RENEWING THE MIND
John C Gray
Romans 12: 1, 2
Ephesians 4: 20-24
I am interested in what our brother has just said to us about the skull, which suggests the emptiness of the mind of man. I wish to highlight these references: “transformed by the renewing of your mind”; and then in Ephesians it is better still: “being renewed in the spirit of your mind”. Renewal, of course, is constantly needed. The Spirit of God helps us in that; indeed, divine Persons all help in relation to the way in which we are not allowed to deviate or wander off the main line. It is very sad that many have taken to use their minds for criticism and for things which are for knocking down rather than for building up. Our minds have to be renewed, therefore.
The first thing about the mind that the Lord draws attention to, I think, is the Philippian mind, “For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2: 5), the going-down mind. That is the start of the believer’s experience. Then he moves on to Romans and, of course, in chapter 7, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”, v 25. We come to that. Everything in Romans, as we have been taught, is foundational. But then we are tested, practically, as to whether we can keep to that. That is the point really as to the renewal. Renewal means that I need constantly to revert, especially to the Spirit of God, to find that I can fill my mind with Christ, fill my mind with divine Persons, and fill my mind with love for the saints.
The mind is interesting. Of course, we have to keep our hearts. The heart speaks of the affections, our love for Christ, and our love for the saints, a very important thing, not just that we love divine Persons. We cannot love divine Persons and then hate the saints. But then the mind has been described by teachers of earlier times as the battleground between man and Satan. Satan desires to take our minds and divert them to all kinds of things. The world is full of things that our minds can be pitched into. Therefore it is very important in these last days, when Satan is desperately trying to divide and cause disillusion among true believers, that their minds are renewed.
And then, “transformed by the renewing of your mind”. We need to have a change. We need to see that “I myself with the mind serve God’s law” is right, and then the Spirit of God can help us. Sometimes “we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting, but the Spirit” (chap 8: 26) operates that that might be provided for us in our weaknesses. Wonderful thing that is! Remember the young boy in Kings where the woman had wanted a son, and he went out with his father to the reapers, and then it was, “My head, my head!”, 2 Kings 4: 19. There was something going wrong in relation to the way in which he was thinking, but the solution was, of course, that the prophet brought God to bear on him and brought in revival and new life. That is what our brother has been speaking about - life, according to God. “I am the bread of life” (John 6: 25); that is the key to John 6 really, and the greatness and glory of all that comes in from divine Persons is to affect our minds and control them.
But then I know myself, and I am sure many will agree, that, as Mr Darby says in his hymn,
No infant’s changing pleasure
Is like my wand’ring mind.
And, if I wander, teach me
Soon back to Thee to flee;
(Hymn 51)
Now that is the renewal: ‘Soon back to Thee to flee’. It is very important that we therefore control, by the Spirit, what we think and what we do, because our minds really govern what our bodies go to do. People say, ‘I am minded to do this’ or ‘I am minded to go to so and so’, but are we minded to show affection for Christ? Are we minded to be here as loving the saints? Are our minds directed that there might be the maintenance of “the unity of the Spirit” (Eph 4: 3) amongst the saints? These things are very important because in our minds we might be influenced by all kinds of things, and Satan is desperate to defile them, to undermine them and bring in what is according to the world, as it says here: “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. That is the thing to come to. It is a wonderful matter.
Then we progress, of course. I do not wish to labour the point, but our minds, even at the Supper, at the beginning anyway, can wander, thinking about what has happened, or thinking about anxieties, and thinking about what might happen to this and that. Our minds need to concentrate on what is renewed, that is, according to the Spirit of God’s delight to bring in Christ. We are going to see that Man in all His glory shortly, and that is a wonderful thing, but in the growing time at the present we need to see that our minds are concentrated and then there will be the signs of spiritual growth and development and enrichment for the service of God. That is what it would lead to, I am sure.
There is progress, of course, in these epistles; Paul’s prison epistles bring in what is progressive, the foundational side in Romans - “Be not conformed to this world”; but in Colossians - “seek the things which are above”, chap 3: 1. Well, it is testing because there is so much to distract. I know what it was at work or business or college or school. There are many things that can divert or distract, but “seek the things which are above”. How wonderful that is, and that is progress.
But then when you come to Ephesians, you get “the new man”. That is the character of Christ in the saints in testimony. There is only one “new man”, of course, but it is the character of the saints, the work of God in you and me in testimony here, and we put that on. We “put off … the old man” and his thinking; that is the skull. God has condemned that man on the cross; he was condemned and taken into the grave, but the Lord came out of death in new life, a new condition, and now in glory. “Seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”.
Well, it is a wonderful thing to be “renewed in the spirit of your mind”. The spirit is our link with God. “The spirit” returns “unto God who gave it”, Eccles 12: 7. “Being renewed in the spirit of your mind” involves that there is a character, by the Spirit of God’s service to us, that would help us to keep this renewal moving. You wonder why he should say this to Ephesian saints, but there you are. No matter how much we may think we have progressed in the truth, we need renewal, and we need renewal in the spirit of our minds; that is, the bent or thinking Godward has to be renewed.
Well, I leave these few thoughts with our beloved brethren that we might consider that things that might occupy our minds, things of this world, are negative. They lead to death, no matter whether it is - things you pass by and see in advertising or in the newspapers or on our I-pads or whatever it may be. The Scriptures and communion with divine Persons is the secret to keep our minds stayed on Christ. May we be helped in it for His Name’s sake!
Word in meeting for ministry in Grangemouth
11th June 2019