The Renewal of the Mind
I must begin this book with a clear explanation of what really happened when Jesus died on the cross. This is important for one key reason: Most of the suffering Christians experience today stems from an ignorance or misunderstanding of the benefits of Christ's sacrifice. We will certainly continue to suffer from anything that we believe Christ's death did not pay for. Before I proceed to this topic of Christ's death, I will lay some groundwork.
Hosea 4:6 says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” If we lack knowledge of the promises made for our redemption, we will have no promise upon which to rest our faith, and thus, we will experience no redemption. Faith comes when we hear the Word of God (Romans 10:17). If we fail to hear the Word of God, we have nothing to believe, and thus, salvation will pass us by. The blood payment that was made for our sin cannot benefit the one who does not accept it.
We are saved by grace, yes, but through our faith, which is to appropriate the grace that saves us. Faith is necessary, but faith cannot come without knowledge. It's not enough merely to acknowledge that Jesus died. One must know what Christ died for and then accept the effects thereof. As it is written, “...His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
Everything we need for a new life in Christ is found in the knowledge of God. It's by this knowledge that we learn of the promises that make us partakers of His very nature. Furthermore, we read, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...” (Romans 12:2). And again, “You have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10).
Knowledge, namely, understanding of the Word of God (Proverbs 4:7), is the one thing that allows us the faith to receive redemption from sin and all its effects. By the renewal of our thinking, which is through the knowledge of God's Word, we are transformed. Without knowledge of the Word of God, which is in the Bible, we have nothing.
Christianity, even salvation itself, may very well be defined as a man's life so saturated in the knowledge of Christ that Christ Himself supplants him so that he's known no longer as only a man but as Christ expressed in a man's form. Christ's Word is our life and breath. Without His Word, we cannot live.
The problem these days is that most Christians try to live without God's Word, which can only result in bondage to human fallenness. And without the Word of God—without the truth—we give the secular world jurisdiction over our thinking. Faulty human wisdom becomes our authority, and we become products of godless counsel.
The Bible teaches that our entire being is to be wholly submitted to Christ—in spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Most Christians seek submission of their spirit-man to Christ in that they want to be in heaven when they die. But, all the while, they fail to submit their mind and body unto Him. It's as though we want Christ in the next life, but we would prefer to live without Him in this life. With this attitude, we prove that we are not interested in making Christ our Lord.
If Christ is not Lord over you today, do not think that He will be Lord over your eternity. Because most professing Christians have not surrendered their mind and body to Christ, these two faculties become products of whatever else they've made lord over their existence. And as such, these Christians think like the world, accepting the world's philosophies as truth and allowing themselves to be defined by the world's opinions.
Many Christians fail to realize that, being redeemed, our minds are not designed to function the way that the common mind functions. We are new creations. We are to be as far removed from this world's principles of psychology as the east is from the west. Why?
The Bible says that our sin has been separated from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). The secular world thinks with a fallen mind (Ephesians 4:17)—a sinful mind. The world teaches principles of psychology that originate from the observed characteristics of a fallen mind. But since our sin is now removed from us, it is to be removed from our minds as well (Hebrews 9:14), meaning that we cannot possibly afford to think like the world thinks and still call ourselves Christians; nor can we allow our mental state to be labeled by a world that does not know the mind of a redeemed child of God.
Most Christians believe that what psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists say is true because they're the “professionals” who've studied the human mind and human behavior, especially in response to trauma. However, they're not trained in spiritual principles but in natural ones. And as Christians, we're spiritual beings designed to think with a new, spiritual mind (1 Corinthians 2:12-16)—one that cannot be understood by the use of secular or natural disciplines (1 Corinthians 2:15).
Ephesians 4:23 says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” To be a Christian is to think with a new mind. That's what Paul meant when he said, repeatedly, that our minds are to be renewed. As a Christian, your mind is not designed to work like the average mind. Much of what you hear about the human mind from the study of psychiatry is untrue. It might be true for unbelievers, but it certainly is untrue for you. Why?
As a Christian, you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We cannot possibly live like Christ while teaching ourselves to think like the world tells us to think!
Yes, there are some things you can learn from the study of psychology and psychiatry that agree with biblical principles. However, the central problem with them is that they're based upon fundamentals—a premise—that the Bible adamantly contradicts. Medical professionals may be able to give you some pointers, few and far between, that Scripture happens to agree with.
Now, as a disclaimer, I do not deny that mental disorders are real. Indeed, the brain is a physical part of the body that requires healing when damaged, as any other part of our body would. However, when it comes to our mental health, our brains are not to be remedied the way the world says they should be. The Bible speaks of a way to healing that the world cannot perceive. The way to healing is known in the Bible as the renewal of the mind.
Unfortunately, in the secular world, it's believed that the mind is subject to a vast array of dysfunctions and disorders that can be medicated, at best, but not healed. In this book, you will learn about the subtle lies of the world that will keep you in bondage and the necessary biblical responses to those lies that will liberate and heal you. In this book, you will learn how to renew your mind. In fact, reading this book is actually part of the process of renewing your mind, as it will expose you to essential, biblical truths that, if you believe them, will transform you. Let's begin with what really happened when Jesus died.