How to renew your mind!
Key Spiritual Growth Verses
Romans 12:1-3 are key verses for spiritual growth! In them the Apostle Paul exhorts believers in 1st Century Rome not to let the godless atmosphere surrounding them confine them to worldly thinking any longer, and of course this instruction is just as much for us today as it was for his original audience.
He says the following by the power of God’s Spirit:
I urge you therefore, brothers (and sisters), by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
He’s telling us that in light of all that God has done for us, giving us such great mercy by sending Jesus for us, our right response is one of laying our lives down before Him in full surrender. Then he gets very practical and shines the light of the Spirit onto our thoughts. The Greek word used originally for “mind” includes our perceptions, understandings, feelings, judgments and how we determine (ascertain or decide) what to believe and do. This passage in Romans 12 calls on us to “not be conformed to this world”, but instead to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” We see that there is a sharp contrast between what the world believes and lives for and what we as Christians are to believe and live for!
A ministry called TheBibleSays.com has some excellent insights on this passage. Here’s a quote from their Romans 12 article. “The lifestyle of Christians who are pursuing righteousness through faith will not look like the lifestyles of the rest of the world. This is because the world is not pursuing God's righteousness; the world pursues sinful desires. Sin is living apart from God's ways; apart from His (good) design for us.”
Do you have the mind of Christ?
However, unless you have truly humbled yourself before God and recognized your need personally for Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf, no amount of Bible reading or church going or praying will transform you. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 in the New King James Version says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” C.H. Spurgeon, a famous Bible teacher from the 1800s helps us understand this passage in First Corinthians in this excerpt from one of his sermons:
And then [Paul] goes on to affirm concerning natural men—those who are not partakers of the Spirit—that the truths of God, which are spiritual, they do not and cannot receive. He teaches that it is utterly impossible that they ever should receive them unless lifted out of that class of natural men and transformed by the Spirit's work into spiritual men. This change, however, being effected, they will not only receive the things of the Spirit, but embrace them with delight, feed upon them with intense satisfaction, and rise eventually into that state of glory which is next beyond the state of grace.
But how does one move from the state of being a “natural man” or “natural woman”? How does a person come alive to God and “have the mind of Christ”?It is only through Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, and having faith in His death and resurrection that saves us. This is the only way that we can be made alive spiritually to God. This is why Jesus says in John 3:5-7, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Jesus knew that He is the only door to salvation, and that’s why He goes on in this same chapter to say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. …. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16&18 NKJV). He knows the only way we can become alive to the mind of Christ is to have His Holy Spirit living inside of us.
Believing the Good News makes all the difference!
If you’re not sure that you’ve truly put your faith in Jesus’ death on that cross in your place, and turned your life over to Him in surrender, then please pray now and read the following Scriptures. Take them to heart and exercise faith, because if you were the only sin-filled person on the whole earth, Jesus would have not only needed to die for you to take the penalty for you sin, but He would have still chosen to do so out of His love for you!
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood” (Romans 3:23-25a NLT.) -Have you believed?
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God” (Romans 5:6-11 NLT.) - Why did God the Father sacrifice His Son for you? Why did Jesus do this for you?Have you received His gift of new life? It cost Him everything to purchase it for you.
“But now you are free from the power of sin. You have become a servant for God. Your life is set apart for God-like living. The end is life that lasts forever. You get what is coming to you when you sin. It is death! But God’s free gift is life that lasts forever. It is given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:22-23 NLV.) - Have you humbled yourself before God and asked Him to forgive you? Have you received the gift of life that lasts forever that Jesus is extending to you right now? Have you been set free from the power of sin? The new life Jesus imparts sets us free.
Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37-38.)
Turning to the Lord means you have turned away from your sin, not that you instantly become mature or never struggle with sin, but you see it for what it is and you don’t want it anymore. You want Jesus most of all.
“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight—something the law of Moses could never do.” Acts 13:38-39 - Do this right now if you have not yet. For “the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:11-12 NASB.)
Once you have placed your whole heart in Jesus’ hands by faith, believing in His sacrifice for you, then you will “have the mind of Christ” and the Word of God will make sense to you through the Holy Spirit. You will be able to renew your mind as Romans 12 call us to, because you truly will have “present[ed] your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” “For you have died [to your old life] and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3.)
The Agenda of This World vs Walking Faithfully with God
The agenda of this world system is totally contrary to that of walking faithfully with God and His Word, but God has given us His one and only Son Jesus Christ, so we can be born again! He has made a way for us to become brand new creations in Christ through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins upon the cross of Calvary. He has promised to give us His Holy Spirit when we become children of God by faith in Christ and He has given us the whole Bible, which is God’s very word! Spending time worshiping, praying and studying God’s word all will renew our minds!
I made a printable pdf tool that I want to share with you to help you analyze your core beliefs so you can bring them under the authority of God’s holy and living Word. (I’ve posted it below. Please click here or on the image for your free download.) There isn’t a lot of room on the graphic organizer itself to write out all your core beliefs and what has shaped you, but from it you’ll get the idea of what you can begin journaling about. You can write down your core beliefs and even why you believe what you do but then dig into Scripture and find out what God’s word says about things you’ve believed. You can take time to see if your beliefs really align with what God says or not and then humble yourself before the Lord and ask Him to renew your mind so you can live in the freedom from sin that Christ came to give you. Some of our untrue beliefs have pretty strong holds on us because they are attached to some experience that has impacted us deeply. In those cases, seek the Lord’s healing grace for those painful parts of your life. My testimony in my blog “His Mercies are New Every Morning” and my short piece called “RELEASE” may help you with those lies that have deeper roots.
In closing, remember what Spurgeon says about those who put their faith genuinely in Christ. He says, “[T]hey will not only receive the things of the Spirit, but embrace them with delight, feed upon them with intense satisfaction, and rise eventually into that state of glory which is next beyond the state of grace.” I pray that this describes you! May God richly bless your journey with Him in Christ, filling you with a heart that loves the truth! Jesus said, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31b-32 NASB).
Do Some of Your Core Values Contradict - Renew Your Mind
Works Cited - Spurgeon, Charles. "Natural or Spiritual?." Blue Letter Bible. 18 Apr, 2001. Web. 25 Mar, 2026. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0407.cfm>.The Bible Says. “Romans 12:2 Meaning | TheBibleSays.com.” Thebiblesays.com, 2018, thebiblesays.com/en/commentary/rom+12:2?highlight=The+Bible+Says+Romans+12%3A2+Meaning. Accessed 25 Mar. 2026.