The Mind of Christ – Metanoia!

The Mind of Christ – Metanoia!

“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.

“Repent! (Metanoia – Change your mind!) For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (John the Baptist, Matthew 3:1).

“Repent! (Metanoia!) For the kingdom of heaven is within reach, close enough to touch! The kingdom is now accessible to all of you, standing right here in your midst!” (Jesus, Matthew 4:17).

“Repent! (Metanoia!) and be baptized every one you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Peter, Acts 2:38).

“The kindness and generosity of God is intended to lead you to repentance (metanoia).” (Paul, Romans 2:4).

“Repent! (Metanoia!) and do the works of love you did at first.” (John, Revelations 2:5).

“Metanoia” is a Greek term that literally means “change the mind” and is generally translated as “repent.” The basic Biblical understanding of repent is not that of shame or guilt or judgment. Repent means to change your way of thinking; to participate in a major rethinking; a radical turning around of direction; a total about-face; to reorient one’s perspective; to think differently in a significant way; to drastically change one’s mental attitude; a fundamental shifting of how the mind’s eye sees and understands life. Implied in metanoia is to change one’s mind for the better; to turn from the wrong direction and start going in the right direction; to shift from an unwillingness to believe to an attitude of belief; to redirect one’s focus on the self to a focus on God; make a 180-degree turn away from sin toward God; to transform one’s deep convictions from ungodly to godly.

The Hebrew Heart. The Hebrew understanding of heart is that it included the mind as well as the emotions, one’s thoughts as well as one’s actions, the intellect as well as the conscience. So metanoia, to change the mind, was understood to mean to change one’s whole life…. The way one thought, behaved, made decisions, expressed emotions. Metanoia was a complete turnaround in one’s life and not limited to just a mental exercise. Changing one’s mind had to be fleshed out or it wasn’t genuine. The change of attitude needed to be followed by a change of behavior, or the change of mind didn’t mean much of anything. There needed to be proofs of repentance in the way one lived one’s life. Thinking and doing are two sides of the same coin in biblical faith. The Jewish understanding of metanoia was that a change of mind necessarily reflected a dramatic change of heart.

The First Thing. What was John the Baptist’s first word out of his mouth right there on the banks of the Jordan River? What was the first word spoken by Jesus as He began His public ministry, proclaiming the good news of the Gospel? What always seemed to be on the top of Peter’s mind after Pentecost? And what were Paul and John focused on during their ministries? That right: Repent! Metanoia! It is significant, especially, that metanoia was the first order of spiritual business that Jesus concentrated on. Step #1 was to repent, with metanoia the centerpiece of Christ’s ministry right from the start.

The Mind of Adam. Why was there such an emphasis on changing one’s mind in the process of salvation? Christian teaching is clear… We human beings are naturally oriented towards ourselves and not  toward God. We are far away from God in our natural state of mind. Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians that we were once distant from God, with a hostile attitude toward Him, and in our mind considered God to be an enemy (Col 1:21). It’s not surprising then, that there are biblical scholars who believe that metanoia goes well beyond simply changing one’s mind. For many, Metanoia implies that a person takes another mind altogether. We don’t simply replace a bad attitude with a good attitude, or misguided motivations with well-guided ones. Spiritually speaking, metanoia means we have decided to let go of our old mind and accept another mind altogether. We have rejected the mind of Adam and accepted the mind of Christ. Instead of living by the thoughts of our natural inclinations, we have decided to have our thoughts formed by Christ.

Grace. We all know that a leopard can’t change its spots. We know intuitively that a person doesn’t have what it takes to simply accept another completely different mind. A natural person doesn’t have the remotest chance of doing something supernatural. There is a mystery here of God’s initiative mingling with our willingness to participate in this change of mind. Grace is God’s first step in enabling us to take our first step. The Lord knows when there is the slightest crack in the concrete wall of our heart. God knows when we have even the tiniest amount of openness in our spirit to doing a spiritual about-face. In gaining the mind of Christ, grace makes it happen through His Holy Spirit as we extend the most meager effort of cooperating with Him. Christ’s mind in us is the mysterious result of His grace and our mustard seed of faith. On the one hand, we are saved by grace and not by works. On the other hand, we have been granted the grace of free will and a functioning mind. Both are true at the same time. Go figure.