Ephesians 4:23-24 “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
The apostle Paul taught that our mind could be revolutionized by the Lord, leading to a truly transformed life…
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
The Bible strongly encourages us to connect our thoughts with our actions…
- The choices we act upon don’t just spring into the external world from a vacuum; they originate in our mind first!
A mind renewed by the Lord will bring about what is truly called good, but evil thoughts and deeds are the natural outcomes of a unregenerate mind…
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
True knowledge understands reality through the lens of God’s wisdom, and then applies this to daily life. This is accomplished through the exercise of a renewed mind.
Skeptics and critics often attack Christianity as unreasonable…
Faith, they say, contradicts reason! Perhaps you’ve heard their charges: “Faith is a blind leap into the dark” or “Faith has been rendered meaninglessness in an age of scientific and intellectual enlightenment.”
Sadly, even some Christians divorce faith from reason…
This modernistic view is neither biblically accurate nor consistent with historic, orthodox Christianity.
Isaiah 1:18 “’Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’”
As we consider the reasonableness of faith, let’s remember that finite human intellect is not able to fully grasp infinite divine truth…
But the fact that something cannot be fully understood by reason alone does not mean it’s unreasonable.
Let’s consider the relationship between faith and reason…
Our reasoning capacity is part of God’s image in us, and the application human logic reflects our Creator’s attribute of rationality (Genesis 1:27).
- Using our mind is a God-glorifying endeavor which reveals His nature.
- The greatest commandment in the scriptures, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (cf. Matthew 22:37), urges us to love God with all our being.
- We authentically love God by pursuing truth, reasoning well, and rejecting falsehood!
Biblical faith is not unreasonable…
Nothing is inherently irrational about believing Jesus Christ is God’s Son who died to pay the debt of our sin (fulfilling many OT prophecies), and this truth is not contingent on whether the skeptics believe it or not!
1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Though many throughout the centuries have sought to deny or disprove the claims of Christ, especially His Resurrection, they have all demonstrably failed…
1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
The Threefold Nature of Saving Faith…
(1) knowledge— of the facts of the gospel
(2) acceptance— to the truth of the gospel
(3) an act of the will— to believe and trust in Christ alone for our justification and salvation.
We are saved by faith, but the mind plays a key part in initiating and growing that faith over time…
- We are all called to hear, process, and respond to the gospel by using our minds.
- Faith and reason are not and cannot be separated.