The Mind of Christ

[Dedicated Mind]

What is the distinction between the mind of God and the mind of Christ? I think most would agree that Christ was not omniscient, but we know that God is. Are there 2 minds? A human mind and an omniscient mind? Is Logos the mind of God? How should oneness answer these questions?

[The Matt]

Jesus say...Me and my father, we be one. Not one of two minds, one. One being. One entity. One spirit. Jesus be Emmanuel, "God With Us" Otherwise, there would be two to worship. Two minds=Two beings. Two spirits. I say, why confuse things? I like worshipping one God.

[Dedicated Mind]

Originally Posted by The Matt

Jesus say...Me and my father, we be one. Not one of two minds, one. One being. One entity. One spirit. Jesus be Emmanuel, "God With Us" Otherwise, there would be two to worship. Two minds=Two beings. Two spirits. I say, why confuse things? I like worshipping one God.

Matt I believe in oneness, but am trying to understand an omniscient mind and the mind of christ, unless the spirit of God is omniscient consciousness itself and not the mind of a person. Just looking for input.

[bbyrd009]

Hi. I'm trying to understand the mind of God, even though the Bible says this is not possible. I see 1guys, 2guys, and 3guys, all pretty much arguing with each other, and I'm looking for any fruit here. Still looking, wait for it...still looking...Ok. No, wait...
: )

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by The Matt

Jesus say...Me and my father, we be one. Not one of two minds, one. One being. One entity. One spirit. Jesus be Emmanuel, "God With Us" Otherwise, there would be two to worship. Two minds=Two beings. Two spirits. I say, why confuse things? I like worshipping one God.

Matt,

I disagree. When Jesus says in John 10:30, “I and my father are one.” - I have to ask, “One what?”, or, “What do you mean by ‘one’?”

In John 14 Jesus describes this “oneness”:

John 14:11
11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

Notice Jesus describes His “oneness” with the Father as being one of perichoretic union with a coinherence of natures. He, Jesus, is IN the Father and the Father is IN Him. Two very distinct subsistent realities perfectly united into one being. A Trinitarian will tell you that this is a union between two “persons”. However, Oneness believers will explain that this is a union between two distinct modes of being in one person. The distinction between these modes of being is with regards to nature. One mode of being is absolutely divine. The other is completely human.

In Oneness, the person of Father exists in three distinct modes of existence. He exists as God revealed upon the throne of Heaven. He exists as a man, the man Christ Jesus, born in Bethlehem of Judea who was crucified, buried, and arose to ascend into Heaven. He also exists as a Spirit that fills all things. Let’s focus in on the man, Christ Jesus. Jesus was human. That means He had a human body, soul, and spirit. That human soul (psuche, from which we get the word psyche) has a subsistent self-conscious reality, albeit human. You could therefore say that Jesus has a human “mind”. Please note, this “human mind” is distinct from the divine mind in that it isn’t all knowing. However, the divine mind governs the very thoughts, words, and actions that originate in the human mind. So, though we see two distinct streams of consciousness in Christ, we see only one person revealed. He is revealed as one who is both God and man, Jesus Christ.

I said this to illustrate that “two minds” doesn’t always equal “two beings”. A single being can exist in more than one mode of existence and thereby exist in two very distinct self-conscious realities. This is what I believe to be the ontological relationship between the Father and the Son.

Now…what good is all this theoretic theology without practical application?

Paul wrote,

I Corinthians 2:6-16 (ESV)
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

We have the “mind of Christ”. What does this mean? This means that we have the very same relationship with the Father that the man Jesus Christ had and therefore the same disposition. Jesus said,

John 17:21
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Notice that Christ’s prayer is not only for a corporate “oneness” of the entire church, but an oneness that perfectly reflects the oneness seen between Himself and the Father. We are to be “one” in them. We too are to be one with God as the man Jesus Christ was one with God. Yes, Jesus wasn’t to be the only person who was one with God. He died to pay the price necessary for you to be united with God and therefore share in the very same oneness with God seen in the man Jesus Christ. Through Jesus we are united into a singular state of being known as the Bride. Just as a man and wife are one flesh so too are we who are united with God through Jesus Christ, and therewith, united to one another. The Father, the Son, and the Church are a single organism. You and I, if we be in Christ, are not two separate beings. Matt, you and I are one being, in Jesus. I am you… and you are me. Therefore, when you are hurt… I am hurt. When you are blessed and rejoice… I am blessed and rejoice. We are like two branches united to a vine. We are extensions of the vine. We are not two separate vines. The very life and reality of the vine itself flows through us as we bear fruit. You and I are in Christ and He in us. Therefore, with regards to the spirit within us… you and I are Christ… and Christ is us. You and I are one with God through Him.

How?

Let’s ask ourselves a question. How many spirits do you and I have? The most common answer is two. We have your spirit and then there is my spirit. And if we have the Holy Spirit most would then answer that we have “three” spirits. There would be your spirit, then my spirit, then God’s Spirit. But that is not correct. Our lifeless, vile, depraved, contaminated, sinful, spirits were Regenerated and united with God through the Holy Spirit. We are now “plugged in” to the very Spirit, or being, of God. Therefore we have the very same Spirit, power, and authority flowing through us that flowed through Jesus. In fact, our two distinct human spirits were united with God and each other as two drops of wine are united with the ocean, when dropped into the sea. You, me, and God are one. We no longer have separate human spirits. In fact, let’s look at something Paul wrote,

1 Corinthians 6:17 (ESV)
17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

We are “one spirit with him”. Who? The Lord. Lol We who have the Holy Ghost are one spirit with Him in the Holy Spirit just as the man Jesus Christ was one spirit with the Father. In us there is no longer separate spirits. We have one spirit... the Holy Spirit. He is our very life, our Spirit. The very same Spirit residing in you... also resides in me. Spiritually speaking, you and I are one in being with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

Pretty deep huh? You are truly a treasure in an earthen vessel. But that treasure isn’t the inner you. Lol It’s God Himself…in you. You, like Jesus, can say, “I and my Father are one.” He died to facilitate that relationship, that union.

Knowing this… how might we live? If we fully understood our union with God through Jesus Christ…how would it affect how we love each other and others? How would it affect how we live our day to day lives? How might it empower our witness? The fullness of these realizations experienced and lived out are… the mind of Christ.

In sports they say, "Be the ball." In this arena, God desires us to, "Be Jesus." Now... go... and be Jesus to this lost and dying world.

God bless.

[DaveC519]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

What is the distinction between the mind of God and the mind of Christ? I think most would agree that Christ was not omniscient, but we know that God is. Are there 2 minds? A human mind and an omniscient mind? Is Logos the mind of God? How should oneness answer these questions?

Hello Dedicated Mind,

As I understand it, the attributes of God's unlimitedness were "at rest" (quiescent) within the context of his humanity. In other words, external to his humanity, God continued to be omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Within the context of his humanity, he willingly limited himself to the parameters of frail human existence. This includes possessing a consciousness which is associated with being a genuine human being.

Omniscience cannot be fully expressed through a limited medium (humanity).

Clear as mud?

[Aquila]

Very interesting stuff! lol

[KeptByTheWord]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

What is the distinction between the mind of God and the mind of Christ? I think most would agree that Christ was not omniscient, but we know that God is. Are there 2 minds? A human mind and an omniscient mind? Is Logos the mind of God? How should oneness answer these questions?

The way I undertand the godhead now is simply this. Jesus was the "quality" of God submitted and humbled in a human bodily form. All who God the Father was, was present in Jesus in quality, yet the quantity of who God the Father is could never be limited to humanity, and because God the Father is a Spirit, He is everywhere and part of everything.

The quality of God was in Jesus, but the quantity of God never changed, and never will. God is a spirit, and has never been seen by man.

[NorCal]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

What is the distinction between the mind of God and the mind of Christ? I think most would agree that Christ was not omniscient, but we know that God is. Are there 2 minds? A human mind and an omniscient mind? Is Logos the mind of God? How should oneness answer these questions?

When we say "The Mind of Christ" this is not talking about a "Second Person in a Trinity" but is it talking about the actual human thoughts of Christ.

Wither you are Trinitarian or Oneness, it does not matter. It is talking about the 100% human nature of Jesus the Christ.

For example, Trinitarians have the same issue with patripassianism. If God the Father can not suffer, then God the Son being exactly like (co-equal, co-eternal, co-anything) God the Father, can not suffer either.

Just as Oneness teach that it was not the Spirit that suffered, but the flesh. So we can not have the Mind of God, but we can have the Mind of Christ.