Can We Really Have the Mind of Christ?
The church was in shambles. Jealousy and division ran rampant among its people. Reports of sexual misconduct began to circulate. This body of believers seemed to be racing downhill towards disaster—until they received a letter from a mentor and friend.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church is one of his most scathing in all the New Testament. He addresses a host of issues going on among them. Near the end of his letter, he urges them, “Do not be children in your thinking” (1 Cor. 14:20).
Here you may conjure an image of Paul before the Corinthians at the end of his rebuke, beginning to boil over, and shouting to them, “Use your brain!" And yet, before launching into the thrust of the letter, Paul confesses a surprising truth that belongs to all of God’s people: “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
It almost feels blasphemous to say. Who are we to suggest that we think the thoughts of the Son of God, that we share a mental fortitude with the pre-eminent Christ?
But here is a divine promise. When Christ saves us, he saves us from more than sin and spiritual death. He saves us to a transformed life, with no aspect left behind—not even our minds.
MORE THAN KNOWING
Paul wrote much about Christians possessing a transformed mind. Perhaps the most well-known passage is found in the beginning of Romans 12:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned (Romans 12:1–3).
How do we experience this “renewal of mind” Paul speaks of and receive the “mind of Christ”? From the outset, we should recognize that what Paul means is more than head knowledge and mental assent. There were plenty of bright theologians in Jesus’ day called Pharisees, who he considered worthy of scorn. To have a renewed mind, then, is so much more than what we know.
The opening of Romans 12 presents a distinct section in the letter, with chapter 11 ending with a sort of doxology, and the “therefore” of Romans 12:1 seeming to reach back as far as the letter’s introduction. The first eleven chapters of the letter are some of Paul’s richest doctrinal writing of all, a systematic theology primer.
But the fact that the letter does not end there should be enough evidence that Paul’s vision of a renewed mind is more than academics and book smarts. The final five chapters of the letter (Rom. 12–16) explain how we apply the earlier truths in Romans into all of life, taking them from the head to the heart and the hands.
And to begin that section, Paul grounds the discussion in the image of a renewed mind.
THE MIND OF CULTURE
In his book The Mind of the Spirit, theologian Craig Keener draws a helpful contrast between the “debased mind” of humanity in Romans 1 and the “renewed mind” of God’s people in Romans 12. When we dig a little deeper into these chapters, we see just how different the mind of culture is from the mind of Christ through a few key contrasts.
In the mind of culture, wisdom is subjective, something you muster up for yourself. Paul says of such people, “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom. 1:21). There is no gratitude because the wisdom of the revelation of God is not seen as a gift. Rather, “They became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom. 1:21). They have fallen into a religious perversion that takes the revelation of God for granted, which begins the rapid descent into idolatry (Rom. 1:23).
And in all this, people with the mind of culture claim to be wise (Rom. 1:22). They see their actions as the attainment of wisdom. It’s the kind of wisdom that claims to be wise in its own eyes (Prov. 3:7), hearkening back to the period of the judges where everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judg. 21:25).
Such a subjective approach to wisdom leads to a few significant implications. First, sacrifice is to be minimized or avoided. If you have the mind of culture, there’s no rational benefit to giving up your desires or self. When you’re wise in your own eyes, your desires—like Eve’s desire for the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3—will lead you astray.
Secondly, a subjective, culture-driven mindset leads to an individual assessment of the whole of life. In this mindset, everything is filtered through the lens of self. If anything poses a threat to the individual, it is to be avoided. Left unchecked, this becomes a very isolating manner of existence. It leads to a host of behaviors set against God and neighbor (Rom. 1:29–32).
Lastly, this mindset is focused on the present age. It gets its eyes off the blessed-forever God (Rom. 1:25) and turns them instead to the things of earth: “mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23). It lives within the moment, driven by desire and “lusts of the heart” (Rom. 1:24).
While Romans 1 presents the destructive mind of culture, Romans 12 presents a very different way of thinking—a renewed mind.
THE MIND OF CHRIST
The renewed mindset presented in Romans 12 is not subjective and open for individual interpretation. It is objective and meant to transform us and help us discern the objective will of God (Rom. 12:2). Paul makes his appeal according to "the mercies of God” (Rom. 12:1) and “by the grace given to me” (Rom. 12:3). Nothing Paul knows is of his own accord, attained by his own brilliance. It has all been granted to him, and on that objective wisdom from God he lays his challenge to the Roman believers.
The implications couldn’t be more opposite from a cultural mindset. First, the renewed mind not only embraces sacrifice as a part of life, but sees life itself as our sacrifice. Paul challenges believers to present their bodies “as a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). Since our wisdom is oriented toward the will of God and handed down to us, we respond with a willingness to bow and bend to God’s ways. We admit we are not wise and that what will satisfy our bodies more than giving them over to our desires is giving them over to the will of God.
Secondly, the mind of Christ makes a corporate—not individual—assessment of the Christian life. Rather than the mind of culture that pushes us further into ourselves and isolates us from one another, the renewed mind pushes us into the gathered people of God. The mind of Christ is a humble mind, and therefore gives way to being practiced in community. N.T. Wright says of this passage, "This theological task is, for Paul, the ongoing task to which the whole community, and every member of it, must be devoted.”
Finally, the mind of Christ is not solely focused on the present age, but more so on the age to come. Our thinking is according to “the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3), faith being the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). The mind of Christ is thoroughly eschatological—it does not live by the things of earth and within the moment, but instead turns its eye to our future hope and glory. That hope and glory is made up of the promises of Scripture not yet fulfilled, including the mind of Christ.
Is that where your hope lies?
DO YOU HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST?
Perhaps a simple way of evaluating how much you’re embracing the mind of Christ in your life is to ask yourself some questions about your understanding of wisdom:
Is your wisdom buried within and needs to be pulled out, or is it objectively handed down from God’s hand?
Do you consider it wise to satisfy the desires of your heart, or to bring those desires to the altar and be a “living sacrifice” before our Lord?
Is your wisdom isolating you, or is it bringing you into Christian community?
Do you spend more of your time thinking about the present and perishable, or the future and eternal?
THE MIRACLE OF HAVING THE MIND OF CHRIST
To have the mind of Christ is nothing short of a miracle. Think of it: If you are in Christ, you have the mind of the one who was there at the beginning of time, hovering over the emptiness; the mind of the one who then spoke everything into existence and is now upholding it all by the power of his Word (Col. 1:16–17). If you are in Christ, you have the mind of the one who is God’s wisdom in the flesh (1 Cor. 1:30).
Will we content ourselves with the mind of culture when we have access to the very mind of Christ?
Let’s pursue the wisdom of God in the person of Jesus, who offers us a way of thinking and decision-making that good and acceptable and perfect in the eyes of the Father.
Zach Barnhart currently serves as Student Pastor of Northlake Church in Lago Vista, TX. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University and is currently studying at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, seeking a Master of Theological Studies degree. He is married to his wife, Hannah. You can follow Zach on Twitter @zachbarnhart or check out his personal blog, Cultivated.