Lesson 14 The Mind of Christ

     The mind of Christ, the Anointed One of God, was anointed to proclaim Liberty to those who are lost and bound by sin and separated from God.  When Jesus walked the earth as a Man, He was the only One Who had received the Holy Spirit from within.  When Jesus spoke the Word of God, it was with truth and power because He had all knowledge through the very gift of the Holy Spirit.
     Jesus never performed any miracles or healings until after His baptism in the Jordan River that were recorded in the Bible.  Once the Holy Spirit entered Him, Jesus' entire ministry changed dramatically.  The Holy Spirit made all the difference in Jesus' ministry.
     Jesus, spoke to His disciples (and us) about His soon coming departure in John 14:26 (Amplified) saying, "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocated, Strengthener, stand-by) the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My place to represent Me and act on My behalf ) He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
     Jesus spoke here about the Holy Spirit (the very Wisdom of God) as the One Who would be placed within the spirit of the believer.  The Holy Spirit would manifest the mind of Christ within the born again man when He came.  When Jesus ascended to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit (just as He promised) in His place on the day of Pentecost.
     On the day the Holy Spirit came, Peter was in the Upper Room and received revelation concerning the Prophet Joel's words, saying in Acts 2:16 (Amplified), "But (instead) this is (the beginning of) what was spoken through the Prophet Joel."  This scripture had been in the old covenant for quite some time, but now, the Holy Spirit gave life to it with revelation to Peter.
     Suddenly, the Word came alive by revelation.  Now, we read the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the mind of Christ that is within us.  We can read God's Word with revelation of the true meaning.  We come to a scripture that is all too familiar to us in 1Corinthians 2:7-10 (Amplified).  We hear part of this scripture quoted many times, but mostly it's quoted from an unrenewed mind.  Let's read Verse 7 which says, "But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden (from the human understanding) and now revealed to us by God-(that wisdom) which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification (to lift us into the glory of His presence)."  Verse 8 goes on, "None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this; for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory."  Verse 9 says, "But, on the contrary, as the scripture says, what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made ready and keeps ready) for those who love Him (who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed)."  We hear the first part of this scripture quoted often, but not the next verse so much.  In Verse 10 we see the difference between the mind of Christ that is renewed by the Word and the Holy Spirit and the natural, carnal minds of men.  The natural man will stop reading at Verse 9, but the renewed mind, by the mind of Christ, will read onto the next verse and rejoice in it because the Holy Spirit has revealed to and made available what was once hidden to us.  Verse 10 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)."
     All of the Divine counsel and things hidden and beyond (natural) man's scrutiny are available to those who will allow the mind of the Spirit to renew our carnal minds.  God has revealed all this wisdom, this mystery hidden from before the foundations of the earth, to us.  These are the things that any Father would love to teach His children and pass on to them as His legacy.
     Can you open your spirit for a moment with me and think of all the things God wants to show us?  God's promise and His grace has now been made available to us by His Spirit and is far above what religion has taught us over the years and only a renewed mind can comprehend the vastness of these things.  Your natural, unrenewed min can't even grasp hold of the beginnings of this revelation.  The mind that is still unrenewed by the Holy Spirit, can't yet understand the deliverance from sin.
     A mind that is still carnal (even in a Christian) looks upon and identifies more with the sin than with the deliverance.  We hear it from Christians many times how they are saved, but will be a sinner until the day they die or how they're just old sinners saved by grace.
     These statements are from people who were born again, but who never renewed their minds.  If you have truly been born again and your sins are forgiven, then the truth of God's Word says you are no longer an old sinner saved by grace.  You were an old sinner and you were saved by grace.  Now, God's Word says you are the righteousness of God.  2Corinthians 5:21 (Amplified) says that, "For our sake He made Christ (virtually) to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become (endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of) the righteousness of God (what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right standing, in right relationship) with Him, by His goodness."
     The renewed mind reads this scripture and rejoices in the truth that we are now (through Jesus) made righteous in God's eyes and are approved and acceptable to Him.  The old mind (the carnal nature) will still walk in the old guilt and condemnation of his past and allow it to hold him back from his Loving Father.
     Only the mind of Christ, by His Holy Spirit, can set a man free in his thought life and give him the liberty Jesus paid for.  This same man, even though he is free, will continue walking in the shame of his past if he fails to allow the Holy Spirit to renew his mind.  This man has all of the benefits of being a joint-heir with Christ and he has all of the privileges of being a son of God.  But, he will never exercise any of them because has hasn't allowed his mind to be open to the full truth of God's Word.  This new covenant is one of total liberty to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear and will allow their hearts to be changed and allow God to heal them.