Is Your Mind Vain?
While the grace of God freely pays the penalty for our sin, God’s grace doesn’t condone or allow sin. It alleviates the punishment on our end, but that punishment was bestowed upon our Lord Jesus Christ. He became a curse for you so that you might have righteousness and life (2Co 5:21, Gal 3:13, Rom 6:21). Why would you waste the precious gift of life that you have been given in Christ on the sinful work of the flesh? Don’t you know your old man is crucified with Christ and you have new life (Rom 6:1-6)? One possible answer is a vain mind.
After describing in great detail in the first three chapters of Ephesians not only what the Body of Christ is, how we get into it, and who we are in Christ upon being saved, the Apostle Paul transitions to describing how we should walk worthy in the last three chapters. Upon first laying the necessary doctrinal foundation of Christian identity, Paul then exhorts with a motivation of charity and edification, that the Ephesians:
“…henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” - Ephesians 4:17-19
This vain mind that Paul describes concerns someone whose mind is empty of truth, is lacking substance, and is arrogant. While this is true for every single person that is unsaved, as Christians we still oftentimes walk like unsaved people. When we are deceived by the lies and promises of this world, it always leads to death. There is no spiritual truth, hope, joy, or peace outside of Christ and if we look for it elsewhere, we will continue to walk after our own lusts, trying to become our own god.
What is the remedy for our sinful condition? Faith in God and a clear understanding of God’s Grace. While vanity is a lack of substance, faith, on the contrary, has a substance as defined in Hebrews:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1
That substance is the grace of Jesus Christ, the finished work on the cross while we didn’t deserve it.
Well… how do we grow in faith? Study the Bible and your faith will grow. (Rom 10:17, 2Ti 2:15, 1Th 2:13)
Grace doesn’t just kill our old man, it kills sin and allows us to walk with a renewed mind. If we want to walk worthy of the calling we all have in Christ, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom 12:1-2) and quit making excuses as to why the vain things we distract ourselves with are more important. Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked and we will reap what we sow (Gal 6:7-8).
