Van-guard (văn’gärd), noun: “The foremost or leading position in a trend or movement.”
the journey forward... exploring the emerging church... navigating spiritual formation... seeking to transform the world... ...through Christ
|
Van-guard (văn’gärd), noun: “The foremost or leading position in a trend or movement.” the journey forward... exploring the emerging church... navigating spiritual formation... seeking to transform the world... ...through Christ |
|
|
Spiritual
Mindset Romans
8:5-8 "Those
who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind
controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the
sinful nature cannot please God." What
marks a Christian? What is the ONE characteristic that is the KEY thing that
says, “Ahh! That’s Christianity!” It
is love. Simple, yet profound. All else falls under that umbrella. Holiness is
love for God. Charity is love for people. Joy is love for God. Kindness is love
for people. Self-control is love for God and people. Love is the leading
indicator of a healthy Christian. You
know that you are really a Christian when your love for God has risen above your
love for any other pleasure. In other words, what marks a Christian is not
sinlessness, it is love. And not just any love, a love that desires more and
more of God and his ways, a love that seeks joy in God and his love more than
anything else. When
God’s grace invades your being, you are moved from one mindset into
another—from the mindset of this-worldliness to the mindset of spirituality.
While you were in the first mindset, all you could do was find meaning and
pleasure in what you could do in your own flesh—in your own strength. You
bought your pleasures there; you built your life there; you even created your
religion there. But
then the reality of God enters that place, and a new regime takes over—the
power of God in his Holy Spirit. You move from that old, fleshly mindset into a
spirituality that changes your whole orientation. You begin to realize that
there is more for you than anything this world can offer. Your inner-being is
transformed, and your whole mindset shifts. Romans
8:5-8 explains this transformation—the change from a natural mindset to a
spiritual mindset. These verses are in our Bibles to help us understand the
change that has occurred in us if we have indeed experienced a true conversion
into a spiritual person through the power of Jesus Christ. It is the blueprint
of what God has made when he makes a Christian. 1.
Two Different Mind-sets (Romans 8:5) "Those
who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
on what the Spirit desires." The NIV adds a word there to make it make sense to the modern reader that is not in the greek text: “live.” The New American Standard reads, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” But
this is not simply talking about a lifestyle--you live a certain way, parroting
what it looks like to be a good Christian. He is not saying, “Hey—start
living like a good Christian! Watch what it looks like to be a Christian, and
follow suit. We want a bunch of cookie-cutter Christians, who dress alike, talk
alike, vote alike, and do everything exactly the same!” No, it goes much, much
deeper than lifestyles and habits and how-to’s. He is describing two
diametrically opposed orientations to life that underlies and controls all that
we are—including how we live, what our priorities are, where we spend out time
and money, and where we seek our pleasure. According
to Paul, we can differentiate between two people-groups. All other distinctions
are less important that this basic classification of all humanity. There are
“those who are according to the flesh,” and “those who are according to
the Spirit.” “Those
who are according to the flesh,” have a certain mindset. They “set their
minds on the things of the flesh.” If you remember, the word “flesh” is
rightly translated as “sinful nature” in the New International Version,
because that original word means more than just our skin, and more than just our
sexual lust (as most of us would naturally think “flesh” means today). The
term represents everything that is “this-worldly” in us—all our
selfishness and weakness mixed with all of our best intentions to do what is
right in our own strength. The flesh is what we can accomplish as natural
people. So,
it makes perfect sense that those who all they are is this natural person would
have their mindset on the things that they can dream up, things they can pursue
for pleasure, even the things they can seek to do for the good of others—all
in the power of their “flesh.” Their
whole orientation in life is centered on earthly things, offering earthly
pay-offs. “Those
who are according to the flesh” are charmed and fascinated and rewarded by the
treasures of this world. They
seek their pleasure in what they can get on their own—in their flesh, in this
world. All
you need to do is look around you to see it. TV shows are the perfect picture of
that mindset. So are the magazines in the check-out in the store. People are
trying all they can to find fun and joy and pleasure and thrills and
gratification and personal aggrandizement in all that is of this world and all
in their own fleshly power. And can you blame them? It’s all they know! It’s
all they can do! It is not something to smugly point at and scoff, but something
to be compassionate toward. They are, in Jesus Christ’s words, like sheep
without a shepherd. But
then there is another category of people: “those who are according to the
Spirit.” This people-group set their minds on the “things of the
Spirit.” Their
whole orientation in life is centered on spiritual things, offering heavenly
pay-offs. “Those who are according to the Spirit” are charmed and
fascinated and rewarded by the treasures from God in heaven. They seek their
pleasure in God and His Will alone. And
(get this!), many fleshly people even seeks to be religious! In the power of
their own natural selves, they set up religions (even quote-unquote “Christian
Religions”) in order to be moral, righteous people. They have an innate desire
to be good, and so they come up with all sorts of rules and rituals to be
religious in their flesh. But
the spiritual person has no need for man-made religion, for he or she has true
spirituality—direct contact with the one true, holy God! And
the Spirit of God makes us “alive to God”—able to love God and desire him
and his ways! You echo verses like these: "My
soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When
can I go and meet with God?" (Psalm
42:2) "O
God, you are my God, earnestly
I seek you; my
soul thirsts for you, my
body longs for you, in
a dry and weary land where
there is no water." (Psalm
63:1) "Whom
have I in heaven but you? And
earth has nothing I desire besides you."
(Psalm 73:25) That
is what a person who has been transformed into a person according to the Spirit
says. What is your mind set upon? The things of the Spirit, or the things of
your sinful nature? What is your mentality in life? What do you dwell upon? What
is the direction of your likes and dislikes? What do you respect and admire?
What do you want out of life? What do you desire more than anything else? Paul
makes a distinction between only TWO types of people in the world, not THREE.
There is not a category that is “kind of according to the Spirit.” Only:
“according to the flesh” and “according to the Spirit.” Look at Paul’s
words in Philippians, and ask yourself, can I echo these words? "But
whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is
more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith
in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to
know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in
his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to
the resurrection from the dead." A
Christian is marked not by sinlessness, but by aspiration! The great Apostle,
Saint Paul, does not claim sinlessness here, but he is clear as to the
orientation of his life: “I want to know Christ! I have thrown all that I
could get in my own fleshly power in this world on the garbage heap! I am
engrossed with Jesus Christ! More of Him! I desire more!” What
sets apart a real Christian is a whole new outlook on life: A desire for
spiritual things far above a desire for earthly things. Why?
Because God knows that the one mindset brings frustration and grief and
ultimately death. The other brings joy and peace and ultimately life! “The
mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and
peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor
can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." Without
the Holy Spirit coming in and transforming us fleshly creatures, all that we are
resists God and his ways. We may not be consciously “hostile to God,” in
fact, many people in the flesh really want to love God! That is Paul’s point
in Romans 7! Before his transformation into a converted Christian, he could NOT
love God the way he wanted to! Though he had an earnest desire to keep God’s
holy law, he could not! Without
the Holy Spirit, we can say “Not my will, but yours be done,” but in
reality, we could not carry through with it, for we always end up doing “my
will” not “God’s will.” So we start to be religious—start being
“good”—as a way to cover up that we are really bad. 2.
So, what’s the problem with me, then? As
a believer, I have to admit something: I am frustrated by the fact that as I
evaluate myself, I find that I may be still living far too much “according to
the flesh!” If this transformation has indeed occurred, then why do I not
experience more life “according to the Spirit?” There
are two possible explanations to this, and the first is pretty harsh. Paul
implies in this section of Romans that there are two kinds of
people—fleshly-minded people and spiritually-minded people. And all Christians
are spiritually-minded people. What identifies a Christian is not the fact that
you raised your hand at a youth camp and prayed a prayer or went forward at an
altar-call. What identifies you as a Christian is your spiritual mind-set. The
Holy Spirit of God is present in you and nurturing in you an attitude of love
for God above all else, and love for others that goes beyond your fleshliness.
If you find that you simply go through the motions of Christianity, but that you
really have no deep desire for God’s love more and more in your life, you may
not even be a Christian! You may have done all the religious things that look
Christian, but true Christianity is more than ritual and rules—it is authentic
spirituality! So, it may be time to assess whether or not you have really been
converted! Conversion is not simply adding Jesus to your portfolio of things
that you think will make your life better. Conversion is doing what Paul said he
did in that passage of Philippians—taking all the garbage of this world and
putting it on the dung-heap, for the joy of having mothing other than Jesus! The
devil will whisper in your ear, “Oh, don’t go overboard! Don’t be a
Jesus-freak! You can be a cool Christian! You can keep all the stuff that brings
you pleasure and just add Jesus to that!” God is trying to tell you the truth:
“True pleasure, inexpressible joy is found in surrendering your entire life to
Jesus!” Most
of us in this church today, however, are indeed true Christians. And we are
carrying the baggage of a Christianity that looked more like religion than
spirituality. We carry the baggage of feeling guilty all the time for not living
up to some unspoken standard of righteousness for Christians. Some of us have
surrendered to the fact that we will never make it to that elusive level of
“super-Christian.” We will just muddle along as some sub-par Christian. That
is not God’s will for you! He wants you to experience all that he has for you!
And here is how! Turn to Colossians, chapter 3. In this chapter, Paul gives
advice to those of us who are struggling to make this shift practical. Since,
then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where
Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not
on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in
glory." In
other words, become what you have been made and are becoming in the power of
God! This is the way true Christianity works! God declares us to be righteous,
to have been raised to a new life from the deadness of who we once were. Then he
says, Now you have the power to actually become what I have declared you to be!
Now that you are spiritual, you are commanded to “set your hearts on things
above.” Without experiencing true conversion, you would have no power to do
so, but now you do! But
we must still choose to do so! We have to choose to, according to verse 2,
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” We have to choose,
according to verses 5-11, to “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to
your earthly nature.” We
have to choose, according to verses 12-15, to clothe ourselves in all that is
loving: “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” We
have to choose, according to verse 16, to “let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly.” This
is not, “Let go and let God.” This is cooperating with God, in each of our
decisions, to become what we have already been declared to be, and what God has
committed to making us, “being confident of this, that he who began a good
work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:6) |
|
Ministry Transformation- The Emerging Church Personal Transformation- Spiritual Formation World Transformation- Social Action Interact with Bob Robinson about the emerging church, spiritual formation, or social action by e-mailing vanguard church with your comments. |
