Why You Must Renew Your Mind, Part II: Transformation - The "Already but Not Yet"

In this second article of our "Why You Must Renew Your Mind" series, I'll use Scripture to show what our minds were like before we became Christians, what our lives used to be like because of our unrenewed minds, and the total life transformation God expects of believing men now that we belong to Him. I'll focus in on the often-unrecognized "already but not yet" quality of this transformation God commands - namely, that in the moment we believed in Jesus Christ, God already transformed us via adoption as spiritual sons and freeing us from bondage to sin. However, in practice - i.e. by how we live our lives, how we think, and how we act -we are not yet transformed. This kind of "not yet" transformation is a lifelong process (which some pastors refer to as "sanctification") that won't be fully completed (or "consummated") until the day we meet our Maker. This process requires active participation on our part - to include work, self-discipline, training, and above all, mind renewal.

What we were like

First, let's explore who we were, and more specifically what our minds were like, before God intervened to save us from the kingdom of darkness (i.e., this world) into His kingdom. The Bible teaches us in Romans Chapter 8 that when we were unbelievers, our minds were hostile to God and incapable of pleasing Him. As unregenerate beings, our minds were set on the "flesh" (in other words, the empty and sinful ways of this world) because we had no choice; we were slaves to unrighteousness. And because our minds were continually captivated by the flesh, we lived in darkness and our deeds demonstrated it. "In the futility of their minds", "ignorance", and "darkened understanding", Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, unbelievers practice deeds like sensuality, covetousness, drunkenness, coarse joking, and so on. In Galatians 5:19-20, Scripture reads, "now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these."

What we've become - the new man (the "already")

So what changed when we became followers of Jesus Christ? In a word: Everything.

1. First, we received new life. In a sense, we've been resurrected already!

   "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-6)

   "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

   With the resurrected Christ, God raised to new and everlasting life us who were formerly dead in our trespasses. There's that "already but not yet" dimension to this resurrection, because our physical resurrection awaits the end of the age, but what will one day happen physically has already occurred spiritually, since we are "in Christ." As new men, we're simultaneously risen already yet still rising as God continues to mold and conform us into the image of his Son.


2. Second, our old self was "crucified with Christ," as Paul writes in Galatians 2:20. Yes, this means that Christ's death on the cross paid the just penalty for our sins. But this also means that the flesh can no longer rule over us, because it has been crucified, or destroyed. In Galatians 5:24, Paul writes, "and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." Here again, there's an "already but not yet" dimension to the regenerative work God performs. The flesh is indeed dead as far as its power to rule over us, although we know that in practice we wage battle daily to resist and "flee the passions of the flesh," in the words of the Apostle Peter (but at least, unlike unbelievers, we have the ability and the choice to flee the flesh). The "full execution of the flesh," as the renowned pastor John MacArthur puts it, where we as unbelievers are completely rid of our unredeemed humanness, comes later.


3. Finally, by virtue of being in Christ, God has deposited the Holy Spirit in our hearts. This is a tremendous gift. The Spirit gives us both the wisdom (1 Corinthians Ch 2) and the power (Romans 8:11, Acts 1:8) to discern God's will and do it.
   
   Let's focus specifically on the wisdom furnished us by the Spirit, as I'm primarily addressing mind renewal in this series of articles. Paul is chiefly writing about himself and the other apostles when he writes in 1 Corinthians 2:12, "now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God." However, I would argue that this truth extends to all believers - namely, that the Holy Spirit, who understands the depths of God's mind because, after all, He is God, in turn imparts God's wisdom for victorious living to all whom he indwells.

The struggle (the "not yet")

Yet, I think I speak for most men when I write that despite the wonderful truths that come as a result of being "new men" in Christ - be they new life, a crucified flesh that no longer controls us, and the Holy Spirit indwelling us in all wisdom and power - we don't often feel like the "new men" we ought to be. We find ourselves failing in the flesh repeatedly. We become discouraged. We wonder if we're truly saved.

Let me first assure you that the mere fact you struggle in the flesh in no way means you're unsaved. Indeed, believers' struggles in the flesh surprise neither God nor the writers of the New Testament. If true believers didn't struggle in the flesh, why would Peter feel the need to exhort genuine Christians with words like these: "Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage ware against your soul"? (1 Peter 2:11). Or better yet, why would an apostle like Paul confess his own struggles so poignantly in Romans Chapter 7?

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (Romans 7: 18-20)

Pauls' frustrations are the frustrations of every believer walking on planet Earth today. I want to underscore the word "believer" here, because an unbeliever would share none of Paul's frustrations, for unlike Paul, an unbeliever totally lacks Paul's "desire to do what is right." Note Paul's struggle with the flesh...his redeemed spiritual being desires to do what is right and to not sin, but his flesh, which in Paul's words serves "the law of sin," wars against his spirit.

Rather than sowing doubt or discouraging us from our walk with God, our struggles should instead drive us into the arms of God. Such was the conclusion Paul drew after expressing his grief over his struggles in Romans Chapter 7: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25a). He thanked God and reasserted his confidence Christ will rescue him when he returns. As with Paul, our own recognition of our struggles and weaknesses should lead us to a thankful, joyful, and patient hope for the Lord's return, i.e. the "not yet."

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:23-25)

So, brothers in Christ, take heart and live in patient and joyful hope!

In the third and final article of this series, we'll explore how mind renewal is the critical ingredient to successful transformation and the tools - or "disciplines" - God has equipped believers with to renew their minds.