But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

There are certain things that need to be understood. There are certain things that are so important that the failure to understand them has disastrous consequences. These things concern the ultimate meaning of life and reality. Reality is much more than just a quirk of happenstance. It is the creation of God. It is extremely important, then, to understand God’s plans and purposes for His creation. If we fail in this regard, we will have failed to understand the most important things one could ever know. We will have failed to understand, most importantly, where reality came from, who we are and where we fit in, why sin and evil entered the scene, that Jesus Christ is the solution to sin and evil, and that the future for those in Christ is glorious. These are the “these things” that Paul is referring to here.

The trouble, however, is that we have lost the ability to understand such things. Sin and the devil have blinded us (2 Corinthians 4:4). Even though reality itself is speaking to us (Psalm 19:1), and even though God has revealed the answers in the Bible, we refuse to grasp what they are saying. We are like blind people walking in the dark – hopelessly lost. We need help. We need enlightenment. Since we are unable on our own to understand the most fundamental things about life and reality, we need God to open our eyes and help us see.

Happily, God has provided us with this help. God has provided us with the means to understand. From out of the glorious riches of His grace He has given us the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of Christ Jesus, and we now have the faith to believe and understand; and through the Spirit, Christ Jesus has made His home in us (Ephesians 3:16-17). We no longer live, but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20). Our minds are no longer under the control of sin and the devil. They are now under the control of Christ Jesus.

Thus, instead of wandering around in the darkness, we can see and understand. We know where it all came from, who we are, what the problem is, what the solution is, and what the future holds. We are properly oriented within reality, and we are headed in the right direction.

We have all this because we have the mind of Christ.

By John Huisman