are some things that are just to big for God. The world is passing away, so let's let it. Don't we have enough to do learning what the word believe means. Jesus thinks we do according to John 6:29.

The renewing of our minds revolves around the word believe, and all that it entails in its meaning. If we do not understand what believe means, then really we are living in unbelief. We are still putting trust in ourselves instead of learning to put trust in God. God dealt with the Israelites for forty years in the desert because they never could understand what the word meant. Just a few understood. The rest died in the desert. We like the Israelites have the same problem with unbelief. This is the sin that Hebrews 12:1 is referring to when it talks about 'the sin that so easily entangles.' And it is also essentially the sin which God is renewing our minds from.

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