In the first two articles of this three-part series on mind renewal, I explained the total transformation God commands in us from men whose minds are set on the "passions of the flesh" (i.e. the sinful cravings for the things this debased world sells as "happiness") to "new men" who live noble lives filled with genuine joy. I also addressed the painful reality that although we as believers have already been transformed in a spiritual sense because Christ's crucifixion and resurrection on our behalf means we're no longer "slaves" to the flesh and its sinful desires, in this life we still struggle with - and often succumb to - its temptations. So in the here and now, transformation is a process - a long, difficult, and painful slog that won't end until the day we see our Maker. Yet despite this harsh reality, I entreated you to take heart because our present struggles were no different from those of our early church fathers like Paul and Peter, who similarly struggled in the flesh, yet though such struggles found encouragement to endure by setting their sights on Jesus and the joyful reunion with their Savior that awaited them in eternity. When we fail, we similarly need to take heart, thank God that he's already forgiven and restored us, and rest in joyful hope that the transformation He's already brought about in us spiritually will one day be consummated into a complete transformation at Christ's return.
Nonetheless, as great and encouraging as our hope in Christ's future return ought to be, in the here and now, we are still called to a life of active obedience. Scripture grants us no license to remain idle in the struggle against sin and the passions of the flesh. Instead, the Bible commands us to "by [the power and strength of] the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body" (Romans 8:13) and warns us to "not present [our] members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." (Romans 6:13). The Spirit provides us with all the strength, wisdom, and discernment needed for this war, but what is our role in this war and what tools has God given us to wage it?
I submit that the believer's core role, or responsibility, in the struggle against sin and the flesh is mind renewal. In Romans 12:2, Paul urges believers in Rome to "not be conformed to this world," but to "be transformed by the renewal of [their] mind[s]" so they could "discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Without the renewal that produces a desire to do the things of the Spirit, our minds will still be set on the flesh and on fulfilling its sinful desires. If, as believers, we want to experience the transformation necessary to exchange the works of the flesh for the fruit of the Spirit - i.e. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) - nothing short of complete mind renewal will do. I underscore here, though, that the renewed mind necessary for the believer to live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, as Paul describes in Romans Chapter 8, is not something the believer receives automatically upon salvation. Scripture provides no support for such a notion. Consider again Paul's exhortation to the Roman believers to have their minds renewed; if mind renewal was automatic, Paul would not have felt the need to exhort his readers in this way.
So, if mind renewal - i.e., a shift from a mind set on the flesh to a mind set on the things of the Spirt - is neither automatic nor instantaneous, what tools has God equipped us with to achieve it? While Scripture is replete with references to the various ways God has equipped us for victorious living, I want to focus on four interrelated and mutually reinforcing tools, which some might call "disciplines," God has graciously gifted to us that over time produce the mind renewal necessary for victory.
The first of these disciplines is faith, or trust in God. Indeed, faith is one of the items of the "Armor of God" Paul instructs the Ephesian church to put on in their fight against the "schemes of the devil." As the author of Hebrews writes about the criticality of faith in our daily struggle, "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Hebrews 11:6). Faith and mind renewal go hand-in-hand. Think about it, how can you ever have the Spirit-oriented mindset necessary to resist the flesh and persevere through the inevitable anguish and defeats you will encounter if you lack faith in such promises as (a) the surety of our final victory when Christ returns (Romans 8:23-25, 1 Corinthians 15:42-49) and (b) that God is with us always and strengthening us by His Spirit in our struggles (Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 28:20, Acts 1:8)? Lack of faith produces the exact opposite of mind renewal; it instead leads to unbelief, doubt, discouragement, and, ultimately, defeat. It is for this reason Paul instructs the Ephesian church to "take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one." (Ephesians 6:16).
Another noteworthy truth about the Word of God is that it is the "sword of the Spirit," as Paul labels it in his Armor of God narrative in Ephesians. Indeed, the Bible provides ample support to the notion that in the life of a diligent, Bible-reading believer, the Holy Spirit actively uses the written Word to firmly plant God's truth in his mind, thus working to defeat the devil's schemes and to steer the believer clear of the temptations of the flesh. Nowhere is this more evident than in the temptation of our Lord himself. In the fourth chapter of Luke's gospel we read that when Jesus was tempted for forty days in the wilderness, he was "full of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 4:1). Satan tempted Jesus in the flesh with the exact "things of the world" we're instructed to shun in 1 John 2:15-16 - namely, "the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life." He tempted Jesus with bread to eat, for Jesus was hungry (desires of the flesh); the glamorous kingdoms of the world (desires of the eyes); and with a challenge to demonstrate his deity by throwing himself off the temple to be rescued by angels (pride). Yet how did Jesus resist this evil scheming? By having Scripture - the "sword of the Spirit" - firmly planted in his mind and ready to deploy as an answer to and a weapon against the devil's temptations.
The third indispensable tool for mind renewal is being in community with other believers. I know it's a trite adage, but "no man is an island." From the spiritual standpoint, God intends for Christian men to be in constant fellowship and communion. This is why the author of Hebrews exhorts believers to "not give up meeting together," seeing fellowship as critical to "stirring up one another to good works" and encouragement (Hebrews 10:24-25). Group Bible study, communal prayer, loving correction, and uplifting conversation are indispensable to ensuring men's minds are fed with Scriptural and Spiritual truths as opposed to foolishness. If we as men disavow fellowship with other believing men, we handicap the body irreparably because we selfishly starve ourselves and our brothers of the encouragement and "building up" we and others need in our struggles.
And finally, prayer - constant communion with God - is indispensable for a renewed mind. Even though a renewed mind requires effort on the part of the believer, such as trust in God, saturation in his Word, and fellowship with brothers in the faith, ultimately only God can grant such renewal. This being the case, we ought to pray unceasingly for God to shift our minds away from the things of the flesh to the things of the Spirit. Indeed, David's awareness of his dependence on God for a properly-oriented mind led him to petition God in Psalm 119:12 to "teach me your statutes" and again in Psalm 119:18 to "open my eyes, that I may behold the wondrous things out of your law." Paul, too, prayed for such mind renewal for his readers in Ephesus:
I do not cease to give thanks for your, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you… (Ephesians 1:17-18)
Wisdom. Revelation. Knowledge. Enlightenment. We ought to pray for these things daily. The most encouraging thing about this kind of prayer is that God guarantees he'll answer it in the affirmative:
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
Since we already know from Romans 12:2 that a renewed mind is God's will for every believer, we can be sure that if we ask this of God with a sincere heart, he will grant us our request.
In this three-part series, I hope I've demonstrated how Scripture manifestly contends that the transformation necessary to move us believers from where sin and flesh reign (Romans 6:12) to where we are, in Paul's words, "in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25), can only happen through a renewed mind. The Spiritual disciplines I enumerated earlier are the tools God uses to affect such mind change in us. Only let us be diligent in practicing these disciplines and not complacent. But even if we do backslide in these disciplines, let us also draw encouragement from the fact that if we are truly in Christ, God will not let us remain idle for long. He will transform us, he will renew our minds, and he will raise and mold us into the image of his Son, even if it requires the loving-but-seemingly-unpleasant rod of discipline to do so (Hebrews 12:5-11). And finally, let us rest in joy for the Lord's return. For when we see him face-to-face, the "already but not yet" will have given way to simply the "already," where our resurrection, our transformation, and our glorification will be rendered complete.