Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” There is a second benefit to having a renewed mind however, which impacts more on eternity than on this life. At the end of the age all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of their lives on the earth (2 Corinthians 5:10). And so when they stand before the Lord they will be judged not for their salvation, but rather for the works that they have done on the earth. God has His perfect will for each one of His saints and it is up to each one to seek His will for their lives and walk in it. As we have already seen in an earlier passage of scripture it is impossible for the saint to know God’s perfect will for their life without the renewing of their mind. And so as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture those who renew their minds can begin to walk in the specific works that God has prepared for them to complete in this life. Those who choose not to renew their minds however will not know what the good works are that God has prepared for them to walk in, and so subsequently will miss out on their eternal rewards that were laid up in store for them on their day of judgement. Philippians 3:8-15 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; (10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (11) if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (12) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. (13) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (15) therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul talks about the mind of those who are mature in Christ. And so we can see from this passage that there is nothing in this world that the mature believer has any interest in. According to scripture a mature believer is not one who has been in the church for many years, for we have already seen earlier that there are those who have been in the church for many years and sadly are still baby believers. Rather a mature believer is one, who has renewed their minds from carnal thinking to spiritual thinking, and the sole purpose of their lives is to please Christ Jesus, to complete His perfect will for their lives and nothing else matters. The carnal mind does not understand this concept at all however, for it is only the spiritual mind that understands this view of life. And so it is only those who apply themselves to the renewing of their minds that have the potential to attain to maturity in Christ.
Michael E.B. Maher
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