[We serve in light of eternity, recognizing that one, Christ,] . . . died on behalf of everyone, in order that those who do live might live no longer for themselves but instead for the one who died for them and rose again. Because of this, from now on we are not evaluating anything merely in terms of its natural properties; even if we once considered Christ that way, that’s not how we understand him now. Because of this, anyone who is in Christ experiences the new creation. For such a person, the things that used to be have gone. Consider this: new things have come into being!
—2 Corinthians 5:15–17
For Paul, the mind of love, the mind of faith, the mind of the Spirit, the heavenly mind, the mind of Christ focused on the weakness of the cross, and so on are all the same mind. They are simply different entrances into the same reality in Christ and in the Spirit, approached from different angles, varying according to Paul’s emphasis in a particular passage. In other words, they do not offer us a long list of new rules but instead present various windows on a new reality, each of which takes us to the same place in Christ. Experiencing any of these windows helps one identify the Christ-centered reality that is expressed in the other ways as well.
From the exegesis of the foregoing passages, several features have emerged. Two chapters (chaps. 1 and 3) addressed Paul’s negative characterizations of the mind that lacks the direct action of God’s Spirit. With (Rom. 7:15–25) or without (1:18–32) the full law, passions prevail, preventing what philosophers would consider rational tranquility. The pagan mind of Romans 1:18–32 is ungrateful, failing to acknowledge God’s activity in creation and thus becoming blind to moral truth even on the interhuman level. The mind under the law in Romans 7:7–25 possesses knowledge about what is right without the power to become right; it lacks the transforming truth of the gospel. (Although Paul was addressing specifically the mind informed by the law, the same principles also apply to struggling to fulfill Christian ethics without genuine divine transformation.)
By contrast, other chapters have addressed Paul’s positive characterizations of the mind in Christ. Chapter 2 observed that the mind of faith in Romans 6:11 embraces the believer’s secure identity as a new person because of what Christ has done. Because Christ rather than self is the object of trust for righteousness, those baptized into Christ can leave their justification with him and can live lives of obedience with confidence rather than fear. They may “put on” Christ (Rom. 13:14), viewing themselves as in Christ (perhaps as members of his body envisioning themselves in him in a deeper way than Paul adopted the persona of the flesh in Rom. 7:7–25).
Chapter 4 observed that the mind of the Spirit in Romans 8:5–6 focuses not on the struggles of the flesh, in contrast to the mind under the law in 7:7–25, but on God’s Spirit, who empowers believers to live the right way that God wants. That is, the new framework’s focus is on serving God, rather than on serving one’s own interests, and this focus can be empowered by recognizing one’s dependence on God’s Spirit. Believers remain in the flesh, but in contrast to others who are in the flesh, believers also have the Spirit.
Chapter 5 recognized that Paul’s theme of the mind in Romans climaxes especially in Romans 12. The renewed mind in Romans 12:2 functions in the broader context of salvation history by taking into account God’s wise plan in the past as well as in the age to come. This approach invites an eschatological perspective: it evaluates choices in the present age from the standpoint of the eternal age to come.1 It also functions in the broader context of Christ’s body by seeking to serve that body and by recognizing that every member’s contribution is valuable.
Chapter 6 argued that the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2 includes the divine wisdom revealed in the cross, a wisdom that shames the supposed wisdom of the present world order. Like the mind of Romans 12:2, the mind of 1 Corinthians 2 is also an eschatological wisdom, the revelation and foretaste of God’s future promises by the Spirit. Further, like the mind of Romans 12:2–8 focused on Christ’s body, Christ’s mind in 1 Corinthians 2 is also at odds with the world’s values of rivalry and division. It is, finally, an actual (though not complete) experience of Christ, ideally pervaded by God’s heart, expressed in the fruit of the Spirit and often in intimacy with Christ and sometimes in various ministries, such as those that communicate wisdom, teaching, or prophetic insight. This experience with Christ can be illustrated also in 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Philippians (discussed in chap. 7) depicts the peaceful approach of a mind that leaves ultimate outcomes with God (4:7–8; as in Rom. 8:6); it also invites believers to think the way that Jesus did, in serving the Father even by a humiliating death (Phil. 2:1–11). This letter further invites a heavenly perspective rather than a focus on earthly desires (3:19–21). In a similar way, Colossians 3:1–2 (chap. 8) emphasizes focus on heavenly rather than earthly matters; in particular, this focus involves contemplating Christ and his character and thereby living in accordance with his character.
1. Although Pauline literature may also use the plural “ages” with respect to the future; cf. the idiom often translated “forever” in Rom. 1:25; 9:5; 11:36; 16:27; 2 Cor. 11:31; Gal. 1:5; emphatic in Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18; cf. also 1 Cor. 2:7; 10:11; Eph. 3:9, 11; Phil. 4:20; Col. 1:26; and esp. Eph. 2:7. Mention of the present “age” is always singular, as in Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:20; 2:6, 8; 3:18; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21; 2:2; 1 Tim. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:10; Titus 2:12.