The Mind of Christ

by Ling Pui Yeong

What is the mind of God? What does God think about? And, more specifically, what is the mind of Christ? Do you know? Can we know God’s mind in the first place?

Well, what does the Word of God say? Paul himself asks: “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him” (1 Corinthians 2:16, paraphrasing Isaiah 40:13). And yet, right after quoting from Isaiah, Paul continues: “But we have the mind of Christ.” 

In fact, we have the mind of God, through Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Now, Paul is not making a distinction between the mind of God and the mind of Christ—as though they are two different things and we have one but not the other. In fact, we have the mind of God, through Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit. It is true that we cannot know nor even get a glimpse of God’s mind, and we certainly cannot instruct Him. But Paul explains: “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (2:11).

But this Spirit of God has been given to us! Paul continues: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (2:12). Finally, he says: “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (2:13). This is why Paul can say at the end of the chapter “We have the mind of Christ.” We can know the mind of Christ because He has revealed it to us in His Word. Broadly speaking, God tells us what He thinks, through His written Word. To say otherwise is to deny the working of the Holy Spirit and the truthfulness of Scripture.

“Crucifixion of Jesus ,” detail. by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532.

But what, specifically, is this “mind of Christ” that we have received? We find the answer in Philippians 2, in which Paul encourages Christians to have the mind of Christ. He begins the chapter by instructing the Philippians to “complete [his] joy by having the same mind, having the same love, same spirit, and the same thinking/attitude” (2:2). He then explains what this lookslike in verses 3-4: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, not looking at your own things/interests, but also the interests of others.” Then he shifts the focus from what we are to have to what we have in Jesus: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus…” And this mind of Christ is that, though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God, but humbled Himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born as a man so that He could be obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is the mind or attitude we are to have, so that we may also humble ourselves and be fellow servants for the sake of our brothers and sisters, out of love.

But this is not the mind that we all have, at all times. In fact, we often have a mind of our own that is contrary to Christ’s mind. So then how can we have this mind of Christ in ourselves, as Paul admonishes? Is Paul merely saying all this as accusatory Law just to show us our sins? Does he not actually expect any humility and love from believers? Surely not!

So, if Paul does expect this mind of Christ to be at work in Christian, how do we get it? Is it produced by our own power, reason, or strength? Read in isolation, Romans 12:2 may seem to suggest that it is a work we effect on our own: “Do not be conformed to this world/age, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind.” But this must be understood in light of verse 1, which is the key verse that connects the earlier chapters to the rest of the epistle. Paul writes: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable/true worship/service.”

The key words here are “living sacrifice,” which, if you think about it, are something of an oxymoron. Generally speaking, a sacrifice is something that is offered to be killed. A sacrifice has to die. But Paul calls us living sacrifice. So, which is it? Are we to be dead or are we to be alive? Of course, the good Lutheran answer is: “Yes!” We are to be both dead and alive.

A sacrifice has to die. But Paul calls us living sacrifice. So, which is it? Are we to be dead or are we to be alive? Of course, the good Lutheran answer is: “Yes!” We are to be both dead and alive.

How does this happen? Through Christ, as Paul tells us in Romans 6:10-11: “For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” And of course, this is what baptism effects for us as we are united with Christ in baptism—for we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). In other words, the transformation and the renewal of our minds—the renewal of our entire being—begins and continues in Christ through baptism. 

Going back to Romans 12, Paul calls this sacrificial living a “reasonable” or “true” service to God. When we talk about this “mind of Christ,” therefore, it is not merely an abstract idea about something that Jesus thinks, nor is it something that merely happens intellectually inside our heads, but it involves our entire being. For the mind of Christ, as explained in Philippians 2, is to live a life of servitude, serving God and serving our neighbours. 

So, do we have the mind of Christ? Most certainly! For the Holy Spirit has not only given His Word for us to know (1 Corinthians 2) but has also washed us through that Word (Ephesians 5:26)—a washing of regeneration and renewal (Titus 3:5). In this way then, as Luther explains in the Small Catechism, the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in Christ. By His renewal and transformation, we have the mind of Christ—a mind that desires the things of God, an attitude that desires to love and serve God and one another. 

To sum it all up in one word, it is the cross. The mind of Christ is the cross—the service He performs for us by dying on the cross for the sins of the whole world. The mind of Christ that we have is also that cross, which we have received through baptism, through which Christ continues to serve us—that we may repent and believe, that we may die and rise with Him daily, and that we may be renewed and strengthened to also carry the cross.

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Rev. Ling Pui Yeong is pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Toronto, Ontario.

Cover photo: Mosaic of Christ in Marijampolė: A. Matuliauskas, 1997. CC BY-SA 4.0.

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