Integrity- People of God

We are told to let the same mind that is in Jesus be in us! What a thought? To know that it is possible to have the same mindset as Jesus. It must be possible or the word of God would not have directed us to do so. To have the same mind as Christ, we must first know the mind of Christ and that is found in God’s word. The lies of the enemy say we cannot be like Christ because Jesus was God and we are sinners, but we are made righteous by grace through faith in Jesus. The world has told us we should not try because it cannot be done and they would have us focus on our own selfish lives and failures rather than the completed work of Christ. 

The reason Jesus came was to restore us back to the image of God so that we would be made righteous before God and so that we could be in fellowship and in the family of God, but we received much more thanwe lost in the fall. Before the fall we were the highest created creatures of God, but now Jesus has come and made us children of God. What the enemy meant for evil God has made it for our greater good.   Jesus died on a cross to pay our debt to sin, to break the curse that was ours so that we may receive His abundant and eternal life in the family of God. Jesus came not only to restore to us what we lost in the fall; our relationship with the Father, our identity as image bearers of God, but He gave us a greater position as children of the Most High Kings. Our createdpurpose is to show the love of God on the earth. 

Philippians 2:5–8 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. NKJV

The mind that was in Christ Jesus was one that did not think He was robbed or that God had failed Him when He went through problems. Jesus did not seek to be famous or seek to have a reputation among the masses, but He humbled Himself to be obedient to the word of God,even at the cost of His life. The world will say that this is impossible to do because self-preservation is the first law, of fallen mankind! This was not our created state of being; we were created in the image of God to be in a relationship with God and to reflect His love and purpose to all His creation on the earth. 

We are called the Beloved of God and we are told not to think it strange when we go through trials, loss and chaos as though something is wrong with us or that God has failed us. This is a trick of the enemy to get us tobe faint in our own minds so that we will not persevere and finish our purpose, which is to show a lost world who God is in our lives.

When we know and understand the true Gospel of God, we will focus on the life of Christ, who came and died that others may live. We too can choose to die to self-centeredness in every situation that we experience loss and chaos. We can choose to respond as the world or we can choose to let the life and light of Christ rise in us and shine in those dark situations. God is exalted when we respond in love by the power of the Holy Spirit with a heavenly kingdom perspective lived out on earth in us. God has sent His sons and His daughters into the world that they may show His love to a lost world so others may come to know Him through His children. 

If we suffer for doing what is right, we are told to rejoice and we can rejoice, only when we die to our self-centeredness and to the pride of life, which wants to lift self above the word and knowledge of God.  When God chooses to make us broken bread and poured out wine to save a lost soul, it is then that we should let the mind of Christ be in us. We are not to look for immediate gratification of self but we are to look at God’s eternal purpose and let His kingdom come on earth in us. Though we may go through humiliation at the hands of others, it is only a temporary state, but the possible eternal salvation of a soul is worth so much more than the passing shame and embarrassment we may experience in this life.

1 Peter 4:12-14Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;  but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.  If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you NKJV

It is through our suffering that the world will see and know the Holy Spirit who lives within us. It is when we experience hurt and pain in our lives that we have an opportunity to respond like Christ, to reflect our true belief in God and His word. If our selfish ambitions rise in hard and difficult times then we will be responding just as the world. We too will allow self and pride to sit on the throne of our hearts and the world will not see God’s power and love. When we humble ourselves under the hand of God and allow the love of the Sovereign God to reign in our lives, even when we are unjustly treated, then the world will see the life of Christ in us and the true Image of God reflected on the earth.   

When Christ was being beaten and whipped by the Romans, He was still the Son of God. When Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to the cross, He was still the Son of God. When Christ died and was buried, He was still the Son of God. Nothing we go through will change who we are, but how we respond to what we go through will reflect who we are. The righteous tree will bear righteous fruit; a good tree will produce after its own kind. 

We are to let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus; though we are children of the Most High King we are not to seek a reputation for ourselves. We are to humble ourselves under the hand of God our Father and die to the need of immediate self-gratification and allow God to exalt us in due season. We can cast and hurl all our problems and concerns to God. We can trust God to handle them, to vindicate us when we need vindication and to be merciful when there is need for mercy.  We know He loves and cares for us in ways that no one else can.  

1 Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. NKJV