The Glorious Mind of Christ

By Robb Brunansky

Published November 4, 2025

When we have wrong thoughts about God, the consequences can be disastrous for every relationship – especially within the church. Many problems arise when believers’ actions are guided by inaccurate or unbiblical thinking about God. The church at Corinth is a case study in what goes wrong when people’s minds are led astray from the truth of God’s Word.

The very first issue crippling the Corinthian church was disunity, which stemmed from these believers thinking with a fleshly mind, rather than with the mind of Christ. Rather than submitting to God’s wisdom and applying the mind of Christ to their daily walk, the Corinthians were enamored with man’s thoughts, philosophies, and opinions, leading to church conflict and division. Paul, therefore, exhorted them in 1 Corinthians 1:10 to be of the same mind.

When we come to 1 Corinthians 2:6-11, we discover that Paul wanted the Corinthians to adopt the very mind of Christ. As Christians, we have access to the way Christ thinks, and we know God’s wisdom. Believers, then, have no excuse for operating individually or collectively as the church under a worldly mindset because we have been given the very mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, what is the mind of Christ that we might renew our minds to think His thoughts?”

To help us renew our minds after the mind of Christ, Paul describes what that mind actually is. The mind of Christ is eternal, meaning that God’s wisdom was in His mind before creation. Additionally, the mind of Christ is hidden from fallen humanity, because it cannot be perceived with our natural abilities.

Paul gives one more description of the mind of Christ in verses 7-9, that it is glorious. God’s eternal purpose in Christ, the mystery of the cross, is glorious wisdom, that far surpasses anything in the world.

There are three ways Paul points his readers toward seeing the mind of Christ as glorious.

First, Paul calls Christ the Lord of glory (verse 8).

While scholars debate the precise nuance of the phrase Lord of glory, we can confidently say the phrase at least means that everything about our Lord is defined by the term glory. The author of Hebrews 1:3 says Christ is the radiance of God’s glory. The Son shines with the full brightness of His Father’s glory.

John 1:14 reminds us that John and other apostles saw Jesus’ glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father. Jesus has a unique glory because He is the only begotten from the Father, the Son of God, who is full of God’s glory. When we consider the Savior’s glory, we can only conclude that the mind of Christ must be glorious because it is the mind of the Lord of glory. There is no more glorious, beautiful, perfect, good, holy wisdom to be found; the mind of Christ is the ultimate revelation of glory because of who Jesus is in Himself as the Lord of glory.

Second, the mind of Christ is shown to be glorious when Paul says that the wisdom of God was predestined before the ages to our glory (verse 7). The mind of Christ is not merely glorious in an abstract sense all unto itself, although certainly the mind of Christ is glorious in and of itself even if we had never existed. Rather, God’s wisdom revealed in Christ crucified is wisdom that God planned before creation for our glory. This glory describes our eternal destiny as believers! We might naturally think of eternal glory as similar to our current condition but without sin, but the reality is that our glorious destiny will be a radical change from our current experience, as different as a seed is from a full-grown tree. We will be totally transformed, fit to live in a new, glorious creation. We will be conformed to the likeness of Christ’s glory.

In Romans 8:29, Paul told his readers that they will be conformed to the image of Christ to resemble Him. That is the destiny that God planned for Christians before time began. God’s mind fashioned a purpose and a plan that would make us eternally like His beloved Son, the Lord of glory.

John in 1 John 3:2 states that we don’t know now in our fallen condition what it will look or feel like to be free from sin, sorrow, and death, and be glorified like our Savior. However, when we see Christ, we will be like Him, because we will be able to stand in the presence of His glory and see Him as He is. We will be able to behold the glorified Lord because we will be made like Him in every way a creature can be like the Creator.

This is but a sampling of the doctrine of glorification, that we are destined, not for destruction, but for glory. Incredibly, God decided this reality before we were created. God’s great love toward us was so infinite that He devised a plan of redemption that would allow us to be as much like His Son as a creature can be. Oh, how we should meditate on our future reality of God’s glory transforming us into the very likeness of Christ!

Finally, Paul shows us that the mind of Christ is glorious because God has prepared unfathomably glorious things for those who love Him (verse 9).

Scholars understand that this unseen and unheard wisdom is our salvation through Christ’s cross, and they are right. That salvation, which includes our forgiveness and justification, does not end there. These glorious things God has prepared for us through the gospel extend into eternity future. If we could not begin to understand the basics of the gospel of Christ crucified on our own, how will we ever understand the full salvation Christ purchased this side of eternity? We never will!

God has prepared unspeakably glorious, kind, loving, and merciful things for those who love Him. Paul in Ephesians 2:7 says God’s plan is to show us the surpassing riches of His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus in the age to come. God plans to spend all eternity pouring His infinite kindness out on those who love Him.

Paul understands something wonderful about saving faith, that it can never be divorced from a genuine love for God. People who believe in God unto salvation also love the God who saved them. No one is headed for glory who does not love God. At the end of this letter, Paul writes, “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.” If people do not love the Lord of glory, they will not share His glory, falling instead under His divine, just, and holy wrath. We know we have come to believe in Christ by seeing if we truly love Him.

Love for Christ is the true fruit of all genuine faith. If someone were to say to Paul, “I believe in the Lord, but I don’t love Him,” Paul would probably respond, “Then I don’t know what you mean when you say you believe in the Lord, because to believe in Him always results in loving Him.” And so, Paul says that God’s purpose in Christ, to glorify His people with unfathomable kindness for all eternity, is for those who love their Savior, who is infinitely worthy of all of our love.