The renewing of our minds!! What a wonderful thing. God is adapting us to a new environment; he
is aligning us with a completely different reality. It looks illogical, seems irrational, and
only makes sense once He has transformed our minds. There is one truth that is at the very center of the saving work
of Jesus Christ, and is central for us to experience the fullness of God. This mind-shift has to do with our sinful
nature that previously separated us from God, but that because of the death of
Jesus, we too now share in newness of life. Understanding ourselves to be dead to sin but alive in Christ Jesus is the foundation for heavenly thinking.
“Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of
God.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirt. Do not be amazed that I
said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows whether it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do
not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born
of the Spirit (John 3:3, 5-8).”
So what
does this mean? How is one born again? What does that look/feel like? Jesus
answers this in the following verses, which is the most well known passage in
the bible. “For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).”
In another passage Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life;
no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).” Jesus paved the way for us to be with God,
which we were previously unable to access.
The
thing that separates man from God is sin, or more importantly the nature of sin
itself. God’s requirement for
relationship is complete holiness; or another way to look at it is to say that
God is so holy that he cannot coexist with unholiness. That means that even the ‘smallest’ most
‘minimal’ sin is in complete contradiction to the nature of God. “We have all sinned and fallen short of the
Glory of God.” God expresses to people
what it takes to be in relationship with him through the ten commandments. Be perfect, and enter into the kingdom. The sinful nature that all humanity is born into means that our tendency or natural inclination is towards sin. Even if we want to do what is right we can't because our nature is opposed to it. Romans
7 speaks of the futility of trying to obey the entire law and how it is
impossible to please God because of our sinful nature.
We then need a savior because we are unable to achieve the standard, even with the greatest and most heartfelt intentions. Thankfully Jesus came and did what we could not. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin
and of death. For what the Law could not
do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did; sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the
flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4).
At the
beginning of Romans 7, Paul gives an analogy of marriage to to explain the transition of the old covenant to new. Just like a woman’s husband needed to die for her to be able to marry again, so we were made to die so
we could enter into a new covenant as well.
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through
the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised
from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful
passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our
body to bear fruit for death. But now we
have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so
that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter (Romans
7:4-6).”
It said
that we were made to die! This comes into accordance with what Jesus said to His disciples. “And he who does not take his cross and
follow after me is not worthy of me. He
who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake
will find it (Matthew 10:38-39).” This same thing is found in Matthew 16:24, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself , and take up his cross and follow Me." In Luke's account Jesus says that we must pick up our cross 'daily'. This makes sense due to the sinful nature, for with it we are unable to please God. But here is the kicker, not everything Jesus said was new covenant, rather he was transitioning from the old covenant to the new. Those passages don't apply to those who are in Christ Jesus.It is just like when Jesus preached law to show how impossible it was to achieve righteousness on our own! He is saying that the requirement to follow him is to die daily, but this is just as impossible as obeying the law.
If I have to have a cross and die then who's cross did Jesus die on? His own? No, He was sinless. So who's cross did he die on? Mine! "Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)." Jesus died with my sin on the cross, he broke my covenant with the law and brought me into the new covenant. I don't need to die daily anymore because Jesus died for me. Jesus took what I deserved so that I could have what he deserved. I can do nothing to add to His completed work, we do not add to the cross, it is finished.
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised form the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Galatians 6:1-7)." Likewise Galatians 5:24 says, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Did you catch that? Our sinful nature was put to death on the cross with Jesus! Jesus died on the cross bearing our sin. Just like the beginning of Romans 7 shows, only death could break the old covenant. In that analogy the husband died, in our reality we died in Christ's death! This is the promise that is given through salvation, this is what it means to believe in Jesus!! To believe that it is finished, that we cannot add to or take away from Christs work on the cross, that he saved us 100%, and that we have been given full access into his glorious riches and presence. God changed our very nature, we are no longer sinners but saints!
This is a hard reality to swallow because it is completely based on the promise of God through his mercy and grace. It completely has to do with a renewed mind; faith. It won't match our experience right away and it definitely seems unfair and even irrational. But it is this reason that God needs to renew our minds, to transform the way we view Him and ourselves. "Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though e have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 6:16-17)."
So if this is true, That, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20)." Then what do we do with it? God asks us to simply agree! "Even so consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11)." "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (Colossians 3:5)." When we align our minds with His, and correctly identify ourselves with the way he sees us we start to manifest that reality. When God says I am righteous and I believe I am righteous then I will manifest righteousness. If I believe I am a sinner then I will manifest that very thing. That doesn't mean we cannot sin or that we can't be tempted, it just means we don't have to anymore; it is no longer natural for us to sin (1 John 2:1-2)." "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32)." What is the truth? That we are dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus, that the old is gone and the new has come, that we have crucified the flesh along with its passions and desires!!!
Many Christians don't agree with the assertion that our sinful nature has been put to death. They address it minimally but will not fully accept it. Peter sheds light on the consequences of not receiving the fullness of Christ's mercy and grace.
"To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of THE DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge self control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness brother kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are your and are increasing, they render you neither USELESS NOR UNFRUITFUL in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who LACKS these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having FORGOTTEN HIS PURIFICATION FROM HIS FORMER SINS. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, YOU WILL NEVER STUMBLE; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you (2 Peter 1:1-11)."
So lets agree with God and consider ourselves dead to sin, knowing that we cannot add to our salvation. Jesus finished the work, he broke the old covenant. He imputed His righteousness into us and removed the root of sin from our lives. Now we get to confidently step into God's presence; no shame, guilt, condemnation, or fear. Heavenly thinking revolves around this revelation, the saving work of Christ that killed our sinful nature and gave us access into the Kingdom. "For the Kingdom of God is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). "
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly places with Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be HOLY AND BLAMELESS before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He FREELY bestowed on us in the beloved. In Him we have REDEMPTION through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In ALL WISDOM AND INSIGHT He made known to us the MYSTERY of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of ALL THINGS in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth (Eph. 1:1-10)."
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