The Mind of Christ – A Double Union

The Mind of Christ – A Double Union.

“Who is able to understand the mind of Lord Yahweh? Who is able to be His teacher? We, however, have the mind of Christ!” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

“We have…” (Greek, “echomen”), which means ‘are having,’ ‘are keeping,’ or ‘are holding;’ to have and to keep on having, an action in progress; a process that is now taking place; the present state is a continuing state. So the literal translation is, “We, however, are having the mind of Christ.” Through the Holy Spirit, we now are new creatures who were given the capacity to learn how to think like Jesus.

… the mind of Christ.” (Greek for mind is “nous,” which means the highest knowing faculty of the soul; the spirit and understanding behind all we think and do). Through the Holy Spirit, then…

We are being given the capacity to think the thoughts of the Anointed One;

We have the growing ability to reason, to be logical, and to think things through like Jesus;

We are being infused with the ability to understand God’s wisdom;

We are being equipped with the moral intelligence of the Lord;

We are being given access to the reasoning behind the actions of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit;

We are in the process of perceiving spiritual matters as Christ perceives them;

We have an increasing ability to understand life from God’s perspective;

We will be continually inspired to develop the divine common sense and street-smart shrewdness that Jesus was known for;

We are gaining insight into what truly matters according to the thinking of God;

We have a growing ability to reflect and ponder according to the will of Christ;

We enjoy an ongoing co-mingling of our mind with Christ’s mind, until the end, when the new will have completely replaced the old, and those two minds will be indistinguishable.

“God is faithful to do what He says, and He has invited you into partnership with His Son, a life of communion and participation in His life. God has called you to co-share the very life of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 1:9).

Christ inside each of us, and each of us inside Christ. Our double union with Christ includes His mind: His mind is in us and our mind is in Him. We co-share the very mind of Jesus. As we participate in His mind, He participates in our mind. As Christ partners with us in the use of our minds, we partner with Him in the use of His mind in each of us. Truly we are in the midst of a holy mystery with this biblical truth regarding our mutual indwelling with God.

MYSTERY: (Greek, “mysterion”); a sacred secret hidden in the heart of God until the appointed time of revelation; a truth that can only be known by divine disclosure; spiritual insights into God’s way of thinking and planning; hidden truths revealed by God that are beyond human intellect and reason; divine knowledge that can only be understood through the Holy Spirit; God’s thoughts and plans revealed to believers and hidden to skeptical doubters and those who choose not to believe.

Half the Story. Imagine if someone has gone through a long life of the Christian faith, being told that one side of the story is the complete story. Yes, that’s me. I grew up being taught that the believer’s relationship with God involved God inside of me through the Holy Spirit, which of course is true. But that’s the incomplete part. I was never really instructed as to the importance of the believer being inside God. There is a double mystery here, and our union with Christ actually goes both ways… God inside of each of us, and each of us inside of God. Christ enters us through the Holy Spirit, and His Spirit delivers us into the Person of God. Christ dwells within me, and I dwell within Christ. This double mystery, God in me and me in God, is well-mentioned in the New Testament: “When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am inside my Father, and you are inside of me, and I am inside of you.” (John 14:20); “Remain inside of me, dwell in me, continue to draw life from me, and I will remain inside you.” (John 15:4-7); “God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live inside Him, and He inside us.” (1 John 4:13); “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives continually inside of me, and I live inside him.” (John 6:56); “Those who obey God’s teachings remain inside Him, and He inside them.” (1 John 3:24).

Mutual Indwelling. Our union with God is obviously full of mystery, the kind of sacred secret that the Lord needs to unpack for us. Some scholars call this the “Mystical Union,” while others refer to it as the “Double Union.” For a flesh and blood finite person to join with and into the supreme Lord of the Universe, a human being intimately united with the world’s Creator and vast spiritual presence, is way beyond our understanding. In thinking about being united with Christ, I tend to claim in faith things that I don’t even comprehend, truths that I trust at some time God will reveal to all of us… Our double union must mean that somehow we are inside of each other; When we unite with God, we are one in spirit; We are inside of God, which means we are welcomed into the fellowship of the Holy Trinity; Since we are inside Christ, we can participate in the interior life of Christ; To pray in the Spirit might actually mean we pray inside the Spirit; Living inside Christ means we can acquire the very mind of Christ; We belong to Christ, including the fact that each member of our body are members of Christ; We can only become new creatures if we are enfolded into Christ. There is even a million-dollar word that some say sums this all up: “Christification.” So Lord, I truly pray that we can all become completely “Christified.”

“God has given us magnificent promises that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature.”  (2 Peter 1:4).

Is it okay to be so familiar with God that we call Him Abba, Father? Should we be comfortable addressing the almighty and everlasting God the equivalent of “Dad” or “Papa“? The ancient liturgical line leading into the Lord’s Prayer is, “We are bold to say… Our Father.” Bold indeed. And yet in 2 Peter 1:4 we are told that we are partakers of the divine nature, participants in the life of God, partners with the Godhead. We are told that God is including us in His eternal nature. In light of that, we have permission to be familiar with God, calling Him a family name. The Greek word for “partners” in that verse is “koinonos,” which means to be a companion with, to have deep fellowship with. Those are love words, words that invite communion. The truth is that we are able to join the intimate community of the Trinity through Jesus and through what He has done to renew the fellowship between God and people. Because of Jesus, we are bold to say, Abba, Father.

God’s discipline is always good for us, He corrects us throughout our lives for our own good, so that we may share in His holiness.” (Hebrews 12:10).

Sharing in God’s Holiness: Being set apart from sin and its consequences; Growing in those aspects of divine nature that God shares with believers; Being partners with Christ in His divinity because of His partnership with us in humanity; Cultivating divine characteristics because of intimate fellowship with God; God’s image being restored in us because of our union with Him; The result of participating in the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Acquiring God’s spiritual DNA.

Restoring God’s Image. Through God’s grace we become more like Him. Because of our union with Him, we participate in His holiness. Before sin, God’s image in us directed our human destiny. But that image, that holiness, was marred and tainted. As we partake in the divine nature, God’s image in us is renewed. Our original destiny re-emerges. Communion with God results in the renewal of God’s image in us. As the Orthodox Church puts it, “We become by grace what God is by nature.” God’s divine energy transforms us into people who share in His holiness. The divine likeness is restored in a heavenly process. “We are being transformed into His very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transformation comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Through our intimate union with God, we partake in His divine nature, and we participate in the process of re-creating God’s image and likeness in us. We share in His holiness.

Transformation. Because we are joined with Christ, He is within us, and we are within Him. Our transformation, our sanctification, would seem to happen two ways, then… The Holy Spirit inside of us gradually transforming our nature into the image of Christ; and each of us inside of Christ, receiving an endless supply of the interior qualities of Jesus, His character, attributes, and all the spiritual riches we could ever imagine. We were created in His image, became hopelessly broken, and then in God’s love welcomed into Jesus so that we could end up like Jesus once again. Being inside of Christ and intimately joined with Him means we receive the divine sap that flows through the Vine. Inside Christ, we have an eternal supply of heavenly nutrients that enable us to change, mature and go from one level of glory to another, into the very likeness of Christ Himself.

“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ inside God.” (Colossians 3:3).

 “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with Christ Jesus, living in fellowship with God through Christ.” (Romans 6:11).

Living Within Christ:  Literally participating in the life of Christ; living in union with Jesus; united as one with God; inseparably joined with Christ; when we started trusting in Jesus, His Holy Spirit hand-delivered each of us into the very Person of Christ; we are tightly wrapped into His nature and essence; our spirit is inside His Spirit, and He is inside of us; our human identity is hidden within Christ; we belong to Him, and He is in possession of each of us; by uniting with Jesus, we married into His family, and are embraced within the fellowship of the Trinity; we are not ‘lost in the cosmos’ but instead have a permanent location within Christ. Inside of Christ, we go wherever He goes, including His death, resurrection, ascension, and now in the heavenly realms. We were baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), are united with Him, and thus our union with Him enables us to be with Him right now seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 2:4-7).

“No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor. But if we love one another, God remains united with us, and He makes His permanent home in us and we make our permanent home in Him. His love is then brought to its full expression in us. He has given us His Spirit within us so that we can have the assurance that we remain united with Him and He with us…. Those who confess and give thanks that Jesus is the Son of God remains in union with God, they live inside of God, and God lives inside of them. We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them.” (1 John 4:12-16, The Complete Jewish Bible and The Passion Translation).

St. Paul has confirmed our union within Christ many times, including: “Now you have been united with Christ Jesus and are inside of Him. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13); “There is no condemnation to those who are inside of Christ Jesus, those who belong to Him and are joined in life-union with Him.” (Romans 8:1); “God made this sinless Man to be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with Him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Paul has a very eye-opening passage in 1 Corinthians 6:17 in which he said, “Anyone united with the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” The word Paul used here for “united” could just as well have been “joined to,” or “knit together,” and is the word used in the Greek OT for “cleave” in Genesis 2:24. Paul used a 2-becoming-1 word in the biblical tradition.

In intimate union with Christ, His mind is knit together with our mind. Our mutual indwelling with the Person of God means, among other things, that our minds are joined together and engaged in the process of restoring His image to the way we think.