When we read of some young person dying in an accident, or even being murdered, as has happened again recently, we are greatly saddened, because life has failed to reach its potential in that person. We consider that under different circumstances perhaps that young person could have become a family person or just someone respected in the society or in the workplace, and helping them see what the things are that really make life good and worthwhile.

But it is not to be. Instead this person dies violently or tragically, once again leaving bitterness and regrets in other people’s lives. Perhaps imperceptibly, the tide of meaninglessness throughout the community is raised another notch, the desire for short-term self-gratification at long term expense increases, courtesy decreases and the roads get that little bit more dangerous because selfishness and thoughtlessness have worked a little further into our minds. Life gets a little nastier, a little more brutish, and for some, a lot shorter.

The overall emphasis in the Bible on shortness and length of life is not so much on prolonging life, as on renewing life. Clearly, in physical terms to prolong life requires renewal: most of our body cells die after about seven years, and if they were not replaced by new ones, our lives could not continue. Our life is prolonged through this constant renewal. However, St. Paul speaks of the renewal of our minds bringing about transformation. This is not a renewal of body cells, but a mental or psychological renewal. “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace”, he states in Romans chap 8. St. Paul’s understanding of the renewal of our minds is part of his doctrine of the renewal of man, man’s transformation from being subject to the realm of sin and death under Adam, to being sons of the Resurrection through Christ.

St. Paul sees our renewal not as an individualistic, autonomous renewal such as is sometimes preached, but something more like the filling in of a template. God Himself has already provided for a new race in Christ. In the “old” man destined for death under Adam, his mind is drawn downwards, so to speak, constantly filled with the things of the body of one kind or another. St. Paul shows that when the mind is in this way submitted to the body it is unable to renew the body, but on the contrary the principle of mortality that is present in the body gains control of the mind as well. “To set the mind on the flesh is death,” he says. The opposite to that is setting the mind on the Spirit, and those who live according to the Spirit are those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is then dwelling in us and giving life to our mortal bodies. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is that powerful template which, if it begins to incorporate us through our minds being set on the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus, will renew first our minds and then our bodies.

As members of Christ’s Body, we should take note that the work of Christ in us is not to enable us to survive unscathed by our existence, but to resuscitate us through transformation from the race of Adam to the race of Christ. Jesus said to Martha, Lazarus’s sister, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” He did not say that if we saw the glory of God we would believe it. So we might not initially see the transformation we are considering, either in others or in ourselves, but the transformation is to be initially believed in.

It is an ontological reality, theologians and philosophers will teach us, a fact of being that rests on the word of Christ and the Gospel itself. Having believed our salvation, it is now for us to work it out, as is the case with marriage or citizenship for example, until through its fruits it can be seen.

This is the approach that Jesus took in the raising of Lazarus. If it were not so, verses 5 and 6 of John chapter 11 would make no sense whatever: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” The ontological reality with regard to Jesus is that He is the Resurrection and the Life, as He testified to Martha. Believing that, she or anyone could expect to see the glory of God in the renewing of the life of the dead Lazarus.

So it was indeed a special mark of his love for them that he stayed away from them for two extra days, in order that this glory might be made plain to them. This of course is incomprehensible without belief. That is true about the glory of God in all sorts of contexts. It cannot be observed without at least some measure of belief in the first place. So will be the transformation of the race of the children of Adam into the race of the children of Christ. Believing in the word of the Gospel, and setting the mind on the Spirit, we will see the glory of God.

For commentary, information and devotional material see www.churchofenglandcayman.com and www.anglicansatprayer.org