1Corinthians 2:16 (Amplified) tells us, "For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts and (feelings and purposes) of His heart."
When a Christian reads the Word of God with an unrenewed mind, he reads it with a carnal mind. He reads the scriptures with a sense of unworthiness and guilt. A man who has a renewed mind (the mind of Christ) and is led by the Holy Spirit, will read the same scripture with an understanding of the truth in Jesus. Romans 3:10 (Amplified) says that, "As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one." The man with the unrenewed mind will read this and apply it to himself. A man who has a renewed mind (the mind of Christ), will realize this scripture doesn't apply to the born again believer.
The mind of Christ and one who is filled with the Holy Spirit will read past the old covenant, into the new. A renewed mind will see the truth in the finished work of the cross when reading Romans 3:24 (Amplified) which says, "All are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is (provided) in Christ Jesus." The old, carnal mind that's not led by the Holy Spirit, doesn't see both sides of the cross.
The carnal mind still reads God's Word under the letter of the Law. The mind of Christ that is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, reads the Word through the liberty of the Spirit. One still lives under the condemnation of the old man, while the other walks in the liberty of the new man.
When the mind of Christ is allowed to lead us Christians, we see that the debt for whatever we were guilty of was paid for by Jesus. The old man with the carnal mind, continues trying to find a way to pay for his debt on his own. One lives in freedom from sin and death through the Lamb of God and the other one reads the same Word with his unrenewed mind and sees himself as a guilty man.
The spiritual man with the mind of Christ, goes beyond the cross to the resurrection of Christ. The carnal mind sees himself as the sinner. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the light of the New Testament to the believer. The carnal mind still fights the truth. 1Corinthians 1:30 (Amplified) says, "But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our wisdom from God (revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as) our righteousness (thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God) and our consecration (making us pure and holy) and our redemption (providing our ransome from eternal penalty for sin)."
The carnal minded Christian reads this scripture as true and he actually walks in the fullness of this truth, but he doesn't know it. So, although this is a truth for all Christian people, some will not allow this great truth to operate in their lives. They continue to live in fear, in condemnation and the thought of not being righteous before the Father's eyes. We're still more conscience of sin than we are of the Sin Bearer. The carnally minded cannot believe that they're righteous even though they believe Jesus died for and bore their sins.
When the mind of Christ is working and leading the believer, they now walk in the knowledge of the resurrection and the finished work. They rest in the truth that if Jesus bore it, then it is done. We no longer try seeking approval from God, but walk in the approval that Jesus gave us. He doesn't work to be righteous, but receives his righteousness through Jesus by faith.,
The carnal minded Christian wants to believe he's saved by grace, but still thinks he must be made righteous by his own works. The Spirit led Christian, believes by faith that Jesus is his righteousness and that now he can walk pleasing before the Father by grace. If we've been made to be righteous in His righteousness, then how can anyone improve on that? Can we, by works, become more righteous than He is?
1Corinthians 2:6 (Amplified) says, "Yet, when we are among the full grown (spiritually mature Christians) who are ripe in understanding), we do impart a (higher) wisdom, (the knowledge of the divine plan previously hidden) but it is indeed not a wisdom of this present age or of this world nor of the leaders and rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing and are doomed to pass away."
Paul teaches that there's a wisdom of God that can only be understood by those who are spiritually mature and those in whom the mind of Christ is allowed to be manifest. We see in 1Corinthians 2:9 (Amplified) where the carnal Christian has taken out of context and used a scripture to display the lack of spiritual wisdom from the mind of Christ. It says, "Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him." The carnal minds stops at this scripture. The spiritual minded (has the mind of Christ) goes onto the next scripture and delights itself in it.
1Corinthians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny)."
So, it's only through the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ that we can know and understand the revelation of the things of God. Paul didn't say in Verse 9 that God didn't want us to know, but that the carnal mind couldn't receive the things God has prepared for those who love Him.
These are spiritual truths revealed from the Holy Spirit to our born again spirits. We no longer have to see with our eyes or hear with our ears, because now these truths are revealed to our new hearts (our new spirit man) by the Holy Spirit. Now, we have the mind of Christ and can know the things that God has in store for those He loves (us).
Jesus said that the words He speaks are Spirit and they are life. Only your spirit can understand spiritual things. The mind of Christ is really nothing more than the the Word of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit. If we just read the Word with our intellect and not with the mind of Christ, then we will only see what the Old Testament people saw. We'll only see that we're sinful and that God is Holy and so we cannot stand in His presence.
The new man with the mind of Christ and by the Holy Spirit, sees the Word in a different way. We see ourselves through the mirror of the Word and the way God sees us by His Holy Spirit. The mind of Christ reveals who are and not who we were. The Spirit show us the liberty we now have through Jesus. The carnal minded Christian and the Christ minded Christian both read the same Bible. The carnal minded will still hold us in bondage. But, the Christ minded will walk in revelation, knowledge and liberty. The carnal minded will still persecute the Spirit minded because we don't keep all their rules and customs. Those in whom the mind of Christ is allowed to reveal Jesus in their lives, will go on from one glory unto another glory, from one faith to a higher level of our faith and to allow the righteousness of God to bring us unto the presence of God through Jesus by faith and not by works or guilt.
Unless we allow the mind of Christ to dwell in us and reveal His finished work through the Word, then reading the Word with a carnal mind will not produce the liberty in which it was sent. You will truly be free, but like the Kodiak bear, the prison of your mind will hold you in bondage even when the door is open.
1Corinthians 2:14 (Amplified) says, "But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."
Only the mind of Christ and the illumination of the Holy Spirit can reveal the truth of the revelation of the new birth in all its liberty to you.
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