The Word of God praises the role of the mind as an essential
part of doing what is right and our growing through sanctification. Our faith emphasises
the truth that how we behave and what we think (believe) influence each other. What
we think and believe and what we do, act on each other.
When we alter the gospel, both our ways and views
change. When we stop seeking to do what
is right and holy, our thinking and understanding of the gospel slithers too.
Note Ephesians
4:17 – 20 on this relationship between not
living according to the Word and futile thinking: “So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that
you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They
are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them
due to the hardness of their hearts. Because they are callous, they have given themselves
over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
But you did not learn about Christ like this!”
The
gospel is not something we learn in order to do right!
No, the
gospel is, by the work of the Holy
Spirit, the powerful word of God that achieves the authenticity of the salvation
that the Spirit proclaims through our lives. Therefore the gospel is a lot
more than “information” or even “salvation history”!
No, the gospel is what Christ did and lived, so that we too may live. The
gospel is the truth that re-creates us and through our teaching, re-creates the
world.
This is
why the Christian’s mind is important: we act out of who we are. The Spirit who
changed our minds about Christ, also changes our ways into an identity that lives
for God and for my neighbour.
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