God created man to love the Lord with all of his heart, soul and mind. But such a thing is impossible when man’s mind is “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (Romans 1:29). A depraved mind is morally corrupt and completely unable to love and serve the Lord. The only way to receive a new heart and a new mind is to “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15) of the Gospel (see John 3:16).
The first chapter of Romans describes the “godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (v. 18). God is greatly offended by such behavior. The Greek word “paradidomi” is used three times in this chapter to explain how centuries ago God “handed over” or “delivered up” people to “shameful lusts” (v. 26) and a “depraved mind” (v. 28).
Imagine a courtroom scene where an enraged defendant charges the bench and spits on the judge, who then hands the defendant an additional 180 days in jail for “contempt of court.” Similarly, God handed people over to a depraved mind as divine punishment when they deliberately suppressed the truth.
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The Bible provides numerous signs of a depraved mind. Such people are “full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Romans 1:29-31).
You may wonder: Why would anyone choose to hate God? The answer lies in what I call the “basement” of man’s soul; namely, his “sinful nature.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18). Your sinful nature is not your heart or your mind, but it nevertheless contains all manner of wicked desires and sinful inclinations.
Believers are not obligated to “go down to the basement” to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Christians “have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18). “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the (Holy) Spirit have their minds set on what the (Holy) Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5).
Man tends to assume he can control his thoughts and desires. But apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, man is bound to the desires of his sinful nature and unable to free himself. Until man repents of sin and unbelief, he remains “under law” rather than “under grace.”
But once man is born again through faith in Christ, he is set free. “Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). Christians are free to stay out of the basement as we walk in wisdom throughout the upper levels of the home. That is, throughout our heart and mind.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit is absent whenever a believer chooses to go down to the basement, such as when a Christian accesses pornography, or chooses to hold a grudge. Unlike wicked behavior which seeks to gratify sinful desires, the Spirit’s wonderful fruit refreshes the soul and consists of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
God’s Word teaches believers: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). The Greek word for “transformed” is metamorphoo, from which we get the word, “metamorphosis.” Replacing a depraved mind with a transformed mind requires new birth, (see 1 Peter 1:3) and then dwelling upon pure thoughts that please the Lord moment by moment (see Philippians 4:8) Believers are saved, redeemed, forgiven and justified on the front end of our relationship with God.
Paul wrote, “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). If your mind is out of control and running rampant today, the Holy Spirit can “make the crooked places straight” (Isaiah 45:2). But you will need to confess your sinful thoughts to Jesus in order to be cleansed and renewed.
When men and women chose to “exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another” (Romans 1:23-24).
“God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (Romans 1:26-27).
While there are certainly a significant number of people today who are inflamed with homosexual lust, there are obviously far more people engaging in heterosexual fornication and adultery. The Bible instructs God’s people: “We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died” (1 Corinthians 10:8).
The basement of man’s soul contains deadly spiritual toxins. Paul wrote, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
So, who or what is controlling your mind today? The Holy Spirit, or your sinful lusts and desires? If it is your heart’s desire to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), then call upon Jesus to forgive your sins as you devote yourself hour by hour to thinking wholesome thoughts. And always remember: Straight living requires straight thinking!
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
