The Mind of Christ

Can you imagine being around Jesus? His is the most brilliant, creative, imaginative, and beautiful mind of any person who has ever lived. After all, He is fully human AND FULLY GOD. If we only considered His human qualities, there is still none like Him before or since, but He is so much more than merely human. Jesus Christ is the second Person in the godhead. The “Son of God” is not a lesser designation, like “God, Jr.” Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

Incredibly, Paul invites us to share in the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul explains that Jesus’ mind was not the secular approach. Jesus came to reveal that the mindset of the Lord has a completely different value system than ours. The good news is that salvation is holistic— including the revelation of Jesus’ mind in us.

What do we mean when we talk about having the mind of Christ? Since Jesus loved to pray, so should we. Since Jesus knew scripture, so should we. Since Jesus loved to worship, so should we. Since He treasured friendships, so should we. Since Jesus served with a glad and generous heart, so should we. Since Jesus forgave those who hurt Him, so should we. Since Jesus had a mission and purpose, so should we. Since Jesus cared about lost people, so should we. Since Jesus had a heavenly focus, so should we. Our minds can be made new (Romans 12:2). We no longer have to be stuck. Old ways can be replaced with new ways. His mind can be in us, too. That fills us with tremendous hope, love, joy and peace. What a surpassing gift.

People can and do change. A friend recently told me about his friend whose addiction to alcohol was literally killing him. His friend had a major health incident and while he was in the hospital instantly lost all desire to drink. His immediate transformation has lasted for years. People can and do change. Our Celebrate Recovery ministry lives this out every Monday night. We believe that the Lord can work in any situation for transformation. That renewal of the mind is what happened to Paul. Acts 9 describes the dramatic story of his mind being made new.