RENEWAL
[p. 139] RENEWAL
Romans 12: 2; Colossians 3: 9 - 11; 2 Corinthians 4: 16 - 18
JT It is in mind to speak together about renewing; firstly, with regard to the mind; secondly, renewal in knowledge, and thirdly, in the inner man. It is desired that the subject thus divided may be used of the Lord to help us as to the necessity for freshness in the things of God. The mind, it seems, comes first in order if the truth before us is to be understood. We have an added thought in Ephesians 4: 23, to what is said in Romans 12, namely, “renewed in the spirit of your mind”. But the mind itself is in view in Romans as initial; Romans is foundational as to every feature. What underlies chapter 12 is the statement at the end of chapter 7 by the writer of the epistle, as to what he had reached through the analysis described in that chapter. He had reached control of his mind: “I myself with the mind serve God’s law” (verse 25). The believer is in deliverance as that verse indicates; he is in control of his mind. There is always the danger with us of being controlled by our minds, whereas the believer is viewed as in control himself, being viewed in a way, as an institution of which he is in control. “I myself” he says, will serve God’s law. We know how man naturally is swayed by his mind. It serves the enemy, Satan; but as a responsible being enlightened of God, he begins by controlling his mind and using it to serve God’s law. He thus becomes law-abiding, corresponding with Christ who had the law of God in His heart. We come into that by renewal. The principle of new birth must enter into all our faculties, but for renewal, we need the Spirit which is given us, which the believer characteristically has. In Titus 3: 5 it [p. 140] speaks of the renewal of the Holy Spirit which God has shed on us abundantly. So the presence of the Holy Spirit implies renewal in every sense in us; but first, in regard of the mind. The danger of conformation to the world is in mind in Romans 12, and the corrective for that lies in the renewal of the mind. We are transformed by the renewing of our mind.
HPW What is the main thought in renewal?
JT It is a word which denotes both freshness and what is wholly new; something entirely different from what has been understood before. It implies initially, as in Romans, a radical change in our mental outlook, involving transformation. ‘Conformation’ is used as to the world, but this is a stronger word, ‘transformation’, that is a complete change, and it takes place by the renewing of our mind. I suppose no one would undertake to define the process of being wholly spiritual, yet it is a process of which we are conscious; it is a change of outlook. If it is not so with any believer, he had better see why it is not so.
HPW You said it was by the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit serves us in this way as we are subject to the Lord?
JT That is what I understand. The word in Titus 3: 5 - 7, is very full and covers all this; it speaks of “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour”. There is no lack on His side.
FWW Where does our having the mind of Christ come in?
JT It is very much in line with what we are saying. The word’mind’there refers to the thinking faculty; our minds take on that character which is consequent on their renewal; for no one could have that mind apart from the Holy Spirit.
FWW It is evidently a new kind of mind.
JT It is the very opposite to what is in the world.
[p. 141] Man left to himself did not like to retain God in his knowledge, and God gave them up to a reprobate mind. It is the very opposite to Christ; His thought was to make everything of God, so the renewed mind brings God in, and how important that He should be brought in!
CHB Is the service of God in mind in this chapter, in presenting our bodies a “living sacrifice”? Would the mind be in keeping with that?
JT Quite so. We are to present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. That word ‘intelligent’ involves our minds. Then this matter of renewal is brought in because of the danger of the world. It involves our being transformed by the renewal of our minds. Intelligent service would denote priestly service. The priest knows what to do.
HB What is the bearing of the body on it?
JT The body is the vehicle of all this. It is a substantial thought, a concrete thought. The apostle’s desire was that our whole spirit, and soul, and body should be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 Thessalonians 5: 23. We cannot be in the service of God in a practical way apart from our bodies. We need them in fact for everything the service of God requires. The point is our attitude of mind in the presentation; the attitude in which we hold our bodies, as already presented to God, never to be recalled. Our baptism sets it out. Our bodies are called ‘living’, they can only be living as Christ is in them, and the Spirit has scope in us. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”, Romans 8: 10. Here, it is a “living sacrifice”.
WGL Is it seen in the book of Job that there is a conflict with the mind? He was suffering in body and mind.
JT Yes; it may be that discipline is needed, but [p. 142] that in itself would not do. The body is not made alive by discipline, but by the Spirit. The discipline Job went through set him free, but the body is set free by the Spirit. Our bodies are still mortal, but living as we have the Spirit.
Ques Should our thinking and outlook be secured in relation to God’s outlook?
JT Yes, the body is brought into activity by Christ being in us. The body by its natural appetite and feelings is rendered dead, but the Spirit is life, because Christ is in us. The Samaritan woman in John 4 is a good illustration of it. She had a body that had been discredited, but the Lord instructed her as to the use of her body; it was to be a vessel of living water. She takes that in, and leaves her waterpot, the natural thing, understanding that her body was a vessel. But how could that body become dead? The later statement, that she went to the men, means that she was in deliverance; she was immune from their influence. She influences them for Christ, saying, “Is not he the Christ?” The secret of that was that Christ was in her.
EuR Would it mean that He was in her affections?
JT Yes. She had not the Spirit yet, but the light of living water; her body was to be the vessel of it. The way she speaks of Christ (and she is the only one to whom He communicates that He is the Christ), was because He was in her, and she could present her body a living sacrifice, and her testimony was effective on these lines.
HMS The renewing of the mind here has a very definite object, that we might prove the will of God; is that not to be proved apart from this renewal?
JT Apparently not: “that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” — “to your proving” it means; it is an element in the [p. 143] proving; it is taken in by our minds, but the proving it lies in a renewed mind.
HPW Supposing the gospel really lays hold of a person, there is from the outset a completely different outlook; this is a process that goes on from that time, and works out a transformation in the believer That is how it seems to stand. It is a process: “to your proving”, that is, you are in the process. In chapter 7 we have the remarkable account of the proving our inward state, and how one gets out of it by the process of having the mind under control. Then the next thing is that the mind is to be renewed to the proving of “the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”; every moment we realise that the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect in itself.
JTJr Is this an appeal to us on the responsible side? If so, where does the work of the Spirit come in?
JT The work of the Spirit is contingent upon our acceptance of responsibility. Man is a responsible being, and as indicated earlier in the book, scope is made for the Spirit. The Spirit is here in abundance, but our wills interfere; the un-renewed mind would interfere. The truth is progressive; the more we advance in this, the more rapid will be the vessel’s formation for the will of God — that “good and acceptable and perfect” will of God. It arrives at what Christ loved.
EuR Does it involve that the Spirit is free in an experimental way? The princes digged the well at the direction of the lawgiver — as in subjection to the law.
JT Yes, it was at the direction of the lawgiver. We have in Hagar, for instance, the thought of responsibility accepted. She cast her child away, relinquishing responsibility, as much as to say, My case is impossible, I cannot go on. She cast the child [p. 144] under one of the shrubs, but the angel says, “Arise, take the lad, and hold him in thy hand”, Genesis 21: 18. ‘Hold him in your hand’ is the acceptance of responsibility. Then the angel showed her the well. The well is available as I accept my responsibility. So when you come to Moses, he sat by a well; he had not given up his responsibility. In Egypt he went out to visit his brethren, that was responsibility accepted; he knew it. As a child “fair to God” he was to be for God. His mother had that idea. There were three women engaged in his salvation. But when he came to years, he relinquished his place in Pharaoh’s house, and went out to see his brethren. They did not accept him; they did not discern what God had put upon him; he went and sat by a well; the fulfilling of his responsibility depended on that well. There must be the acceptance of responsibility, and moving on that we get the Spirit. Moses’ mind must have changed for he was a great man in Egypt, brought up in Pharaoh’s house. He told Jehovah he could not speak. There was a change in his outlook, but forty years were needed before he became the great vessel we read of in Scripture. Anyone could see what a change had come about, and that is the idea in each of us.
EuR Is Romans 12: 3 a little like that — “not to have high thoughts”?
JT Quite so. He is controlling his mind, for the mind is very variable unless kept in control. The control makes it subject. So it says, “Through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think; but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith”. That is how we come into the service of God: each learning his measure.
HMS Can you tell us what is available for this — we want some substance for renewal?
[p. 145] JT Well, it is the Spirit. It is a question of the action of the Spirit on the mind. You cannot define the mind; it is a faculty the Spirit can act upon. It involves the person — spirit, soul and body. The mind there would be associated with the spirit. Man being a tripartite being, spirit, soul and body; his spirit is himself, it includes the mind and soul; but it is the higher part of man, that in which he is in touch with God. The spirit returns to God who gave it; Ecclesiastes 12: 7. The mind is subservient to it.
HB So God is mentioned four times in these three verses. Does what you were saying in the beginning come in here — the compassions of God, acceptable to God, the perfect will of God, and, as God hath dealt to each a measure of faith? Would that be in contrast to the world?
JT Very good; verse 1 speaks of the compassions of God, and you can see what the gospel has done for man, so complete is the change. Naturally, left to himself, man shuts God out; he did not like to retain God in his thoughts, but how different this is! These compassions are presented in the teaching of the book; it is putting you almost in a bond although beseeching you, but morally you are under a bond by the compassions of God.
Ques Would the Spirit of God represent the fine feelings of God? The Spirit of God moving over the face of the deep — would the compassions of God be in line with that?
JT I suppose the Spirit of God is God Himself. In that way He is distinct, as the Father and the Son, but expressive of divine feelings and sympathies; hovering over the face of the deep and then striving with men.
HMS We are to think so as to be wise, what are we to think about?
JT You are to do it; wise,”that is the believer; to” think so as to be “I myself”. It is not simply ‘I’, but myself in consciousness, intelligently. Now what are you going to do with the mind? To serve God’s will. It is a question of the attitude in which you hold it, so you are thinking in order that you might be wise, and there is exercise in every difficulty. That is how to develop wisdom. God gives to each a measure of faith, and I want to understand that, so that I am not inflated by anything; I think so as to be wise.
Ques Would a measure of faith be given in relation to verse 1?
JT Yes. You reach the body that way, the one body in Christ; wise thinking leads us to that. It gives us no status in the world, but outside the world. On the line of thinking wisely, we look at the brethren in that way: others have the Spirit as well as I.
WGL Would this be seen at the end of Exodus?
JT Quite so. The idea of wisdom runs through Exodus, especially as to building.
SCT Do we come into this in Philippians 4: 8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true ... think on these things”? Is this something for the mind?
JT That is good; it is quite a field for the mind. The mind is occupied with what is positively good; you become nourished in that way.
HMS Can we not say that the will of God which is to occupy our minds is of great variety, and we are to understand there is plenty to think about?
JT Yes, indeed. Man shut God out of his world, but here you come into God’s world. The newspapers show every day how much there is to think about in man’s world, but this line of thinking brings us into God’s world, which is infinite.
Ques Would you say that the instructions given here are a regulation of the mind, so that we do not overstep the mark with regard to spiritual matters?
JT I think the one body in Christ would put us [p. 147] in relation with one another on the line we are speaking about — thinking of others.
CHB Is the contemplation of Christ according to Philippians 2 a governing principle? This mind being in Him.
JT Quite so; that rule of which we are speaking brings us on to that. We can understand Philippians is in advance of Romans, but the same thought runs through, and Christ is the expression of it all. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus;”
Philippians 2: 5. That is the readiness to descend. It is a mind free from rivalry and division. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. It is the descending mind that Philippians treats of there. Every man, beginning with Adam, had an ascending mind; Satan put that into his mind, “Ye will be as God”. The Lord Jesus is the opposite to that. It is our salvation, for naturally we rise in ambition, but the mind of Christ is descending. He ascends, too, and rightly, for He is divine; He ascends to His Father; but this is to bring out the kind of mind there is in Christ.
FAP Does the beginning of Colossians 3 suggest the course the renewed mind would take when it says, “Have your mind on the things that are above”?
JT Exactly; it shows you have authority over your mind and can set it where you please.
ATS Would this bring in the recovery of man for God? We read of men’s minds being blinded by the god of this world; 2 Corinthians 4: 4.
JT Yes, making room for God; in chapter 1 He is shut out, but here He is brought in.
FAP “Going along with the lowly” (verse 16), is that definitely moving along to [p. 148] God?
JT Yes, like Jesus. He is found in figure as a Man (Philippians 2), “taking his place in the likeness of men”, that is not simply in man’s race, but in what men are ordinarily, apart from sin. There was no attempt to better His circumstances; He came in a Man among men, holy, harmless, undefiled, but a Man amongst men, making no attempt to be superior on human lines.
JTJr Will you say a word on transformation? What is the idea of it?
JT It is a substantial thing — a more substantial thought, corresponding to what we get elsewhere, “transformed ... from glory to glory”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18. It is a real change.
JPH We get help as we commit our minds to these things; it says, “that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. Is there any proving unless we commit ourselves on this line?
JT Well, you can see what a great man a christian is, what a victorious man he is! He is in control of himself. The demoniac would be the extreme opposite: he was a man out of control, he was under the control of the devil. All the efforts of man’s world failed to keep that man right; his name was Legion. But he is delivered, and found sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.
What a victorious thing that was! “Sitting ... at the feet of Jesus”. What will not Jesus make out of such a man? He is one of the parts of the assembly. Romans builds up assembly material. Luke 8 shows us the component parts of the assembly in the man in his right mind; the woman who told all the truth, and then the girl raised up by Christ. These are the component parts of the assembly: the man, the woman and the child. The man is in control of his mind, he is “sitting, clothed and sensible, at the feet of Jesus”. “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice,
[p. 149] but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion” — that is, a sound mind. So it is complete victory; one moves about here in this world for God with the mind in control.
FAP Would sitting at the feet of Jesus, as the demoniac was, be in contrast to Eve, who came under the influence of Satan by way of aspirations?
JT Quite so. Then Corinthians links the assembly and the thought of wisdom: “Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God”,
1 Corinthians 1: 30. That is what He is towards us taken in by the mind; we develop on these lines by the Spirit.
Now the next point is renewed knowledge according to Colossians 3: 10, “having put on the new (man), renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”. We are here evidently in advance on Romans, for it is the kind of knowledge that is renewed: “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that created him”; that is, he is to be in the image of God.
Ques This would be the very opposite to Genesis 3?
JT “God created Man in his image”, we read in Genesis 1: 27, “in the image of God created he him”. He lost that through his mind and went so far as to exclude God from his thoughts, a terrible thing! But the new man is fresh, like a young man; it is not aged, and never will be. In the knowledge there is the representation of God; it is “him that created him” so the new man is a creation, as the old was. Our Creator would have us to represent Him permanently; hence the importance of controlling our minds in order to develop in this knowledge.
HMS What a great height and dignity attaches to the Christian life — the image of God.
JT How important in any of our localities is our representation of God in our knowledge. The Lord [p. 150] speaks in John 10 about knowing the sheep and the sheep knowing Him, as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father (verses 14, 15). That is remarkable. It is an elevated kind of knowledge into which we come.
Rem You are brought into something, that is, full knowledge according to Christ; you are brought ‘into’ something that is already there.
JT Quite so: that kind of knowledge. It is the complete victory of God on the line of knowledge in man.
SCT In Jeremiah 9: 24, we have “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me”.
JT It works out that way; it is a question of the new man here, young, and fresh and delightful to God. It is said of the Lord Jesus in Mark 10, that He looked on the young man and loved him. How difficult it was for that young man to leave all; he had much wealth and went away grieved. The Lord could not look on him again and love him; he had turned away from the best possible portion. But the new man is delightful to God; you want to be in that. There is only one new man.
CHB Is power for service found in God’s knowledge?
JT It is quite clear that we must know God to worship and serve Him. Paul said at Athens where they had an altar to the unknown God, “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship ...”; therefore their worship was derogatory to God. The new man is renewed into full knowledge. The word new in ‘renewed’ is different from that used of the new man; it means different from any other knowledge; it is “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him” — that is, made entirely new, not like anything that has ever been before. It is to bring us into the greatness of the [p. 151] position in the assembly, as renewed into the kind of knowledge that is in our Creator. The Lord puts it in John 10: 15, “As the Father knows me and I know the Father”. John 17 tells us “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. So all this is to bring out representation of God in the sense of knowledge; we are like Him, like our Creator.
EuR “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew ...”
JT You can scarcely find the Greeks today, the Jews are the same as they used to be, but verse 11 shows such nationalities from the highest to the lowest in the scale, from the standpoint of knowledge; they do not appear in the new man; they appear in this world, but not in God’s world. This is knowledge after the Creator.
JTJr Is it distinct from “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things”?
JT It goes with this; it is from “the Holy One”. The point in renewal here is that it is made different; “Having put on the new, renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him” — the image of God, whether it be God or Christ. John would link both. So in his gospel in chapter 20, we have the idea of representation. Throughout the gospel we have confirmation in the position taken up by the believer; the Lord would hold Nathanael in the position in which he has come out to Him; and again in chapter 9, the man is held in the knowledge of the Son of God. We are held outside the world by the knowledge Christ gives to us. In chapter 20 He comes and stands in the midst, and all is well; there is no complaint: the disciples say nothing; Christ says everything, but they are to be held in that joyous state. The Lord confirms them, saying, “Peace” twice. Then He says, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”. They are to be representative here, and as representative they have got His [p. 152] Spirit; He breathes into them. Every representative of Christ must be like Him by His Spirit; our administration for the assembly lies there: “whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”. He is represented, as the Father was in Him, so we are representative of Him.
FWO Is that why this section begins with lying, which brings in misrepresentation?
JT Quite so; no liar can represent God. Satan is a liar, he is against God; and all lying is a misrepresentation of God.
FWO I suppose the kind of person who has put on the new man, and is renewed, is still capable of acting so as to misrepresent, unless he is under control so as not to do so?
JT That is an important matter. The new man is under God’s eye down here; we have put off the old, and put on that which is new and fresh. There is only one new man, but everyone that has part in it has Christ in him; Christ is “everything, and in all”. What a renewal! What a world where Christ is everything! He is all in all. We all love Him. These traits are seen in us; He is all to us objectively, and He is in us subjectively.
Rem Is not the great point, therefore, to get our minds off things here, and on to that Person?
JT That is just what it is. All ministry has this in mind. Christ is presented and becomes more and more to you, and then He fills you. I suppose that was so with the woman of Samaria, Christ was in her — He was filling her, so she says to the men, “Come, see a man” — and they recognise her saying and come to Him themselves. Then the Lord abode there two days in answer to their request. She had said He “told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” But they say, “We have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world”. They get a greater thought of Him; He is everything.
HMS Is all this involved in the renewal of the inner man?
JT That is the next thing. In 2 Corinthians 4: 16 we read, “Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day”. It goes on to say, “While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen”. The ‘looking’ here corresponds with the word in Colossians, “Have your mind on the things that are above”; here we are looking at the unseen eternal things.
HB Why is this put at the close of the chapter?
JT I think the apostle is coming on to dissolution, coming on to death if necessary. He has already said our bodies are mortal; that means we are liable to death at any time, according to the will of God. This section should be read by the elder ones, but by all, so as to see what we are building up and what provision we are making. Are we making provision for a proper exit either by death, or the Lord’s coming? Unless we are, we shall not care to leave this scene; if we are not looking at unseen things, we shall not be ready for them. The renewal of the inner man would prepare us for that — for the crossing of the Jordan. It is well to ask, “How wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12: 5. It is an important matter to lay up in store on the banks of the Jordan. There is the building up of the inner man. We all experience as we get on in years, that death is working in us more and more.
EuR Colossians says, “Have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth”. We look here on the things above, keeping constant control of our minds, “while we look not at the things ... seen”.
JT The “inward man” being renewed day by [p. 154] day, makes it a daily matter. Can I discern that freshening of my inner being, governed by what one is spiritually?
JT-r Is it by the work of God in us, or is it by way of responsibility?
JT There is the idea of responsibility going right through all this. It is put, “Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day”. But then there is a ‘for’. “For our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen”. It is very much in line with the end of the previous chapter; our transformation is by looking at the glory of the Lord, but it is “by the Lord the Spirit”: He has to do with it. The renewal is by God, and evidently because we are looking. It is the way we reckon things and look at things — eternal things.
FAP Would not Jacob be an example of this? There is the evidence of the outward perishing; he worshipped leaning upon his staff.
JT That is a very good illustration; leaning on his staff suggests experience gained. How are we developing? What have I got at the end of my days to lean upon? The Lord, of course. This building up of the constitution by renewal of the inner man, would make one conscious of power in the soul.
HPW No doubt many of us are greatly challenged, as to whether we really understand the renewal day by day, governed by the outlook of the soul.
JT What would help is the daily offerings in Numbers 28, the morning and evening lamb. The evening lamb would mean that I have lost nothing, possibly there is more than I had in the morning. Renewal must have gone on during the day, or I should be drooping in the evening and unable to rise [p. 155] to the height of my calling. The evening lamb would keep me balanced day by day. These offerings come daily in our worship and soul experience. Then, too, there are the weekly and monthly offerings.
HPW The apostle speaks of our “light affliction”; the enemy would use the sorrows of the saints to drag down their hearts; he is making an attack on the joy of the saints.
JT There is a great deal of death and illness and the like — how are we going to meet it? If we are looking at seen things we are not meeting it at all; but looking at the unseen, there is the renewal day by day of the inner man; so that whatever may come, even dissolution, I am ready for it.
EuR Would you say a word as to what is involved in the “inward man”?
JT I think it is what you are in faith, grasping the divine idea in Christ; we are to be like Him. It is the outlook we have as to the divine thought for us. So it says, “For we know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. That is God’s mind. It is not exactly material, for it is not a body coming down. We get the thought of resurrection, meaning that we come out of our graves, but you grasp what we are going to be in heaven. That is what is coming from heaven. Think of what I am going to be! This chapter, 2 Corinthians 4, shows I am mortal actually and accept it. “We who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (verse 11).
That is the reflex really of what I am above. “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”,
1 John 3: 2. That enters into my inner man; that is what I am in my inner thoughts. All else is disappearing. This “inward man” means I will hold all things by faith and the power of the Spirit. It is [p. 156] only a moment and this shell will disappear, and death will be swallowed up in victory.
WGT Would Gideon’s three hundred men give the idea; the vessels are broken that the light may shine out?
JT Yes; the more the vessels are broken the more the light shines out.
SHG Do we gather that the inner man referred to in Ephesians 3: 16, is one and the same thing with this?
JT I think so. The word ‘house’ is an allusion to our bodies; but the inner man is the grasp you have of God’s mind for you. Christ is the model Man.