LESSON THIRTEEN
RENEWING

Rom. 12:2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renew-ing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

SANCTIFICATION BRINGING IN RENEWING

Through regeneration we have the life of God, and through sanctification our disposition is changed. When the believers are sanctified dispositionally, they are spontaneously renewed in their spiritual life.

RENEWING OF THE MIND

Romans 12:2a says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” We should not be fashioned according to this age. This means that we should not be fashionable. Rather, we should be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The renewing taught by the Scriptures is the renewing of the mind; it is altogether a matter related to the mind. The mind is our mentality, our philosophy, our religious concepts, our views concerning people and things, etc. We need to be renewed mainly in our mind.

BEING CHANGED FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW BY THE TEACHING OF THE
SCRIPTURES AND THE ENLIGHTENING OF THE SPIRIT

How can our mind be renewed that our whole being may be renewed? The way of renewing lies in prayer and in reading the Scriptures, because for us to be renewed in our mind is for us to get rid of all our old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again by the teaching of the holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible and become familiar with it, the Holy Spirit will enlighten you and guide you. When the Holy Spirit comes to enlighten you while you thus pray and read the Word day by day, the mind in you is being changed from the old to the new. Your view is different and your being is renewed.

ISSUING IN TRANSFORMATION OF THE BELIEVERS
IN THEIR SPIRITUAL LIFE

Such a renewing of the mind issues in the transformation of the believers in their spiritual life. Titus 3:5 refers to the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The washing of regeneration washes away our old life; following this, the renewing of the Holy Spirit changes our mind. When our mind is renewed, our whole being is transformed. This is to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The washing of regeneration purges away all the things in the old nature of our old man, whereas the renewing of the Holy Spirit dispenses the new things, the divine essence of the new man, into our being. Through this we turn from the old condition in which we were into a completely new condition, from the state of the old creation into the state of the new creation. (The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, pp. 43-46)

References: The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, ch. 3; The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation: ‘The Spirit Himself with Our Spirit,’ ch. 3.