Transformed by the Renewed Mind
Stop being outwardly conformed to this age, but be transformed by your renewed mind, for the purpose that you approve what is the desirous will of God, the good and acceptable and well pleasing (Romans 12:2).
One impact of salvation is that we have a renewed mind that can understand spiritual things. The mind is a part of our intelligence and consciousness, expressed through thoughts, perceptions, memories, emotions, imaginations, desires, decisions, and determinations, all unique to each person. Therefore, the way we think changes.
Through Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead three days later, salvation is offered to us by grace through faith. When we express faith in Christ concerning these truths, God places His seed within us, and we are born again. This is not a physical re-birth, but a spiritual one. This new birth transforms the way we think, enabling us to discern and understand the truth, and produces within us a renewed mind. The more we use our renewed mind, the more our lives are transformed—from brokenness to healing, from sorrow to joy, from pain to restoration. This change does not happen because we are promised health, wealth, or happiness in this life, but because even in our weakness, God is strong; even when our bodies fail, His promises remain.
When we apply this new mind, which aligns with the truth, we are transformed, like those who, with unveiled faces, behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror. This renewed mind changes the way we view life, transforming us into the image of who we are in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). This involves putting off our old nature, which grows corrupt through the strong desires of the flesh and held us in bondage to its corruption, and we put on the new man, who is created in righteousness and the piety of the truth—living a life separated unto God. In this way, we are outwardly transformed to reflect who we are inwardly.
Moses put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not see the light that shone from his face fade (2 Corinthians 3:13). When he spent time in the presence of the Lord, his body emitted a brighter light, showing God’s opinion of him as one to whom God imputed righteousness. This veil remains on the minds of the Jews to this day when they read the Law, not seeing its glory fading away for a greater righteousness in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:15).
For Christians, we do not have a veil; therefore, as we spend time in the Word and with other saints, growing and maturing in Christ, we are able to see the truth clearly. This truth is then reflected in our lives as it transforms us into the image of Christ—the new creation we are part of, in which Christ is the head and we are the body; a new man who is created in righteousness and piety of the truth (Ephesians 4:24). Thus, the more time we spend with the Lord, the brighter we shine to those around us, being luminaries to a world living in darkness as we shed our former life and put on the new (Philippians 2:15).
Therefore, let us not put on a mask, as though we are under the burden of the Law; rather, let us live out the freedom we have in Christ to be righteous by allowing the renewed mind to transform us through grace and faith so that those around us see the transformation that is happening within us.
But we all, with unveiled faces, reflect as in a mirror the proper opinion of the Lord, while being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).