Renewing The Mind (Part Two) - Retrain Your Brain

Earlier this week I was listening to a cultural arts program on BBC Radio 4 where the theme was 'the purpose of controversial theatre'.

One of the guests, himself a producer of such plays, said that he saw the role of the theatre as the opposite to that of the church. In church, he said, you have come to have your beliefs reaffirmed, whereas a theatre was a place you go to have your assumed beliefs challenged.

It made me think. Is that really what church is like?

Perhaps this producer of plays needs his assumed beliefs about church to be challenged?

Now to be fair there is some part truth in what he says. I think some of the purpose of church gathering together is to affirm truth where we find it in the Word and reflected in each other. It also lets us know that we're not alone in our apparent lunacy.

But what seems to be neglected in this view is that we are also coming together to be challenged and changed under the truth of the word of God. There seems to be an assumption in the instruction to renew our minds that we will all have mindsets and approaches that are based not on the truth but on our own understanding of the world, wherever that has come from, inevitably tainted by sin.

We are told by Paul that

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.~ 2 Cor 4:4

It would be foolish to assume that when we come to believe in Christ that all of our 'darkened thinking' is instantly changed into illuminated truth. The truth does set us free, but getting to grips with the truth (becoming free indeed) is often a process that takes time.
Sometimes the cell is unlocked, but we like to sit there a while before we get up and leave. And sometimes even prisons can make us feel secure in their familiarity. But the devil we know is surely not better than the God who beckons us to know him,  to receive new minds and hearts.

Part of the reason I believe Paul tells us not to give up meeting together is because we rely on one another for growth. And, when I say growth, that can often mean pruning. Firstly, to walk with other believers will almost definitely throw us against each other, causing us to have some rough edges knocked off (if we approach it with the a right heart). This is part of the process of iron sharpening iron (as the scripture has it). And so as well as being affirmed in the truth, we can also be challenged by our fellow believers. Sometimes by their understanding and sometimes by their behaviour. In both cases we should be rebounding from these encounters onto the Word of God, returning there to 'judge our hearts' and to receive instruction.

 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.~Heb 4:12-13

We come to church not just for the fellowship and worship, but also to sit under the word. For those not versed in the jargon, that means to listen to the preaching and to submit ourselves to the authority of the words of God found in the scriptures. This is why it is so integral to attend a church where the preaching is based on and bedded in the bible.

The word of God is called 'The Sword of the Spirit' in Ephesians 6, the famous passage on the armour of God. The Sword of the Spirit seems to me to have two implied meanings. Firstly that it is our Sword for fighting the enemy with, (and it is a spiritual weapon).

But the other meaning of that title is that it is the sword belonging to The Spirit. In other words the Word of God is the sword that the Holy Spirit himself wields as a weapon. He also uses it for surgery, as we have seen in the Hebrews text. Penetrating and dividing soul and spirit, judging our hearts.

If the Word is preached faithfully then metaphorically the carpets of our churches (If you attend a church whose building has them) should resemble the floor of a butchers, or a surgeons bin. As God dissects our hearts and reconstructs them closer to his own.

My First point is this, that renewing of minds must take place in the context of Jesus centred community.
The kind of growth that takes place without accountability and encouragement is largely not the growth that the gospel gives. Your first step to a renewed mind, once you have believed in the Lord Jesus and repented of your sins, is to get yourself planted in a bible believing, Jesus centred, loving community. If you have these three elements you cant go far wrong. But you need them all (and they are all intrinsic to each other).

And come humbly to learn and to unlearn, and ask God to show you where your thinking needs to change.

Free your mind and your behind will hopefully follow.

 

 

 

Renewing The Mind (Part One) - Do Something.

I have been thinking a lot about transformation recently, and how it is achieved.

A few years ago I was talking to another Christian, then in his 80s about sanctification; the on-going process of becoming more holy. Scripture seeming to suggest that we would go 'from glory to glory'. Myself then approaching 40 (or possibly having not long reached it) I was beginning to despair of ever seeing any of the transformation that I had sincerely expected to see in my Christian walk back when I was in my early 20's.

I asked this gentleman, a man I had long looked up to because of his commitment and devotion and general apparent Godliness, what his experience of sanctification was in his 80s, hoping to hear that it does indeed get better!

His answer quite staggered me. (Though it really shouldn't have).

He said, 'To be honest, I've completely given up'.

I felt a little winded by that, I have to say. But by my own experience and lack of progress in this area, I can see why at his age he had probably abandoned hope of being changed from glory to glory, until he was actually IN GLORY.

I can tell you that the brother in question, a little while after this did actually experience some major renewal, and that gave me hope again but I never forgot how flat that conversation left me.

But I have to say that my hope of sanctification was really no hope. Because without meaning to, it was really based on the premise that I didn't have to work at it. I just sort of expected God to change me.

He certainly has changed me but I am coming to believe that he has put much of the agency for that change in my own hands.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a good reformed boy and I certainly do not believe in a sanctification by works but I am coming to believe that, as he allows us and draws us by his grace, he is calling us  to partner with him in our transformation. Why else all that instruction about sowing to the Spirit there in Galatians?

What we sow, we reap. If I sow only to the sinful nature I reap from that nature destruction....but if I sow to the Spirit, I will reap the fruit of the Spirit; Love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Now to take you to the verse that is the starting point for this series. Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

There are two instructions. A negative and a positive.

1. Do Not Conform

The default setting is conformity, whether we like it or not. If we conform and go along unquestioningly with the crowd, following this world and it's aspirations and philosophies and indulgent life style, transformation for us is never-never land. It's pie in the sky when you die. But you'll never become what God has called you to be here and now. It counteracts our very own prayers when we ask God 'your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven'. We shouldn't just pray that and then act as if we didn't belong to him. If you conform you die. Because you are sowing to the sinful nature that loves an easy life and avoids challenge at all costs. And you will reap from that nature destruction. I know because I am largely describing myself.

2. Be Transformed.

There is an implicit understanding that you are the curator of your own transformation here, as you join with the Holy Spirit (sowing into what he is doing in and around and through you. And as a result he brings about fruit in your life. How can we be commanded to be transformed if it was not possible to do so. And even better than that, he tells us how. By the renewing of your mind.

In this series I want to explore what it means for us to renew our minds, and to have renewed minds. But I think we can be hugely encouraged that there is something we can do about it. It's tough and it's going to take a lot of work and a certain amount of discipline (and no discipline is pleasant at the time but later on, if learnt from, produces a harvest of righteousness for those who have been trained by it) but we can do it with the help and the grace of God.

Lovemuch

In Luke 7 we are told the story of a woman who loved much.

Whilst his wealthy host, The stand offish Simon, (a curious Pharisee who had invited Jesus to his house for a meal), stands by aghast, a woman, whom the gospel writer describes as a sinner, literally gate-crashes the party and displays a wholly inappropriate amount of gratitude and affection to the Lord by crying on, kissing, drying and anointing his feet.

This is a beautiful and touching story. One of my favourites. It deserves further exploration, and perhaps I will do that soon.

But here I want to speak about the principle that Jesus teaches us from her actions, and from those of Simon.

Simon, a religious and a well thought of man, of great social standing, has been treating Jesus abominably, culturally speaking.

Yes he has invited Jesus, but as a spectacle and in order to sus him out.

He did not greet him with respect.

He left his feet unwashed.

He did not tend to him.

Jesus may as well still have been on the street!

And I bet that Simon would still have expected Jesus to show deference to his good standing.

Simon holds all the cards and it is Jesus, in Simons eyes, who is under scrutiny.

But this woman, as lowly as she must be seen to be, shows no regard for convention and instead honours Jesus with utter abandonment.


Why?

The Lord Jesus shows us her motive and Luke faithfully records it for us.



Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. (v48)

                                                 

Her motive for showing this love was because her many sins had been forgiven.

Simons stony gaze has looked on her and cast judgement.

He would seem to us to be unaware of his own state. Someone who believed his own press. Possibly he was proud and insecure; Judgemental and harsh.

It is speculative to say that he thought so well of himself, but I believe Jesus' words paint him in a couple of deft brush strokes;

But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.

 

 

 

Was it really that Simon was less of a sinner than this woman? He certainly seemed to think so.

Granted , her sins were possibly more obvious, but the whole body of Jesus' teaching on sin tells us that his sin had just as deep roots in his heart. And worst of all, he was blind to it.

This woman knew she was a sinner, and she knew she had been forgiven. She, as Jesus little parable illustrates, knew the size of the debt she had been forgiven, and proportionate gratitude flowed....

 

and so......

 

She loved much.


Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”“Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,^cand the other fifty.  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”                               
  Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said


It seems to me that when we want to experience greater love for God, this is the place we should go.
Not to whipping up devotion or, asking God to zap us with greater zeal.

No.

The source is right here.

Our love is proportionate with our understanding of the debt that has been cancelled.


Have you ever wondered why Jesus says (in the beatitudes) 'blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'?

This is why.

Because those who know how poor they are, are really rich towards God. They throw themselves upon his mercy and they are the inheritors of an endless love.

To Love-much we must be forgiven much.

And that does not mean we need to commit greater sins in order to be forgiven more. Absolutely not.

It is this.

That we realise just how deep it is that sin goes in our hearts. and how utterly defenceless we are against it. How unable we are to dig it out.

If we need to know how much we are forgiven, we do not need to have a 'greater testimony' of our fall.

Why?

 

Because if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ you have been forgiven everything.

And when you realise what everything means,

 

your gratitude will flow,

 

and you.....

 

will love much.





 



The Things That Were Not

 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”^[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.~ Romans 4:16-17 (NIV)

The Promise comes by faith;

So it is through faith that we enter into the promises of God (by grace), and it is in this regard that Abraham is the father of all; The father of faith.

It is interesting to me that after we are given Abraham as a model of faith, Paul slips in yet another role model in faith.

have you spotted from the verses who that is?

the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

Now, I understand this seems to be stretching it, to say that God acts in faith, but there is certainly a sense in which he does.

Knowledge of himself, his power and his attributes, causes him to speak in full faith that what he says will be done. 'Let there be light', he says, and there is light.

That God acts in faith is even more evident to us in the person of Jesus. Do you remember the miracle of the man with the withered arm? What did Jesus say to him? "Stretch out your arm".

Uh, hello Jesus, what arm?

And yet he calls it into being.

And the man's faith as he complies, mirrors Jesus' faith as he obeys and attempts the impossible.


I love that God is the best boss ever. He doesn't seem to ask us to do that which he has not done himself.


The things that are not;

And it is this creative miracle of faith that heartens me in the same way it heartened Abraham. "I will make you the Father of many nations", God says (His wife barren and his body as good as dead). He could have said, 'no way. This thing shall never be'. But he believed God who spoke of the impossible. No wonder it was credited as righteousness.

This is how the Lord works.

God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (NKJV)

I like the New king James versions way of putting it. He calls that which is not as though it were. And guess what? When God does that, then what was not, becomes.  It becomes what he calls it.
That is why there is such power in a name.

Think of Peter.

Peter was called Simon, but the Lord called this impetuous hot head "The Rock".

And what Peter became, typified what The Lord Jesus had prophetically named him.

And what of you and I?

I am sure that Jesus has secret prophetic names for us too. They are found throughout scripture, as God describes through his apostles and prophets, the identity of the children of God. Search them and see what God says about you.

So what you see right now, is not what you will be. The whole of creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. I think what we will be and what we can be in him is truly awesome and worship inspiring.

And he is calling it into being.

You may not see it yet, but it is coming.

Stretch out you arm, he says.

What arm?, we say.

You cant call this an arm.

It has no muscle. it's a flap of skin filled with dead bones.

Yeah, but stretch it out anyway.

The Chicken and the Egg

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised~ Romans 4:9-12

It's the age old question of what comes first.

Ok, not so much chicken and egg here, but you get the idea. The debate as to what came first here (Circumcision or belief) could not have a clearer answer.

It is interesting that if we look at James, faith and works must be simultaneous , and never mutually exclusive. In fact, quite the opposite. True faith can only be proven if it bears fruit in good works (like an egg bears the fruit of a chicken).

And, yes, that is a separate issue, but it is also the same issue.

You see, circumcision is a work.

It is a work that is born out of faith. At least it certainly is in the case of Abraham.

But faith will always out itself in works.

As James so astutely observes; faith without works is no faith. It is a dead faith.

And of course the converse can be stated as truth too. Works without faith are also dead.

So to be pedantic, although faith seems to come first, it is perhaps better to say that  they come together, the inward reality and the outward expression.

Let us just take a step back to Romans 2:29

No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God.

 And we see that this work of circumcision of the heart (which will itself bear fruit) is done not by human hands, but by the Spirit of God. It is God's work.

Faith is a gift of God, not that we should boast.

If your heart is alive to God then that is a divine and sovereign work of the Living God. We are God's own workmanship, his masterpiece, his poema, created for good works in Christ which he purposed in advance for us to do.

We just have to stand in awe that God is at work in us. We are receiving SO great a salvation.

How majestic.

How humbling.

How marvellous, How wonderful,
And my song shall ever be,
How marvellous, How wonderful,
Is my saviours love for me.

Blessed Is...

David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

 

 

 

On the day of judgement,  I try to imagine standing on my own merit. I try and imagine how that would feel, even if I had lived the life of someone truly good and faithful, were I a Jackie Pullinger or a John Wesley, or if I had lived a quiet and humble life of a cleaner who shared their  bread with the homeless and their simple faith with all they came into contact with. I try to imagine that I was truly good, instead of a man who is largely fake, whose goodness is so intermittent and fickle whose faith wavers with every wind of thought, who lives to be seen to be good, rather than actual goodness. A man who did justly, rather than what ever he pleased and then asked for forgiveness later. A man who loved mercy rather than one who held onto his resentments long enough that they should embitter him and bring damage into the lives of those around him. A man who walked humbly before his God, who thought of himself with sober judgement rather than with puffed up notions of self importance.

I try to imagine what it would be like to stand before God with such a record behind me, but with no advocate to speak for me and no blood spilt in my defence.

How would I stand?

How would you?

 

If I were better than the best saint who ever lived, but stood apart from justification by faith,

 

 

I would still have nothing to make a case for me when compared to God's righteousness and holiness.

I would be speechless and utterly lost before his majesty.

And I would be cast from his presence.

David who wrote  Psalm 32, from which Paul is quoting, was a good man in many respects, but he was deeply flawed too.

I am so heartened by God's love of David. David pleased the Lord, somehow, in his earnest faith and passion. He was a tender hearted man in so many regards, and of all the sons of Jesse who were greater in stature and social standing than he was, God chose the youngest , the shepherd boy, to become his appointed King and the ancestor of Jesus.

And those wonderful words , which we love so much, were uttered about him; Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.

I have no idea if Psalm 32 were written before or after the Bathsheba incident, where he committed both adultery and murder, but in a sense it does not matter.

He was still called a man after God's own heart.

David's life-time long walk with God taught him the value and need of God's forgiveness.

As the psalms say elsewhere;

 

 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,

Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,
Ps 103:3

 

Even if I lived the best life I could I could never stand apart from mercy.

To not have my sin counted against me, now that is truly amazing.

My sin is atoned for, not by my tears of repentance, or my life of penance, but by Jesus glorious sacrifice and precious shed blood.

Everything I have ever done or ever will do, is covered, beneath the blood.

I am white as snow.

I would take one drop of that blood, and that one moment of forgiveness, over a lifetime of righteousness and good deeds.

I need not defend myself or plead my case.

Here I stand with but one plea,
That thy blood was shed for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nature of Trust

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness~ Romans 4:4-5

Paul, who has been arguing between  the justification of faith and the work of law keeping (as means to righteousness), makes a huge and critical distinction in  the transaction that takes place through both.

If you are working then you get what is due to you. And you have failed to keep the law, even though you have worked at it. Because if you break the law at any point (and we all do) then you are a law breaker and guilty of breaking the whole law, certainly in regards to righteousness. Then you will get what you are owed.

And what you are owed is nothing.

But the virtue of the other system, of Justification by faith, is that it is not merely a cold legal, contractual obligation from your employer, but rather a free gift, from a loving God.


"The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"~ Romans 6:23


The key words for me this morning, here in these verses are these; To the one....who trusts God who justifies the ungodly.

You see, it is in God's character. He justifies the ungodly. That is who he is and what he does. Our part is to trust in the nature of that same God.

The nature of trust in God, is to trust the nature of God.

It takes faith to see this nature, and the God you believe in, to some extent, is the God you get.
To those who see him as a tyrannical judge....well, they will never please him, and they get nothing from him, ultimately.

But to those who see his true nature, that he is a Justifier of the ungodly, a merciful and loving God who bestows freely, well then how much easier is it for us to trust the nature of this loving father?

And we are rewarded infinitely. He credits this faith (which in itself is a gift, not that we should boast in it) as righteousness.

It is so much easier to trust in this God.

Seeing his nature opens our eyes to the possibilities of his love, and we even dare to fearlessly believe in him.

We see him as he is, and we turn to him, not in fear and obligation, but in love and gratitude, and the rich nature of his righteous merciful love opens up to us like the locked gates of a secret garden , the pleasures of which we can enjoy from this moment and into eternity.

And as David the Psalmist said,

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen.