The classic metaphor for describing the transformation that takes place in a man who goes from an unbeliever dead in his trespasses to a believer alive in Christ is:
"A man hears the truth, and the man may get it in his head, but it takes time for it to go from his head to his heart."
This transition has no support in scripture, note whatsoever.
I have read that when a believers in his heart and confesses out of his mouth that Jesus is Lord, than he will be saved (Romans 10: 9).
And we receive this faith to believe by hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10: 17).
It is the Word of Christ, not the Word of Moses, Aaron, David, or any other saint, Old or New Testament, that takes us from death to life:
"For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of
the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
'Now this I
say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of
Cephas; and I of Christ.
"Is Christ
divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1: 11-13)
Then Paul gets squarely to what it's really all about:
"For Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." (1 Corinthians 1: 17)
What happens when we believe on Him whom the Father has sent? (John 6: 29)
We receive a new heart:
"For this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not
teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
We receive a new heart, a new identity, a new core, which is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We are a made new creation in our Spirit:
"Therefore if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new. " (2 Corinthians 5: 17)
and
"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward
man is renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4: 16)
Not only that, but our heart has been established in grace:
"Be not carried about
with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that
have been occupied therein." (Hebrews 13:9)
Yet Peter then tell us to "grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord." (2 Peter 3: 18)
What's going on, then? The transformation which has already occurred in our spirit needs to be taken into our minds, not the other way around. It is not a head-to-heart transformation, but rather a heart-to-head change. Our minds need to catch up with the Truth that we have become and is becoming of us as members of the Body of Christ.
Scripture confirms this, starting with Paul's prayer to the Ephesians:
"Wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
"Cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
"That the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
"The eyes of your
understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
"And what is
the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the
working of his mighty power," (Ephesians 1: 15-19)
What was Paul's most important prayer, to him, was that the Ephesian Christians would know who there were in Christ and what they already had because of Christ in them, the hope of glory for every believer (Colossians 1: 27)
This transformation comes through the growing awareness of our "understanding" or "full intellect."
John prayed a similar prayer for the believers:
"Beloved, I wish above
all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul
prospereth." (3 John 2 )
Our soul — mind, will, emotions — need to prosper. Our Spirit man is always being renewed, and without a doubt will be like Jesus:
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8: 29)
and
"Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when
he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
"And
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. " (1 John 3: 2-3)
The real calling for the believer is to know more of Him through our complete understanding, to get a growing knowledge of the Truth who lives in us. And that is exactly what John writes next in his third epistle:
"I rejoiced greatly,
when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou
walkest in the truth.
"I have no greater joy
than to hear that my children walk in truth." (3 John 3-4)
How do we walk in the truth? By knowing through our mind, which informs our will and shapes our emotions, about Jesus Christ:
"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word,
then are ye my disciples indeed;
"And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8: 31-32)
We know things through our mind, right? Paul exhorts us to be transformed in our mind:
"And be not conformed
to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12: 2)
Not our heart, which for the believer has already been changed, but our mind, our fallen minds which need to be renewed to the Truth of Christ Jesus.
What has caused the confusion, then, among believers and teachers, that they hammer a heart transformation so much? Primarily, we have confused the heart and the mind as the seat of our emotions. What we are thinking will affect how we feel, it cannot be any simpler than that. Like in many other issues, the ancients were more prescient and accurate when they saw the heart as the core of the person, not just the seat of the person's emotions. Psychologists have confirmed this reality to us. The problem for the modern age, sadly, is that we have put emotions on a high platform at the expense of our thinking. We are consumed with our feeling, without parsing the divide between who we are in Christ, as opposed to how our flesh still operates.
Paul tell us, therefore:
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 11)
We are alive in Christ. We even have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2: 16). The trick is to settle a fallen mind, still attempting to rear is ugly rebellion within us, prompted to leave rest and grace by the fiery darts of the enemy (Ephesians 6: 16). The shield of faith protects us, and this faith is the same faith of the Son of God who lives in us (Galatians 2: 20).
We settled a fallen mind on the ever and eternal standing of the Word of God, cutting through bone and marrow and dividing soul from Spirit (Hebrews 4: 12).
What relevance does this discussion have, aside from appearing pedantic and picayune? Because for along time I struggled with how exactly I was supposed to get the Truth from my head to my heart. It seemed like an impossible task, taking the truth from my mind to my heart — no one had explained to me how I was supposed to do that.
Of course I would find no explanation, because such a concept is unscriptural altogether. God gives us the new heart:
"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I
will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of
flesh:" (Ezekiel 11: 19)
So, I could relax about trying to change my heart, and so can the rest of us. Now, as far renewing the mind, nothing could be simpler:
"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive
with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1: 21)
and
"And these are they
which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and
bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred." (Mark 4: 20)
The Word of God is alive and ready to push through and bear fruit in our lives. We do not have to strive to transform ourselves, but rather we permit the word of God to renew our minds to the Truth of all that we have been made in Christ, in our already new heart!