Gaining A New Mindset That Is Created In Christ Jesus

2 Peter 3:18a But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Philip. 2:5 Let this mind (Gk, kartargeo, mindset or attitude of mind) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Ephes. 4:22-24 That ye put off concerning the former conversation (manner of life) the old man (former self), which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts (self desires); 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man (new self), which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

How We Begin

We begin growth in the Christian life by first receiving Christ as our redeemer and reconciliation with God. It usually is some years later that we come to see that He not only paid for our sins, but that He also, at that time, came to indwell our spirit as our new and genuine “life” (Gk. Zoë, spirit life). Jesus was given that we might have God’s life. God’s very life, which is in Christ, as the Spirit of life is the only eternal, limitless, life in existence, and it dwells in every believer’s spirit (Rom 8:8-10).

Imputed & Imparted Righteousness

Our Father has given us His Son, by whom we stand righteous and blameless (Eph 1:4-5), and through whom He has done all that is needed to make us His genuinely righteous children (1Cor 1:30). He has not only imputed or counted righteousness to us as we receive Christ, but also He has actually imparted the righteous life of Christ to us, now dwelling in our spirit, as our new life and nature (2Pet 1:4).

So, What is Left?

With so great a salvation and such a complete salvation, what is left? Paul commends us to grow in Christ, to "learn" Christ (Eph 4:20), to yield to the indwelling spirit of life, to walk in the spirit and many such terms. It is by growing in the grace and knowledge of this life of Christ (2Pet 3:18) that we begin a process of actually renewing “old” soul’s mindset (Rom 5:10), with its old habits and ways of living.

Needing A New Mindset

Often, the sins we persist in after the day we were saved from perdition is but the remnant of the habits “old man” who was crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6-7), enabled by a twisted mindset. We as the “old man,” are dead and now free from sin’s tyrannical rule over us. Thus, we have a need to know and believe the truth of our great salvation – our death and new life in Christ.

Paul’s knew truth of which he wrote, so Paul’s prayers were consistently for knowledge, understanding and revelation for the believers “that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance is in the saints” (Eph 1:17). Paul saw it all complete “in the saints.” Paul was the greatest psychologist, he knew what needed to become fixed in the mind of the saints (Philip 2:5); and that this was God’s work to accomplish that new mindset (Philip 2:13).

Philip. 2:5 Let this mind (Greek, phroneo, mindset or attitude of mind) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Paul goes onto describe Jesus’ mindset. Jesus' mindset was to submit His self to do only what was the will of the Father – even unto death of the cross. Jesus lived a life utterly dependent upon the Father, trusting the Father. This is the will of God for us – to learn to utterly trust and obey Him in all things.

Discovery

So, what is left after so great a salvation is our discovery of the truth concerning so great a salvation and coming to know in a real way, the fullness of so great a salvation – the completion of our soul (Rom 5:10), as it was meant to be from the beginning. Thus we must realize that our growth in Christ, from that great first day of our salvation onward, actually consists of a growth in experiential knowledge (ginosko, meaning, knowledge gained by experience) under the grace relationship we have received of God, in Christ.

Growing In Experiential Knowledge

What do I mean by experiential knowledge? This kind of knowledge is a knowledge that “we come to see, through the experiences of life.” It is a coming to see, coming to know, coming to understand. We come to this by the daily experiences and failing we experience in this life; often when we encounter a situation out of our control. These are the circumstances and situations of life in which we may find our self, day to day. These situations are the crucible of experiential knowledge. These are where we find our self turning to God and reaching out to trust Him. We thus learn that God is to be found “in” every situation, as we look to Him. This is where we learn more of the trustworthiness and sufficiency of Christ’s life in us. Even when we are not delivered out of our circumstance, we find that we can be delivered from the burden of the circumstance in such a way that we may have peace in the midst of the turmoil and pain that we endure. Ahh! We have come to know Him in a greater way.

Growing In Grace

Peter says we may grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, Objectively, grace is God freely giving favor to every person in the world, by the sacrifice of His Son (John 3:16). Subjectively and personally, grace is simply Christ, as the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2a, 2Cor 3:17 1Cor 15:45b), come to indwell our own human spirit, as our new life (Col 3:4). We then have Christ, as the Spirit of life, in us totally (100%); we have received all that we ever will receive of God in Christ as the Spirit of life and truth, abiding within our spirit. Christ, as the Spirit of Christ, is the fullness of the Godhead (Col 2:10). God gives us His Son and His Spirit without measure.

The Wonderful Result

Grace (Christ in us) plus experiential knowledge that we gain by learning Christ in us ultimately will become fixed in us as “our fixed faith,” affecting our mindset. This new mindset that we gain of Him and His work (Philip 1:6, 2:13) in us affects how we look at ourselves, the world, and our relationship with God.

Fixed Understandings

This new mindset includes the following understandings as “fixed understandings,” these must and will become unshakable as we grow in the grace and experiential knowledge of Him who is our life. We arrive at God’s new mindset for us through the following progression in understanding.

- I am God’s child by a literal spiritual birth more real than the physical birth, via receiving God’s Seed, which is Christ’s Spirit of life, into my spirit (John 3:6, Rom 8:16, 1Pet 1:23, Gal 3:16)

- Christ lives in me as my new life (Gal 2:20, Col 3:4, 1Jn 4:13).

- I am now a living container to bear the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who indwells my core (Dan 7:5), my spirit. (Col 1:26-27, 2Tim 4:22)

- This is all so I may walk daily according to the desires of Him who is my life. (Gal 5:16, 25)

- His nature is to flow through me, His expression on the earth, as He wills. (1Jn 4:13, 17)

- It is His work to bring me to the full experiential knowledge (Gk, epiginosko) necessary, that I may agree with Him, permitting Him to become expressed through me, His vessel. (Philip 2:13).

- Since I am redeemed and reconciled to God by Christ’s work on the cross, I am dead as an old self (Rom 6:6-7, 7:4) and no longer under law (Rom 6:14), or works for righteousness (Rom 11:6).

- I am free from the power of sin, though it still indwells my flesh so long as I live in this body of flesh (Rom 7:17-23, Rom 6:6-7, Rom 8:1-2).

- The suffering by which I come to know more of Christ is not so painful when my mindset holds a heavenly view. The things seen are temporal, the unseen is eternal. My values have changed.

- My remedy for overcoming sin in my flesh is to KNOW that He who is in me as my life is greater than he who is in my flesh. (Rom 8:13)

- I hold a mindset of submitting my self/soul to the indwelling Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, issuing in life and peace as my automatic or default portion (Rom 8:5-6).

A Mindset for Putting Off the Old Man and Putting On the New Man

In Eph 4:22 concerning Paul’s bidding that we put off the old man and v 24 bidding that we put on the new man we should note his words the thought of being renewed in the spirit of our mind. We are to become renewed in soul for our transformation to the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). Our soul never becomes God, but we as a soul are a vessel through whom He is expressed – we as the glove (soul) and He the hand (Spirit of Christ). We as His body are the incarnation of Christ, thus we are the expression of His life on the earth today, through our co-operating soul. Our co-operating soul n our body is the vehicle to carry out Christ’s life and will. We as a self are a container, as a cup for the water. We never become the water – He alone is the valuable life-giving content within our container. As we bear His life we bring Him to others that they may drink of the water of His everlasting, divine life.

The Spirit of Our Mind

We know the knowledge of the spirit issues from and is related to spirit (1Cor 2:12-13), so how can we have a “spirit of our mind,” which is of the soul.” First, we must understand that as the mind of the flesh is a fleshly mind (Rom 8:7-8). It is this mindset of the flesh that has usurped our mind while we were dominated by sinful flesh. But now our spirit now is the regenerated spirit, it is now one with the indwelling Spirit of God (1Cor 6:17, John 3:6). Our Christ filled spirit may now spreads into our renewed mindset, thus making that which then issues from it “the spirit … of our mind.” Once our mind was the mind of the flesh, now we have the spirit that flows out of, or from, our mind as we walk and talk in obedience to the indwelling Christ. Our renewed mindset of submission to Him is the only mind that Christ has to work through today. It is in such a mindset that we are renewed for our transformation to become “other caring.” In this way our natural mind is conquered, subdued, and put under the spirit (Rom 8:5-6).

The putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man are accomplished facts in spirit. It is by the renewed spirit of our mind that we are renewed to fulfill, in experience, what was accomplished in the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man, originally, at the cross. Now we express, experience, and realize these facts by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. As these facts are realized in experience, we live a life that corresponds to the life of Jesus. When we are renewed in the spirit of our mind to walk by this new mindset, we have then effectively put off the old man and have put on the new man, that was ”created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph 2:10). These then are the works of God and not of man.

Shifting To the Third Level of Living

1. First it was what Christ did for us – redeeming and reconciling us to God.

2. Then we’ve come to see what Christ has done as us – becoming our death and our new life.

3. Now, I come to the third level of understanding and growth; as I walk in Christ it is now by a genuine living and fixed faith knowledge that becomes the basis of my “fixed faith” in Him, as my all. Faith in Him, thus fixed in place as my new mindset, I move to the third level of living in Christ. I’m now equipped to shift from concern for me and mine all the time … to concern for others and theirs. I am becoming an expresser of the “other loving nature of God,” Who loves others, such that He gave His only Begotten Son. Given not only “for mankind,” but also Christ’s life is imparted “to” as many as received Him (John 1:12, Col 1:27). <END>