Sipping coffee one morning in a bakery café, I could not help but overhear the Bible study leader at a nearby table. “We’re saved by grace, but the rest is up to us,” he declared to his listeners. There it was—I had heard this before and found it, again, to be frustrating. . . Oh, what burdens we needlessly accept for ourselves and carelessly place on each other. 1 This story from my second book, Working in Us What Is Pleasing to Him, served as the impetus behind its writing. For as I observed two pages later, “We can no more transform ourselves than we could save ourselves. Just as we step solely into Christ for salvation, so we also entrust ourselves entirely to His Spirit to transform us. It is He who changes us steadily to become like Jesus.”2
Now, having said this, it is only fair to note two points the Bible study leader got right that morning. First, we are indeed saved by grace—our salvation from eternal separation from God rests entirely on believing in who Jesus is and entrusting our life to His sacrificial forgiveness of our sins. Paul makes this crystal clear, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”3
Then here is the other point the discussion leader understood: there is a “the rest”—something more—to our spiritual journey, which is to say the Christian life does not stagnate at salvation. Transformation awaits; maturity beckons. But know this: being changed into Jesus’ image through the work of the Holy Spirit is also an act of grace in us. Salvation and transformation—Paul conjoins them under grace: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”4 Our role is to persevere freely and confidently in submission to the Spirit’s ongoing work—His act of grace—in us. Then as we do, we can know that, in the words of the old “Men’s Warehouse” suits ad slogan, “You’re going to like the way you look, I guarantee it.”
“Now may the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”5
1 Paul Nordman, Working in Us What is Pleasing to Him, (Maitland, Florida: Xulon Press), xi.
2 Paul Nordman, Working in Us What is Pleasing to Him, (Maitland, Florida: Xulon Press), xiii.
3 Romans 10:9 NIV
4 Titus 2:11-12 ESV, emphasis added
5 Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV
Here we wrap up our 16-week series on transformation, which we covered in four sections. Below for your reference are links to each post.
God has a vision for us.
God’s Vision: Works of Art from Blocks of Wood
God’s Timeless Pursuit of Our Transformation
We must be transformed into God’s vision—Jesus’ image—for us.
The Missing Piece to Our Image Puzzle
From God to Us: A New Heart
Good! A Diagnosis We Can Work With
We Must Be Changed, and by God’s Grace We Are
Let’s Talk about Works
Transformation: God’s active role; our passive role.
Liking What We See in the Mirror
Change from the Inside
God’s Workmanship in You
Transformation: The Spirit Leads, We Follow
We have an active role, as well: our “Yes” to God’s work in us.
Yes, Lord.
Three Focal Points to Thinking Differently
How Do You Wish To Live Today?
Engaging the World with Renewed Minds
Tag: Paul Nordman
“Be renewed in the spirit of your minds.”—Ephesians 4:23 ESV
I’ve been reading “The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul” by brain surgeon Michael Egnor and author Denyse O’Leary. In its earlier pages, the authors point to groundbreaking studies by neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield that distinguish between the brain and the mind, two terms often used interchangeably, yet are quite different. Penfield “came to define the mind as the element in an individual ‘that feels, perceives, thinks, wills and especially reasons.’”1 The mind “has an existence independent of the brain, and . . . the mind uses the brain to interact with the world.”2 Then given Paul’s exhortation to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind,”3 what happens as our brains engage the world under the leadership of minds renewed through divine transformation?
We think and act differently. In Romans 6:13, Paul urges us, “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”4 What does this look like? With transformed minds, our feet carry us outward with the gospel, for “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”5 We emulate the Proverbs 31 woman’s selfless compassion, for “She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy.”6 We “apply [our] heart to instruction and [our] ear to words of knowledge.”7 Yet the most difficult body part to redirect is undoubtedly our tongue. James warns against the great damage wielded by this small and naturally untamed organ: “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. . . It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”8 Yet while “no human being can tame the tongue,”9 Paul nevertheless calls us to harness it: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs.”10
So, how do we transition “every part” of ourselves from “an instrument of wickedness” to “an instrument of righteousness”? Wherefrom comes the power, moreover the desire? We find them nestled perfectly in the middle of Romans 6:13—the part between wickedness and righteousness—the section that reads, “offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.”11 It is only by the life of Christ in us that our minds change and our actions follow. We interact with the world differently. And dare we say “more fruitfully”? I think so.
Father, thank you for raising us from death to life, and dwelling in your church—all of us and each of us. May our minds be set on truth—”your word is truth”12—and our actions follow. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Wilder Penfield, The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 12–13, quoted in Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul (Nashville: Worthy Books, 2025), 33.
2 Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul (Nashville: Worthy Books, 2025), 28.
3 Romans 12:2 ESV
4 Romans 6:13 NIV, emphasis added
5 Romans 10:15 ESV
6 Proverbs 31:20 NLT
7 Proverbs 23:12 ESV
8 James 3:6-8 ESV
9 James 3:8 ESV
10 Ephesians 4:29 NIV
11 Romans 6:13 NIV
12 John 17:17 ESV
Categories
How Do You Wish To Live Today?
Occasionally on my weekly prison visits as a Kairos volunteer, an inmate will share what led to his incarceration. Often times, the decisions and actions that culminated in their arrest were based on what some call, “the law of the streets,” an unwritten code of personal respect and survival. Among its various forms is revenge—settling disputes or offenses through physical retaliation. I often think, Why let anyone else’s act of instigation dictate your future? Retaliation leads to life behind bars—no freedom, no family, no control, little hope. For the law of the streets is accountable to the law of the land.
In last week’s post, we began to look at our active role in transformation, noting the call to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”1 It is “the Spirit of truth”2 who redirects our thinking, certainly, and most often through the Word of God; our role, in turn, is to “set [our] minds on the things of the Spirit.”3 Paul notes the urgency: “For to set the mind on the flesh [our human inclination toward sin] is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”4
To “set one’s mind” on something is to intentionally focus one’s thoughts on it and allow it to influence one’s decisions and direction. As we set our hearts and minds on the Spirit, He will never lead us down the path to sin and death. To that end, and in His power, we remain alert to falsehood and vigilant against it: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”5 And those who set their minds on the Spirit, He will always lead in the ways that are good and right, the things against which there is no law.6 This is the Christian walk; this is new life in Christ. This life and peace.
In the hostility of the flesh or the peace of the Spirit, how do you wish to live today? The choice is clear; let Him lead.
Father, your ways are good and your words are sure. Thank you for sending your Spirit to guide us through our journey here. Grace us to set our minds on Him and live in life and peace. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Romans 12:2 ESV
2 John 16:13 ESV
3 Romans 8:5 ESV
4 Romans 8:6-7 ESV, emphasis added
5 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
6 Galatians 5:23 ESV
