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Today, The Bible & You

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

August 2025

A New Creation in Christ Jesus

What does that mean?

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; all things are become new.” (2nd Corinthians 5:17)

Many believe that following Christ is just about having your sins washed away with the Blood of Jesus Christ. The major focus is on “Christ died for our sins.” Most fail to recognize that our Lord Jesus died on the Cross for our sins and rose again, so that we could lose our lives for His sake, that He may continue living His life on earth through us.

God tells us in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

The real challenge of the gospel is not behaving differently; it is thinking differently. As long as the mind is not renewed, the believer’s life will be a mix between the light of the Spirit and the shadows of human reasoning.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

It doesn’t matter how many verses we memorize, how much doctrine we study, or how intense our spiritual emotions are — if our mind is still governed by our old patterns, our walk with God will be unstable, confused, and stagnant. As God tells us in Romans 12:2, the only way we can learn what God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is — we must be transformed. Renewing the mind in Christ is not an option; it is spiritual urgency.

This is exactly why we were created. God tells us again in Ephesians 2:10, “For we (you-me) are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works (this is why God created you-me), which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”

God created you-me to accomplish the good works He intends to fulfill through us. God has specific tasks that He can only accomplish through you and me. He is praying that we will let Him do this through us. This is the prayer of our Lord Jesus for you and me in John 17:20:

“Neither pray I for these alone, (You-Me) but for them also which shall believe on me through their word (through the words Jesus speaks through us;” (John 17:20)

The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

God has a good, acceptable, and perfect purpose for your life. This is not a moral suggestion; it is a spiritual command. An unrenewed mind is incapable of discerning God’s will for your life. Your life may be full of good intentions; you may have religious zeal, but you cannot understand or participate in the eternal will of the Father. Only God, who is eternal, knows the plans He has for you.

This is what God wants every born-again believer to know. He writes in Jeremiah 33:3:

“Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not.”

This powerful verse reminds us of the incredible promise God makes to us when we seek Him through prayer. This verse encourages us to reach out to God, to call on Him with all of our hearts, knowing that He will not only hear us but also respond. When we pray to God, He promises to answer us, not with ordinary or easily known things, but with great and unsearchable knowledge that is beyond our understanding. This verse underscores God’s readiness to communicate with us and His ability to reveal truths and wisdom that are beyond our human capabilities.

How often do you seek guidance from God? The verse presses us to remember that when we turn to God and ask for his guidance, he will reveal to us things that are beyond our comprehension. This verse is a reminder that we are His work of art, created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS — that He has planned to accomplish through you before you were ever born. Let this verse inspire you to deepen your relationship with God through prayer, and He will reveal these great and mighty things.

Only a renewed mind that has been transformed by God’s Word can function as an instrument in the hands of our Creator Savior. I invite you right now to declare in the comments, “My mind is being renewed by Christ,” because this is the first step to experiencing true transformation. Just as light pierces darkness, the Spirit of God wants to illuminate your mind, to rid it of old thoughts and replace them with the mind of Christ.

This is God’s exhortation to us in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

The greatest battlefield for the Christian is not the body nor the emotions, it is the mind. It is in the mind that the enemy installs thoughts, strongholds, arguments, logic, and imaginations. If the believer does not learn to submit their mind to the authority of the Spirit of Christ, they will live a divided Christianity: one in the spirit, full of life, and the other in the soul, full of confusion. That duplicity will prevent the believer from progressing. They will be divided, sometimes on fire, sometimes cold; sometimes surrendered, sometimes reactive, because they have not been transformed by God’s Word. God identifies this type of believer in Hebrews 5:12, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”

Renewing the mind of Christ is not an automatic process. It does not happen simply by reading the Bible. It is a deep work of the Spirit that begins when the believer recognizes that their natural mind is in enmity with God, as written in Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” The flesh is the independent mind that dares to comment on spiritual matters from human logic. That mind must be brought to the cross, not corrected, not decorated, but crucified.

The process of mental renewal begins with a surrender of understanding, not with more information, but with deeper internal obedience. That obedience is not just about accepting correct doctrine, but about submitting every thought, every reasoning, every perspective to the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us. God alerts us to this in 2nd Corinthians 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” God tells us we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. It’s not just about thinking good things; it’s about thinking from Christ, from the Spirit, not the soul; from the eternal, not the temporal; from the living Word, not from human conclusions.

This change of mindset is radical because the soul never wants to give up control. God reveals this to us in Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that ye would.”

For the born-again believer, the renewed spirit obeys before understanding. The soul demands logic. The spirit yields to the revelation of God’s Word when they understand. When they understand, they can apply. This is what the Spirit of God brings to the believer. God tells us in Exodus 31:3, “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.”

That is the difference between a carnal believer and a spiritual one. The carnal needs everything to make sense mentally. The spiritual accepts what God says, even if they don’t yet understand it, because they know the Spirit doesn’t explain so that one believes. He speaks so that when they have heard God’s Word and they surrender to what God has filled their soul. That surrender opens the path to having their soul filled with Wisdom — Understanding — Knowledge, and all manner of workmanship.

Having the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus alive in you is not just about stopping negative thoughts; it is about starting to let the Spirit of Christ in you think the way God thinks. It’s about seeing as He sees, valuing what He values, and rejecting what He rejects. And that transformation happens when the believer lives a life governed by the Spirit of God living in them. A life where the soul no longer has the final word, where intellect falls silent, where logic is submitted, and where faith (the Word of God) begins to be the foundation of every decision. Because only faith (God’s Word) can access the mind of Christ.

God tells us in 1st Corinthians 2:16, “…but we have the mind of Christ.” This is not a poetic statement—it is a spiritual reality. God makes this clear in John 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickens (makes alive), the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” As you read the Bible, these words become spirit and they become life the moment we believe them. This is how we receive the mind of Christ. His words from the Bible become spirit and life in us. Our Lord Jesus then begins to think in us and through us. It only becomes active to the extent that our old mind is dismantled. You cannot have the mind of Christ and still function with the reasoning of the world. You cannot think like heaven and act like earth. You cannot be guided by the Spirit and keep arguing from the soul. The natural mind gives up control; only then will Christ begin to govern our thoughts.

The mind in Christ is not just an initial experience, but a continuous process. God tells us in Galatians 4:19, “… until Christ be formed in you.” The Christian life begins with a spiritual birth, and as a physical baby needs to grow, so does a spiritual baby in Christ. God mentions this in 1st Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” It is a path of daily therapy from God as he molds you as a potter does the clay. The natural mind, even when saturated with biblical language, can be the most dangerous enemy of spiritual life. As the Pharisees in the time of our Lord Jesus, knowledge without the Spirit can use truth as an excuse not to depend on God. It can turn doctrine into argument, defense, and barrier. Our Lord rebukes these religious Pharisees because of this very thing in John 5:39-40, “Search the scriptures: for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me., And you will not come to me, that you might have life.”

This is why knowledge, apart from the Spirit, doesn’t produce the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. As our Lord told the Pharisees, they thought life came simply through taking in knowledge of the scriptures, but they did not have the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus.

The true process of renewal begins with the new birth. Our Lord Jesus explained this to one of Israel’s leading Pharisees, Nicodemus in John 3:3, 5, 7. “Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again.”

This is the message God wants the world to understand: humans were designed by God to live by the Spirit, not by their soul/flesh. Because, as we read in John 6:63, the flesh produces nothing good. God continues to make the importance of living by the Spirit clear in Romans 8:2-9:

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot pleased God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.“ God makes the life of the Spirit of Christ in the believer important. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ abiding in them, they do not belong to God.

Spiritual birth begins when a person asks the Lord Jesus to forgive their sins. Our Lord Jesus came to remove what was separating us from him. God is holy, and we are sinners. No one with even one sin can ever enter into the presence of God. We must be sinless to enter into the presence of God in heaven. We are told in 1st John 1:7, “. . the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.“ Yes, from ALL sin, that makes us sinless and qualifies us to enter into the presence of God.

If that was God’s part, what is the sinner’s part?

God tells us in 1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When we comply with what God asks of us, he makes us his son. John 1:12-13, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Which were born, not of blood, (not because you were born in to a Christian family) nor of the will of the flesh, (not because you woke up one day and said to yourself “I think I’ll become a Christian today.”) nor of the will of man, (not because someone said to you, “You ought to become a Christian.”) but of God.”

It is God himself who is doing all the leading. We are told in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

This is when the born-again believer receives the mind of Christ. A person becomes like a new baby in Christ Jesus, and as a baby, they need to feed on the Word of God. As newborn babies have to experience the rigors of life, so that newly born-again believer has to wrestle through the trials life brings to all the sons of Adam. This new life of the Spirit is the enemy’s favorite place to install his arguments. He doesn’t need to attack your spirit; he only needs to contaminate your thinking. That’s what he did from the beginning in the garden. He didn’t touch Eve’s body. He didn’t appeal to her emotions. He simply planted an idea: “Did God really say…?” He questioned the Word, introduced doubt, and introduced reasoning. And that seemingly logical reasoning was what brought the fall. It is a spiritual battle. God warns us in Ephesians 6:12:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

This is why every thought not examined in the light of the Spirit can become a stronghold. And a mental stronghold, when not torn down, becomes a trench from which the enemy operates, even inside the believer. The apostle Paul understood this clearly. That’s why in Ephesians 4:23 he exhorts us, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” He didn’t say, “Renew your mind,” as if it were only an intellectual activity. He said “the spirit of your mind,” meaning the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) It is this Law of the Spirit of Life that causes us to pass from glory to glory. It is this law God explained to us in Exodus 31:3, “And I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.”

Because the problem is not just what we think, but from what spirit we think. There are two spirits in the world that are totally against each other. There is the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus that is at war against the spirit of this world. We read about this in Ephesians 2:2-3, “Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. ³ Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” This is what the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets us free from.

This is the greatest battlefield for a Christian. God makes this clear in Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other; so that you cannot do the things that you would.”

To understand Galatians 5:17, consider these key points:

• The verse highlights the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.
• It emphasizes that these two forces are in opposition to each other.
• This struggle affects a believer’s ability to follow God’s desires.
• The “flesh” represents sinful nature and worldly desires.
• The “Spirit” signifies God’s divine guidance and moral integrity.
• Understanding this conflict is crucial for spiritual growth and maturity.

The human soul becomes the seat of evil; from it arise those carnal impulses which are the origin of sin. The flesh is the body, as animated by an evil nature of a fallen soul that was inherited from Adam. It thus becomes opposed to the good principles as it was in the garden when the serpent deceived Eve. The good principle in itself is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, which is working in us, delivering us from the law of sin and death.

As long as we do not learn to submit our minds to the authority of the Holy Spirit, we will live in constant duality between the light of the Spirit and the darkness of human reasoning. It’s as if we live in two worlds: one governed by the carnal mind, which sees everything from a limited perspective; and the other governed by the Spirit, which views the same circumstance through the lens of eternity.

This is where the apostle Paul experienced so much conflict. As he writes in Romans 7:18-25:

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ¹⁹ For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ²⁰ Now if I do that I would not, it is no more that do it, but sin that dwells in me. ²¹ I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²² For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

This division is dangerous because it makes us unstable, confused, and worst of all, unfruitful in the work of the Lord. God is unable to fulfill the good works He created you for. Sometimes we move forward in the Spirit, but at other times, we’re trapped by worldly thoughts. We cannot move forward firmly because our minds are still governed by old patterns that don’t allow us to see God’s perfect will. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus is limited by human logic, which cannot understand the ways of God. Our minds are incapable of grasping what God wants to do in our lives.

The carnal mind does not submit easily. It will always look for arguments, always trying to justify its reasoning. But the Spirit does not operate through human logic; the Spirit moves through revelation by the Word of God, not explanation. This is where the real battle begins: learning to obey the Spirit before understanding everything. It’s not just about reading more books, studying more verses, or filling our minds with Biblical information. These things are important, but they are not enough. True renewal of the mind begins with the surrender of our understanding to God. And this is the first step toward real transformation, recognizing that our natural mind is the enemy of God, that our limited understanding cannot grasp everything God is doing, and that we need the Spirit to guide us in every thought, in every action, in every decision.

The carnal mind, as Scripture says, does not submit to God’s law. The flesh, in its fallen nature, seeks to justify its own will. It is easier to live under the rule of human logic than to live under the rule of the Spirit. The Christian is called to a radical change. It’s not about improving our reasoning ability; it’s about transforming the center of our reasoning, allowing our mind to be governed by the Spirit, not by human logic.

Not my will, but your will, Lord God. Every time our mind surrenders to Christ, we allow Him to transform our thoughts, to destroy the strongholds of lies the enemy has erected. Every time we allow the Spirit to renew our minds, we are building a bridge between what we understand and what God wants to reveal. This process of transformation is liberating because in the end, it leads to a life in which we no longer live by our own logic, but by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, where God’s Word governs, not human reasoning.

The key is in submission: submitting our mind in obedience to Christ by obeying His Word. And that means renouncing human logic. Ceasing to justify our thoughts with limited reasoning, and beginning to live according to divine revelation. This is what distinguishes a carnal Christian from a spiritual one. The carnal one needs everything to make mental sense. The spiritual one accepts what God says, even when they do not fully understand it. Abraham went out of Ur, not knowing where he was going.

This transformation process is continuous, daily. Every day, as we surrender our minds to Christ, we are taking one more step toward full renewal. The carnal mind cannot be restored or improved; it must be completely replaced with the mind of Christ. The world cannot understand this. When we allow the Spirit to govern our mind, we begin to experience a new freedom. Confusion dissipates. Doubts disappear. And what once seemed incomprehensible now begins to make sense. The renewed Christian no longer depends on human logic to understand God’s ways, but lives by God’s Word.

This would be a good pattern of prayer:

“Lord Jesus, today I surrender my soul and mind to You. Help me to no longer want to think from my own logic, my doubts, or my limitations. As Paul wrote in the Bible, he knew there was nothing good in his flesh. Cause me to think by your Spirit in me, to see as You see, and let your Spirit in me live according to Your will. Teach me how to think and choose each day, Lord Jesus, destroy every thought and reasoning that is not aligned with Your will. Allow me to walk in the light of Your revelation so that you can fulfill all the good works You planned to do though me. I pray in your precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.”

Many Christians face a dilemma: they want to live according to God’s will, but their thoughts are still governed by the old patterns of the world. They think according to past experiences or according to the expectations that society has imposed on them. When you think like this, it is important to remember these words of God in Isaiah 55:7-11:

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. ⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. ¹¹ So shall my Word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

We need to have the mind of Christ, it is not based on human reasoning, it is based on divine revelation we receive as we read and study the Scriptures. In 1st Corinthians 2:16, we are told, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” We, as believer’s, have the mind of Christ, but in order for God to live through us, we must be willing to surrender to Him as he teaches us in His Word.

Our flesh will always want to reason, to justify, and to understand things before obeying. However, the Spirit invites us to obey first and understand later. That is true faith, obeying without needing to have all the answers. We are constantly tempted to judge circumstances by what we see with our natural eyes. And this is where faith becomes the bridge between the natural and the supernatural. Only when we allow the Spirit to guide our thoughts can we live in full obedience to Christ. The key to this obedience is total surrender. Let us remember the words of our Lord Jesus: “Not my will, but thy will be done.” (Luke 22:42)

True obedience is not simply saying “yes” with our lips—it is fully surrendering our heart, our mind, and our will to Him. Renewing our mind in Christ means that every thought is brought into obedience to God. This means letting Christ think in us, not as the world thinks. This is what Paul meant when he said we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Every time our mind drifts from God’s thoughts, we must redirect it and submit it once again to His will. This is a conscious act, and it will not be easy, but with every thought we surrender, we are allowing the mind of Christ to become more real in our lives.

It is not enough to know the verses; it is not enough to speak the Christian language. It is important to BELIEVE them. When we truly BELIEVE them, then these verses will penetrate our hearts, and they will become the living Word in us that will transform our minds and cause us to see the world through the eyes of Christ.

It is a process of daily growth and surrender. It’s not about correcting our minds, it’s about allowing the mind of Christ to reign within us. This is not a superficial change, but a deep transformation.

True obedience in Christ comes when we decide to let Him think and live His life in us. Only then can we experience the transforming power of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Christ did not come only to save our souls, but also to continue living His life on earth through us.

You can begin a new life in Christ by making this your sincere prayer:

“Lord Jesus, I thank you for making me perfect by washing all of my sins away with your blood Forgive me, Lord Jesus. Today, I surrender to You. I no longer want to keep thinking with my human logic, but with Your mind living in me. Every time my mind strays from You, please guide me and help me take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I want to live under Your will, not mine, and submit my thoughts to Your sovereignty. Renew my mind, Lord, and make me like You. Amen.”

Printed with permission of Today, The Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136, the name of the original article in the August 2025 issue of Today’s Front Page was “A New Creation in Christ Jesus. What does that mean?” www.JohnBarela.com

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