Do We Have the Mind of Christ?

I just read your letter about pulling the Revelation study off the site. I don’t feel so bad now… knowing I am not the only one who goofs. I didn’t believe for a minute that I could not sin… let’s face it… we still have our sinful nature. Might give you something else to think about. I just can’t imagine, as has been stated on your site (some where)… that you have the mind of Christ. I can’t imagine that anyone with the ‘beast’ still in them, which we have as long as we are ‘in the flesh’, that any Christian… ‘called’ or ‘elect’ can have the mind of Christ… until we are out of our sinful flesh bodies. If we had the mind of Christ… why don’t we know all things? And… we sure wouldn’t have to ask God to reveal things to us. You might just be jumping ahead of yourself in that respect.

While I am in this world… I wouldn’t even want the mind of Christ… I would know all things, and I sure don’t want that… until… I am in the presence of our Lord.

Just finished reading… ‘Is God a Trinity?’… again. I accept it as true… but it is so difficult to let go of things that we have been brainwashed into thinking our whole lives… and especially by ‘the’ church, which we have trusted as ‘godly’… that they could not possibly have been wrong. Quite a shock to find they are not as lily white as they claim to be… or, that we thought them to be. As God said… He is the only Person we can count on, or trust. (not in those words)

I always had a problem wondering why Jesus and God both ignored the Holy Spirit. ‘I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me, and I in you, and you in Me. (not right, but close). So glad that question is answered… Thanks.

P.S. Unless I am extremely wrong… don’t jump down my neck. This is just a chatty… my opinion view. If I am only half wrong… I will improve… as you have since you first started.

Hi J____,

It’s good to see that you are still reading the site. I never want to come across as “jumping down your neck.” You are right, we will always be battling the flesh right up to the day we die. At the risk of sounding like I am ‘jumping down your neck’, I would like for you to consider these verses of God’s Word regarding “the mind of Christ:”

1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

What I am getting at, is that you are reading too much into ‘having the mind of Christ.’ You are doing with this phrase exactly what I did with this verse of scripture:

1Jn 3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

“Sinneth not” does not mean that “whosoever abideth in Him,” has no more need to “die daily.” And neither does “we have the mind of Christ… let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” mean that we now “know all things” and will therefore never again ever have so much as have an evil thought.

What it does mean in both cases is that we now abide and live in righteousness even as we struggle with sin. We think with the mind of Christ even as we fight against the carnal mind. “Not sinning” and “having the mind of Christ” means that “sin shall not have dominion over you.” Instead of dominion, sin and the carnal mind are now subdued to the mind of Christ which is in you. Being subdued does not mean that the flesh and its desires are not even there. They are there, and their very existence is sin and is “short of the glory of God.”

What seems to make this all so incomprehensible is the fact that all of these statements are true, but they are true only in down-payment form. They are not yet true in the fullness of our inheritance.

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest [down-payment only] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession [the first resurrection and total release from the body and mind of flesh], unto the praise of his glory.

We “sin not… have the mind of Christ… and are redeemed” only in “the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” Look at the verses just before verse 14:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, [in what form have we “obtained an inheritance”?]
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

This is just for your consideration. Hard as it is to see, we are expected to be like Christ and to have His mind ruling in us even though we do not yet ‘know all things.’

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee [know the mind of God (Christ)] the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Mike