THE RENEWED MIND
THE RENEWED MIND
WE USED to question ourselves as to why certain people grew in grace so much more rapidly than others and why the Bible became such an open revelation to them. We thought that it came through prayer, surrender, and consecration, or through some new unusual experience. We thought that if we had the experience that many claimed in regard to the Holy Spirit that it would produce this result. Then as we contacted people who made a specialty of teaching the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we found that even these leaders lacked insight in the Word and clearness of teaching. We asked ourselves, "Where is the solution of this?" As we searched the Epistles again (because we knew that it must be in Paul's Revelation) we ran across a word that was new to us.
We found it in Romans 12:2: "And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed (or transfigured) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and the acceptable (or well-pleasing) and perfect will of God." We notice first that there are three wills of the Father suggested here: the "good will," the "acceptable," and the "perfect will." For every life there is a good will, a well-pleasing will, and His best will-the perfect will. Here is a man who is Born Again. The part of him that is re-created is his spirit. Into his spirit has come the Nature of the Father, but his mind is still the old mind that received its education through the senses. (Read my book, "The Two Kinds of Knowledge.")
This mind is governed by Sense Knowledge of the world. In other words, it is a world-ruled mind. It cannot seem to grasp spiritual things. Such a man is described in 1 Cor. 2:14: "Now the natural man (or mind) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually understood." This natural man or natural mind can understand material things but it cannot grasp spiritual things. What can be done to it? The spirit is recreated, and there does not seem to be any harmony between the recreated spirit and the unrenewed mind. The mind must be renewed. Man is a spirit being. When Adam sinned, he died spiritually.
Spiritual death has governed his thinking processes and has in a large measure governed his body. As I have showed you, the New Birth is a real birth or recreation of the spirit which brings it into fellowship and harmony with the Father. Spiritual Life is the Nature of God that comes to us at the New Birth. Spiritual Death is the nature of Satan which was imparted to man when he fell. All men are spiritually dead and cannot stand in the Father's presence until they are recreated. Jesus was spiritually in union with the Father from His birth because He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. When He went to the cross God laid upon Him our sin. He became a Partaker of Spiritual Death. He died spiritually.
His body became mortal the instant His Spirit underwent this transformation.
He took our sins, diseases, and our nature.
He took our place and went to the prison house of suffering in our stead.
He stayed in this place for three days and three nights.
He was justified or declared righteous by the Father because He had satisfied the claims of justice.
The moment He was justified He was made "alive in spirit." It was then that God said: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." This was the new Birth of Jesus. He then conquered the adversary and arose from the dead. His body then received immortality. Before He went to the cross He had a perfect human existence, a perfect human body over which death had no authority. John 10:17, 18: "I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself." On the cross He became mortal, a subject of death. When He arose from the dead His body was immortal. With that immortal body He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. He is there now on our behalf.
When we accept Jesus Christ we receive the same Nature and Life that Jesus did. We become partakers of the Nature of God. The New Birth is man's spirit being recreated by the Nature of the Father, Himself. The mind is not Born Again, just the spirit. The process of renewing the mind is the great work of the ministry. There are three important facts for us to notice: recreating the spirit, renewing the mind, and controlling the body or senses. The first fact is found in Romans 3 to 6 where we read of the recreation of man's spirit. In the 6th chapter, beginning with the 12th and through the 14th verse, He says : "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof : neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness ; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you."
Here He shows us the relation of the recreated spirit to our physical body or senses.
Your spirit has been recreated. You live in the same kind of a body that you have always lived in. This body must be brought into subjection to the Word of God through your spirit. Before that can be done the truth brought out in Romans 12:1 must become a reality "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service." Your bodies are the universities through which your senses teach you Sense Knowledge. Your body in most cases rules your mind and spirit. So He tells us to have our "minds renewed." If you are sick, the body instantly takes the ascendancy over the mind and the spirit.
The mind has ruled the spirit in natural man almost entirely. Conscience is the voice of your spirit. It is your spirit speaking out against certain things and approving of other things. The moment you are Born Again your spirit becomes the voice of a recreated spirit in fellowship with the Father. It becomes the vehicle through which God speaks to us. Man's spirit is the point of contact between God and man, and between Satan and Man in a very large measure. The problem is that of "renewing the mind," bringing it into fellowship with a recreated spirit so that the two together can govern the body and bring it into subjection to the Word. Gal. 5:18, 19: "But if ye are led by the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the' works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness."
Gal. 5:18, 19 shows the war of the senses against the recreated spirit. The word `flesh" here should be translated "senses." Col. 3:16 tells us: "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God." This is the very heart of this marvelous teaching. A renewed mind is one where the Word of God dwells richly. That suggests a fullness of fellowship where the heart is companioning with the Father through the Word. Acts 19:20 throws more light on it: "So mightily grew the Word of the Lord and prevailed." It is where the Word gains the ascendancy and rules man's mind through the spirit. At Ephesus the Word had gained the ascendancy in that city to the extent that spiritualists "brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver."
The Word of God had grown so mightily in that city that it had conquered the works of Satan.
When the Word grows mightily in a church it brings the people into harmony with the Word. It is the same in an individual. Titus 3:4-5: "But when the kindness of God our Savior, and His love toward man appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit renews our mind and our thinking through the Word. I used to think it would come through prayer. Praying will not renew your mind. You must study, act, or "do" His Word. The Word is the only thing that will do it. I know men and women who spend hours in prayer, yet there is no renewing of their minds. They are still sense-ruled. Their exposition of the scripture is childish, immature. The Word has not gained the ascendancy in their minds.
I heard D. L. Moody say just before his death that if he had a chance to live again; instead of spending so much time in prayer, he would spend more time studying the Word. Col. 3:10: "And have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him." He means to put on the conduct, the conversation of the new man. You have just come out of the realm of the old man, the natural man, the fallen man. God has given a New Self in place of the old one.
You are "to put on the new man”; begin to live the Word, study and practice the Word in your daily life. As your spirit sees it, and embraces it, your body responds.
He promised to cooperate with us. His Spirit cooperates with our spirits. Now you can see the necessity of your taking time to meditate in the Word, to get quiet with the Lord.
You had to take time to learn your algebra, your mathematics, your history, and your geography. Now you must take time to sit with His Word and let the Spirit unveil His Word to your spirit. If you will, you will know Him in reality. If you will not do it, you will need to have someone else act for you, pray for you, and believe for you. He promised to come and associate with your very heart life. I think Paul brings it out most clearly in Gal. 2:20: "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." It is God Who has made His home in my body. It is God Who is at work within me. "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."
That is where the Holy Spirit has come and identified Himself with you. The Holy Spirit has come to live in your very being. "Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?" He is there. I am learning to do this. I become quiet and say: "Blessed Spirit, now make the Word a living thing in my spirit; open it to me." I go over the passage I want unveiled to me. I meditate on it. After a bit the clamor of my mind is gone. The noise it makes is gone. You can become as noisy in your intellect as you become noisy with your hands and feet. I grow quiet. Then in a single minute, or a half-minute there will be an unveiling of the Word of God such as I have never seen before. It does not take Him more than a moment to unveil the Word, to throw upon the screen a message that will take you hours to write. Eternal Life has come into your spirit. Now let God have freedom to lead you into the realities of His Revelation in the Word.
The Two Kinds of Life