THE MIND OF DIVINE PERSONS

Romans 11:34,35; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5

These three passages refer to three distinct and glorious things – the mind of the Lord, the mind of Christ, and the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Our brother’s prayer has encouraged me to speak because this verse in Romans 11, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” takes us back before time was. It takes us back to divine thoughts, divine foreknowledge, divine purpose and counsel. They existed before time was, a great divine plan. It was the mind of the Lord. The reference to the Lord here is to the One who was known as Jehovah in the Old Testament. That is how God was known then, as we see in Isaiah 40:13 which the apostle quotes from.

Who has known God’s mind? His mind was not known then to His people Israel even in a broad sense. The prophets desired to understand the things of which they spoke (1 Pet.1:10-12). How much was in God’s mind before time was. There was so much that has come out through the teaching in the New Testament, particularly the teaching of the apostle Paul which opens up what was in the divine mind. The whole of the period of time from the creation onwards has been used for the working out of what was in God’s mind. How great it is and how wise! How the working out of it has been achieved so that He should have man acceptable to Him, able to be in His presence responsively to Him, that He should have Christ and the assembly setting out His great thoughts for man.

Think of the greatness of what was in the mind of God before time was; as it says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”. Who could have input into that mind? Who could have suggested anything? As men, we like to have input into things. We see a plan, we see something that someone arranges and we like to have some input into it, but who could put anything into the great divine arrangements? Think of all the glory of all that there ever was in the heart of God and in the mind of the Lord. Every detail has been foreknown; every detail of our lives has been foreknown. We may not know why things happen; we may not know why we go through exercises, why we go through experiences even in our day to day life, but God knows. The Lord knows. These things are all in His mind. They are all there in view of the working out of His great end that there should be a glorious answer to Himself.

No wonder the apostle goes on, “For of him, and through him, and for him are all things”. You see God as the great source of everything. You see Him coming out in the person of Jesus, by whom everything was brought about. You see that everything has been brought about for God’s own glory. “For of him, and through him, and for him are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen”. Now we would all say ‘Amen’ to that, as we take account of the greatness of God and the greatness of what the apostle speaks of here as the mind of the Lord.

Paul refers to it again in the verse read in 1 Corinthians, where he speaks of it in a practical sense; Paul’s writing had a practical bearing upon those to whom he wrote. Corinth was not a very happy meeting and there were many troubles. First of all, Paul brings in the truth of the cross. That is fundamental – the teaching of the cross. What happened at the cross was that what man is morally, in flesh and blood, was exposed and condemned. The judgment of God came at the cross. The Lord Jesus bore that judgment; He bore it as a Man in flesh and blood condition. And if He bore that judgment, it shows that God has finished with man in flesh and blood conditions, when man was so greatly exposed there. God has another Man in view, a Man of another order. It is in that Man that all His thoughts, all that was in God’s mind, is going to be carried through. The natural mind has nothing to do with that – it is not according to the natural mind of man. The apostle had also spoken of the Holy Spirit; he says that the things of God can only be understood by the Spirit (v.14). The mind of the flesh, the natural mind, does not understand the things of the Spirit because they are folly to it. As having the gift of the Holy Spirit, believers have the capability of understanding the things of the Spirit. The things of the Spirit are in total contrast to the things of the flesh.

Well, the Holy Spirit’s primary service is to engage us with Christ. The Lord Jesus is the One who is now in glory, who is beyond every scene of difficulty and trouble. He is now exalted, and in the earlier chapter it says that He has been “made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Cor.1:30. If we seek for these things, we find them in Christ. He has been made to us these things.

So having spoken of the cross and the setting aside of man according to the flesh and then having introduced the Holy Spirit as the means by which we can understand divine things, the apostle then says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord”. Again, that expression “the mind of the Lord”. The mind of man cannot understand these things. But then Paul goes on and says, “we have the mind of Christ”. That is not only what His thoughts are, but to have that faculty, the ability – if you have someone’s mind, you know how they think. Very often people may think that they understand someone, but they do not because they do not think in the same way. If you have somebody’s mind, you understand the way they think, so the apostle says here “we have the mind of Christ”.

One thing that affected me about this was when I came across a remark about “But we have the mind of Christ”, and somebody asked if the “we” referred to the apostles. And the answer was, ‘Having it refers to being Christian’¹. How can that be? Because normally, Christians have the Holy Spirit. As such, we have the ability to have the mind of Christ, to think as He thinks. His priorities become our priorities; the things that He loves become the things that we love. We have His mind and we seek always to be moving here in accordance with the way in which He would move, the way in which He did move, and to see things in the way in which He saw them.

You think of the Lord Jesus. I have often thought that wherever any question may rise, the Lord Jesus has a view about it. And the apostle says, “we have the mind of Christ”; we can have that view, we can have the same view as He has. We are able to think as He does. I am tested about that, very much so. How much do I know of it? I am sure we have all had the experience of crying to the Lord for His mind about a particular matter, maybe some adjustment of our own view or whatever it may be, and He gives the answer. By the Spirit we are to have that intelligent faculty – “we have the mind of Christ”.

In Philippians 2 it is the “mind … which was also in Christ Jesus”. It seems to me that what Paul has in view here is really the result in believers of their taking up what he had written to the Corinthians. If we accept the cross, if we accept the teaching of it that I am nothing, that all that I am according to nature has been ended at the cross of Jesus, then the power of my life from henceforth must be in the Holy Spirit. I must walk in the Spirit. We find that there will be in result the “mind … which was also in Christ Jesus”; it is that going down mind. It led Him down to the cross, it led Him to the ultimate sacrifice, even to death and that a death of intense suffering and shame. You think of the Lord Jesus going that way. This passage is often referred to as the downward steps that the Lord Jesus took to the cross. As we ponder those steps, what would it make of us? The “mind … which was also in Christ Jesus” makes nothing of us, but it makes everything of Him, and we are to display that mind.

I often think of that verse in Luke 10 where it says of the lawyer, “he, desirous of justifying himself …” (v.29). The Lord Jesus never justified himself. In fact, that is one thing it says He did not do (Isa.53:7). He did not glorify Himself, He did not please Himself, He did not justify Himself. He went down, He went down right to death. He accepted it for Himself although it had no claim upon Him. He accepted that pathway and the apostle was saying, “For let this mind be in you”. Christ has shown us the way. Corinthians shows us the way, the way of the cross, the way of the Spirit guiding our pathway here. If Christians are really formed inwardly by these great elements of Paul’s ministry, that will, I believe, ensure that this mind will be seen amongst them.

Well, this is just a simple impression I had before this occasion. I was encouraged by the reference in our brother’s prayer to what was foreknown and the greatness of divine ways, so it encouraged me to take that up as to the mind of the Lord. I trust that the Lord may bless the word.

 

Given at a meeting for ministry, Buckhurst Hill

7 September 2021

 

 

Andrew Martin

 

 

 

Edited and published monthly by John Brown and Paul Martin

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