A. Scripture tells us that man does not come to be joined to Christ through the mind because it is hostile to God:

  1. Man's sinful nature rules his carnal mind, nullifying any mental effort to obey God's law or attain true spiritual knowledge of God (Romans 7:14-25). "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:6-7).

  2. Satan uses the mind to keep men in their fallen condition: "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:4).

  3. By not honoring the true God, man's thinking becomes futile, leading him to worship the creature as God (the Lie of Eden and New Age adherents). Scripture says these men who "did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, (Romans 1:18-32; see 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

  4. One who fellowships with "angels" other than the true God has an "fleshly mind" and is "vainly puffed up" (Colossians 2:18-19). Teachers of doctrine not in accord with "wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness . . .is proud, knowing nothing" (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

B. Scripture tells us that man does come to be joined to the Lord (through faith in Him) by the Holy Spirit who renews the mind of the Christian:

  1. When does the Holy Spirit indwell and join Himself to man's spirit? When a man knows and admits to God that he is a sinner by nature and separate from God (Romans 3:23); and when he accepts, by faith, God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the one sin offering for his justification and redemption (John 7:37-39; Ephesians 1:13-14).

  2. 1 Corinthians 2 states that no mind has conceived "the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" except that they be "revealed . . . unto us by his Spirit" (vv. 9-10). This is because "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (v. 11). He alone is the spiritual man's teacher, both in our hearts and when men teach by His teaching them (1 John 2:27).

  3. Man's mind must be brought into subjection to his spirit (which is subject to the Holy Spirit) so the two can work together. The mind is then renewed by the Spirit's Scripture-based teaching, resulting in man having the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2; John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:13-16). The Christian can then test, understand, judge, discern and/or refute spiritual things as it pertains to God's gospel and purposes (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:13-16).

  4. One's renewed mind now cooperates with God (Romans 8:5) to withstand the lies, deceits, and false doctrines of the enemy (fiery darts, Ephesians 6:10-18); it can be "mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).