A Christian mind is not the private preserve of
intellectuals and academics. It is not a VIP lounge for the mentally brilliant. Our
Lord’s insistence that unless we become as little as children we cannot even enter
the kingdom should make that clear. It is their lack of cognitive development that often
leads adults to think little of children. But Jesus did not see them that way. He said,
"Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of
heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14) As we consider the characteristics
of the Christian mind in its relationship to God, we shall find that they correspond very
closely to those of a good child in relations to his of her earthly parents.
There is, of course, and intellectual side to the Christian mind. It is one that
challenges the most able thinkers. Gifted like Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin or
Pascal readily acknowledged that they had hardly left the shorelands in their
investigations into the depths of the thoughts of God. "Oh the depth of the riches
both of wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable
His ways." (Romans 11:33) But the Christian mind, as exemplified in the understanding
of the greatest Christian thinkers, is far more than a vast computer for the storage,
retrieval and manipulation of information. It involves a way of being which gives evidence
of close contact with God and which reflects, in human terms, the likeness of the Lord.
The Christian mind is a living thing, some of whose characteristics in relation to God we
will now look at.
The Fear of God
A Christian mind is, first of all, one that fears God. When Jesus taught the disciples
to pray, the first three petitions he gave them to address to their Father in heaven were,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, and thy will be done. These all express a
reverential awe for God that is at the heart of biblical fear of God. Proverbs says that
"the fear of the Lord is the beginning [in some margins, "the chief part"]
of wisdom." (Proverbs 1:7) Wisdom is thus to be seen to be more than intellectual
information or ability; it is those things in conjunction with a reverential awe for God.
For Adam and Eve in the Garden, the fear of God turned to animosity and then to guilty
dread when they broke off their dependence upon Him. Jesus in an earthly life exhibited a
genuine reverential awe for his Father. He spoke only the word his Father gave him. He
worked the works of his Father. Schilder, in his magnificent trilogy on the trial,
sufferings and death of Christ, makes the point that Christ could do without anything
else, but he could not do without the sense of his Father’s approval. The loss of
that sense on the cross was what plunged him to the deepest depths of his sufferings for
us.
Christ’s reverential awe for his Father confirms and illustrates the Biblical
teaching on the greatness of God. The second half of Isaiah is particularly rich in its
expression of Gods incomparable greatness. For instance, "Is there any God besides
Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none." (Isaiah 44:8) Sidney Lanier, a
Southern poet of the time of the Civil War, perceived the importance of God’s
greatness and the reverential awe appropriate to it in these lines from "The Marshes
of Glynn":
"As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God;
I will fly in the greatness of God as the Marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space ‘twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God;
Oh, like to the greatness of God is the greatness within
The range of the marshes, the liberal marshes of Glynn."
It is clear, then, that a Christian mind deeply qualified by a reverential awe for God, by
a deep sense of the greatness of God.
Humility Before God
A second quality, which follows very reasonably from the first, is humility. It is
specifically identified in the great New Testament passage on the humiliation of Christ:
"Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form
of God, counted not the being on an equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death
of the cross." (Phil. 2:5-8)
In order to demonstrate what God is really like, Christ laid aside the outward evidence
of his deity and came to earth in the humblest way imaginable. He was born of a Jewish
maiden in a barn in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth, his godhood unrecognized even by
his own brothers. He endured the indifference, spite and rejection of men and died like a
criminal between two law-breakers.
James Sire raises the intriguing question - if Christ was humble, does that mean that God
is humble? It is difficult to see how the answer could be anything but "yes."
Surely no characteristic of one member of the Trinity can fail to be shared by the others.
And if God is humble, and we are made in his image, what appalling effrontery it is that
we should be proud! It is easy to see why someone has said that there are three
characteristics of a Christian: humility, and humility and humility! The thought is
underscored by Isaiah 57:15, "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of
a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart
of the contrite."
That God should be humble is amazing. At the same time it is infinitely comforting. The
God with whom we have to do is high and holy, but he is at the same time humble. He is
approachable!
Humility on our part is due for three reasons. First, we are made in God’s image. If
he is humble, we certainly should be. Second, we are finite and limited. God is infinite
and unlimited. The difference calls for deep humility on our part. Thirdly, we are
sinners. We have, so to speak, spit in God’s face. We, who are dependent by creation,
have had the gall to tell God we can guide our lives better than he can. There is, in
every one of us, ample reason for repentance.
Repentance, however, covers a wide swath of territory. There is more to it than telling
God I am sorry for an outburst of anger, a lustful look, a juicy bit of gossip, or a
less-than-honest response. The derivation of the word, "repentance," indicates
that it means a change of mind. Romans 12:1-2 calls on us for a transformed life issuing
from a renewal of our minds. So repentance goes as deep as our worldview. That is very
deep indeed, for it involves our learning to see the world in a totally different way than
modern people do and to live in keeping with that altered vision. For example, it involves
seeing the creation as revelatory of God and a channel for communion with Him, seeing
other people as image bearers of the Almighty, and seeing the truth as something to be
done if it is to be known. It means renouncing modern idolatries like scientism,
technicism and economism, and learning to live in a Christian community of "resident
aliens."
Love for God
This quality of a Christian mind stands out because it is mandated in the great
commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and
strength." The concept of love has today become so intertwined with sexual
implications that it is difficult to get a clear picture of it. However, it includes at
least a strong element of longing. The Psalmist expresses it in this way: "O God,
thou art my God; earnestly I will seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth
for thee, in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon thee in the
sanctuary, to see thy power and thy glory. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips shall praise thee." (Psalm 63:1-3)
One way to internalize this is as follows. Think of the experience that has given you the
most pleasure in life. Then remember C.S. Lewis’ suggestion that pleasures are shafts
of God’s glory striking our sensibilities. If this is so, then the pleasure you prize
was not really from the experience or the object that pleased you. It was from God and
only came to you through the pleasant experience. But if this is so, then what must it be
like to know Him directly and not through the medium of the creation? He is the ultimate
object of our longing or our love, and the best is yet to come!
The other side of love involves laying down our lives. That is easier said than done. In Hallowed
Be This House, Tom Howard defines love as "My life for yours." This
expresses a principle that runs deeply in the creation. Work, marriage, family, all
involve the laying down of life. Our sinfulness has given us attachment to ourselves and
to the creation that makes it difficult for us to lay down our lives for love to God. But
it is only one way of love and life in relation to the Lord. This is why the Apostle Paul
says; "I die daily."
Faith in God
Another characteristic of the Christian mind is faith in God. Let us approach the topic
of faith by thinking first about addiction. All of us are addicted, some to one thing,
some to another. Addiction attaches to or soaks up our capacity to love, so that we have
little or no capacity left for love to God. The only escape from this dreadful enslavement
is found in the grace of God, which is received by faith, " . . . for by grace have
ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of
works, that no man should glory." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
What is faith then? Hebrews says it is "assurance of things hoped for, a conviction
of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) Grace cannot be commanded, coerced or stockpiled.
It must be received afresh with each need, as the manna in the wilderness came each day.
Faith involves coming for grace with an open acknowledgement that we do not deserve it.
The approach must be from the side of our weakness, not our strength. That is difficult
because, being children of the Enlightenment, we cannot imagine receiving something we
haven’t earned. We insist on dealing with God as with an equal. But faith does not
operate that way. Faith involves a kind of living on the edge. It involves admitting that
our pretended autonomy makes us loathe to come, but coming anyway to find that the sure
anchor of our confidence is what Christ is and not what we are. Faith isn’t something
we receive once and never need again. It must go on growing. It involves begin vulnerable
toward God, coming to Him in utter openness and finding, as the prodigal son did, an
overwhelming experience of acceptance and forgiveness. It involves a trusting dependence
on God for our needs, great or small. Finally it involves obedience (Romans 16:26), for if
we really trust God, we will want to obey Him.
Hope in God
This attitude of the Christian mind completes the trilogy of Corinthians 13- faith,
hope and love. The greatest of these is love, but hope is a close runner-up. It is
particularly to be prized today because the western world has come to such a hopeless
period in its history. Autonomous humans are experiencing the disaster which our
presumption was bound to lead to. We have devoured the environment and we are devouring
each other. What hope can there be?
To answer, we must go back to the Old Testament. In The Prophetic Imagination,
Walter Brueggmann points out that the response of the prophets to the apostasy and
idolatry of Old Testament Israel was one of grief and hope. This attitude climaxed in our
Lord Jesus, who grieved over Jerusalem but went steadfastly forward on the road to the
cross in the hope of God’s sure promise and program.
So hope is also a characteristic of the Christian mind. Bleak as the present situation is,
and lacking as any human prospect of improvement is, God has not gone out of business. The
program of redemption that was conceived in His mind before the creation is moving
steadily toward its ultimate fulfillment. Christ, who left the earth almost 2,000 years
ago, will return, and as the hymn says, "heaven and earth be one." In this hope
the Christian mind goes about its work. Jesus Christ, in whom "all things hold
together," is able to bring his redemptive program to successful conclusion.
Holiness, the Imitation of God
A final characteristic of the Christian mind in its relation to God is that it attempts
to be holy. " . . . because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." (1
Peter 1:16) The Christian mind does not concur with the modern practice of separating
facts from values. It rejects the assumption that science can be neutral with respect to
values. Thus it insists that every thing and every human act carries meaning or value
inescapably within it. That is why knowledge, in the Christian view, is never purely
objective or neutral. The truth must be done to be known. A Christian mind holds firmly to
the truth of Micah 6:8, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth
Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
thy God." Modern man has made morality an adjunct to life. It is completely relative;
each sovereign individual is free to select his or her own morality and no one is supposed
to criticize. But the Christian mind sees God as not only loving, but also holy. His
holiness is the inescapable standard for our holiness. So the Christian mind endeavors to
do what it knows. That is, it sees God’s concern for righteousness and justice as
what ought to be taking place in the world, and it endeavors to promote them by practicing
them.
Conclusion
Summing up, then, reverential awe for God, love for Him, and repentance toward Him,
faith, hope, and holiness are the qualities of the Christian mind in its relation to God.
These are seen in their perfection in the human life of Jesus. In living as he did, Jesus
lived the life we ought to live and don’t. This went even to the point of being
baptized unto repentance by John the Baptist. Jesus did not do this because he had sinned:
he did it in our place. As a result, Peter could say in his sermon in Acts 5 that God
exalted Jesus "to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance . . . and remission
of sins."
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to reproduce in our lives what He worked in Christ while
Christ was on earth. This is why Jesus says in John 15:4 (Jerusalem Bible), "Make
your home in me, as I make mine in you." The Christian mind is an active, living
thing. It involves a close personal touch with Christ, and it reproduces, in measure,
Christ’s kind of life in us. If we want to be renewed in our minds, we need to pursue
these qualities while at the same time we look away from ourselves and set our eyes upon
Jesus. That is a paradox, but Biblical life is no stranger to paradox.
Editor: Al Greene
Alta Vista College
Alta Vista
1719 NE 50th Street
Seattle, Washington 98105
Phone: (206) 524-2262
Fax: (206) 524-1837
