Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
Romans 12:1-2
“Power-filled Perspective”
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. — Romans 12:1-2
Background Information:
- Romans 12:1-2 is a magnetic pole for everything Paul will teach about the church and Christian life in the end of the letter. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 281)
- Chapters 12-13 contain the fullest exposition that we have of Paul’s central view of the ethical life of the Christian, of the conduct of one who through faith is righteous. (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 415)
- (12:1) Know what the “therefore”, is there for.
- (12:1) Paul deliberately calls his audience “brothers” as an attempt to reconcile and bring together the Jewish and Gentile contingencies within the church in Rome.
- I urge you (12:1). The Greek behind the NIV “urge” is parakaleō . The word is stronger than “ask” and weaker than “command.” It is the perfect word to express the moral imperative of the gospel. (Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Vol. 3, 73)
- (12:1 NIV “offer”) In the Septuagint (Greek OT), paristēmi (to present) was often used as a technical term for a priest’s placing an offering on the altar. It therefore carried the general idea of surrendering or yielding up. As members of God’s present “holy priesthood” (1 Pt 2:5), Christians are here exhorted to perform what is essentially a priestly act of worship. Because the verb is in the imperative, the exhortation carries the weight of a command. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 142)
- (12:1) Two other living sacrifices in the Bible. Isaac (Gn 22) and Jesus (Heb 4:14-16; 1 Jn 2:1).
- (12:1) “Spiritual” act of worship = Logikos (spiritual) is the term from which we get logic and logical. Our offerings to God are certainly to be spiritual, but that is not what Paul is speaking about at this point. Logikos also can be translated reasonable, as in the King James Version. The apostle is saying that, in light of “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God” and of His “unsearchable…judgments and unfathomable…ways”, and because “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:33, 36), including His immeasurable “mercies” that we already have received (12:1a), our only reasonable–and by implication, spiritual–service of worship is to present God with all that we are and all that we have. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 148)
- (21:1 “Worship”) Latreia was used in the Greek OT to speak of worshiping God according to the prescribed Levitical ceremonies, and it became part of the priestly, sacrificial language. The priestly service was an integral part of the OT worship. The writer of Hebrews uses latreia to describe the “divine worship” (9:6 NASB), or “service of God” (KJV), performed by OT priests. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 148)
- (12:2) “Conform” = Be conformed is from suschēmatizō, which refers to an outward expression that does not reflect what is within. It is used of masquerading, or putting on an act, specifically by following a prescribed pattern or scheme (schēma). It also carries the idea of being transitory, impermanent, and unstable. The negative mē (not) makes the verb prohibitive. The verb itself is passive and imperative, the passive indicating that conformation is something we allow to be done to us, the imperative indicating a command, not a suggestion. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 149)
- (12:2) “pattern” = The Greek word is a long one, but in the middle of it we find the root that has given us our modern word for scheme. The verse might be translated without moving too far from the original by rendering it: Don’t go along with this world’s schemes. As the centuries have passed, this word schema has developed several meanings. We can say at once that a Christian is not to be interested in any of the world’s schemes, using that word in its unfavorable sense. It should go without saying that one who has been truly redeemed by Christ will not be interested in the underhanded projects and plots of those who are unprincipled. Nothing that is dishonorable and disgraceful can be considered for a moment by one who is controlled by the Holy Spirit. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Discipline, 22)
- (12:2 NIV) “ World” translates aiōn, which is better rendered “age,” referring to the present sinful age, the world system now dominated by Satan, “the god of this world (aiōn)” (2 Cor 4:4). World here represents the sum of the demonic-human philosophy of life. It corresponds to the German zeitgeist (the spirit of the age) and has been well described as “that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitute a most real and effective power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale” (G. C. Trench, Synonyms of the NT, 217-18)
- (12:2) “Transformed” = Metamorphosis
The question to be answered is . . . What is the Romans 12:1 “therefore” there for?
Answer: When we get a clear, accurate view of God’s mercy towards us (Romans ch. 1-11), then we will find the motivation, the power and the desire to live sacrificial, obedient lives that are both holy and pleasing to God (Romans ch. 12-15) . We will no longer desire to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Gospel has really taken hold of our lives when it changes everything in our lives.
The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking. And Christian thinking is the prerequisite of Christian action. (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think?, 43)
If revelation is the basis for social morality and ethics, then it is impossible to have valid, effective or lasting morals without it. We must have Rom 1-11 in order to have Rom 12-16. (James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary: Romans, Vol. 4, 1486)
Two general aspects of Paul’s instruction in Rom 12-15 call for comment before we consider the particulars. The first is that he integrates creed and conduct, insisting both on the practical implications of his theology and on the theological foundations of his ethic. In spite of our newness in Christ (‘dead to sin but alive to God’, 6:11), holiness is neither automatic nor inevitable. On the contrary, pleas for good conduct need to be issued, and reasons need to be given. Thus in chapter 12 we are told to offer our bodies to God because of his mercy (1), to serve one another because we are one body in Christ (5), and not to take revenge, because vengeance belongs to God (19). Similarly, according to chapter 13 we are to submit to the state because its officials are God’s ministers wielding God’s authority (1ff.), and to love our neighbor and so fulfill the law because the day of Christ’s return is approaching (10f.). And in chapter 14, as we will see in detail later, we are urged not to harm our sisters and brothers in any way, because Christ died to be their savior (15), rose to be their Lord (9f.) and is coming to be our judge (11f.). It is marvelous to see the great doctrines of the cross, the resurrection and the parousia (second-coming of Christ) being pressed into the service of practical, day-to-day Christian behavior. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 317)
What the apostle is teaching, therefore, is that Christian ethics is based on Christian doctrine. Accordingly, 1 Cor 15:1-57 is followed by 15:58 f.; 2 Cor 1:3, 4a, by 1:4b f.; 5:18- by 5:9 f.; Eph 2 and 3 by Eph 4; 4:32b by 5:1; Phil 3:20, 21 by 4:1; Col 2 by chapter 3; and Rom 1-11 by 12-16. (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 403)
The Word for the Day is . . . Metamorphosis
All theology is practical, and all practice, if it is truly Christian, is theological. Paul’s gospel is deeply theological, but it is also eminently practical. The good news of Jesus Christ is intended to transform a person’s life. Until individual Christians own and live out the theology, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 393)
What needs to take place in order for us to receive a Power-filled Perspective?:
I. We need a healthy understanding of our desperate need for God’s mercy (Lk 7:47; Gal 6:14; Rom 9:15-23; 11:30-32; Eph 2:1-12; 1 Tm 1:13-16; Ti 3:3-5; Jas 2:12-13; 1 Pt 1:3-7; 2:4-10)
Paul pleads with the brethren by the mercies of God (v. 1b). Paul makes his plea in light of God’s tender mercies, which he has just finished expounding in chapter 11, and those mercies are these: (1) we are justified by faith; (2) our sins are forgiven through the atonement of Christ; (3) God works all things together for our good; and (4) God calls people to himself. Everything Paul has expounded throughout the doctrinal section of the epistle, chapters 1-11, points back to God’s mercy. The mercies of God lead us to the “therefore.” (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 406)
Obviously the doctrine of justification by faith only is absolutely essential. There has never been a revival but that this has always come back into prominence. This doctrine means the end of all thinking about ourselves and our goodness, and our good deeds, and our morality, and all our works. Look at the histories of revivals, and you will find men and women feeling desperate. They know that all their goodness is but filthy rags, and that all their righteousness is of no value at all. And there they are, feeling that they can no nothing, and crying out to God for mercy and for compassion. Justification by faith. God’s act. ‘If God does not do it to us,’ they say, ‘then we are lost.’ (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival, 55)
“In sports you have to be good enough in your athletic skill to make the team. In business you have to perform according to agreed-upon standards in order to keep your job. In society you have to be a winner in order to merit recognition. In Jesus Christ, you do not have to be good enough, you do not have to perform, you do not have to be a winner. Ironically, to be in Christ means exactly the opposite—it is to admit that you are not good enough, that you cannot perform, that because of sin’s grip on your life you are a loser—and to admit, for that very reason, that you need a Savior, a Savior whose unconditional love transforms you life.” (Patrick Morley, Ten Secrets for the Man in the Mirror, 176)
In my opinion, you can never understand and accurately appreciate what God has done in showing you mercy in Christ without replying wholeheartedly, as did Isaac Watts in his great hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (1709):
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
(James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary: Romans, Vol. 4, 1514)
The sacrifice of obedience is evoked not by Paul’s authority but by God’s mercy. All ethical systems make some appeal to moral law and rules. For example, Kant’s Categorical Imperative (“Act only on that maxim whereby you at the same time would wish that it should become a universal law”) appeals to an “oughtness” of moral behavior. Paul, however, makes no appeal to moral principles. He appeals solely to God’s mercy. If Christian morality were simply a deterrence of divine wrath, then it would not be morality at all, for it would not be free. It would simply be some sort of moral ransom rooted in fear. If it were done in hopes of receiving something from God, then it would be manipulative and egocentric. True Christian ethics, on the other hand, are ethics of gratitude. The obedience pleasing to God is characterized by free and willing submission because of God’s prior sacrifice of his Son on our behalf (8:32; 9:16). (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 282)
God justifies the ungodly. And that means that when you are justified, when you are absolutely righteous and loved, absolutely accepted, in yourself you are absolutely unworthy, absolutely sinful, you’re ungodly, and therefore there is within you absolutely nothing that is the basis of this justification. Nothing!
Now, people have a lot of problems with that. They say, “O my goodness! I’ve got to be good a little bit.” I once had someone say to me, “If I believe what you believe I would have no incentive to live a good life. And by the way, there are plenty of people who have said that to me over the years. If I believe that I was totally saved, and it had nothing to do with the way that I lived, if it was completely free then I would have no incentive to live a good life.
And here is the proper (I think) response: If when you lose all fear of punishment, you also lose your incentive for living a good life, then the only incentive you had to live a good life was fear. See, if when you lose your fear, you lose your incentive to be good, then the only incentive you had to be good was the fear. And here is the ironic thing. The fear is selfish. Fear is always selfish. Because I might lose, this might happen, that might happen; I’d better be good. But what is goodness? Goodness is unselfish living, unselfish service to God, unselfish service to the poor, unselfish service to my neighbor. I’m scared that I might be lost unless I’m good, but what is goodness but being unselfish. But don’t you realize that’s incredibly selfish.
When you live a good life so that God will bless you and take you to heaven, it is by definition not good. Because it is all for you. All for you. You’re not helping the poor, you are helping yourself. You’re not helping God, you are helping yourself. This is the reason why the Belgic Confession, an old reformation document from the 17th century puts it like this: “Far from making people cold toward living in a holy way, justifying faith so works within them that apart from it they will never do a thing out of love for God but only out of love for themselves and fear of being condemned.”
Did you hear that? Let me tell you what that is saying. Put on your thinking cap. And don’t laugh too much when I tell you. If you think your good deeds are good. If you think your unselfish good deeds are good, they are no good. In other words, if you think they are good and God owes you something then they are not by definition, by your own definition, your selfishness is really selfishness.
But if you say all my good deeds are worthless. I need to be saved by grace. I am saved by grace. Now I want to please God. I want to resemble God. I want to delight God. I want to be near God. Well, how do I do that?
By serving Him. By serving other people. But, if you think your deeds are good, they are no good. But, if you think that your good deeds are absolutely worthless and you are saved by grace that makes your deeds good. If you think they’re good they’re no good and if you think they’re no good they’re good. If you think they are worthless, but you are doing them just to please God, then they actually please God. (Tim Keller, “Justified by Faith” 26:30 into the sermon)
II. We need to understand that offering our bodies as a Living Sacrifice is our reasonable and/or spiritual act of worship (Ps 24:1-4; 51:17; Mal 1:8; Rom 6:1-19; 1 Cor 6:19-20; 15:31; Gal 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; Phil 3:10; Col 3:3-5; 2 Tm 2:11)
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. -Jim Elliott
We are to be broken bread and poured out wine for the world.” (Steve Brown, Romans tapes #14 side 2)
The degree to which you die on the altar is the degree to which you will experience true joy in reality. As the altar burns away the selfishness and ego and the self-protection, you will find you are free of the fear, of the necessity to defend yourself, and the necessity to be anything but His.” (Steve Brown Romans Tapes Vol 2, tape # 15 side B)
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the instrument through which the Holy Spirit works. After all, the great fact of the incarnation basically means that God did not grudge to take a human body upon himself, to live in it and to work through it. (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: Romans, 156)
True worship is the offering to God of one’s body, and all that one does every day with it. Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to him, not something transacted in a church, but something which sees the whole world as the temple of the living God. (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: Romans, 157)
God saw Abraham’s sacrifice and said, “Now I know that you love me, because you did not withhold your only son from me.” But how much more can we look at his sacrifice on the Cross, and say to God, “Now, we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us.” When the magnitude of what he did dawns on us, it makes it possible finally to rest our hearts in him rather than in anything else. (Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p. 18)
The mystery of the Christian life is that we can truly offer ourselves to God only if we are willing to give up ourselves. Yet in that death to our limited human concerns, God uses us in ways that demonstrate powerful life at work within us. Paul makes this same point in Gal 2:20. (Marva J. Dawn, Truly the Community: Romans 12, 14)
The main problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar. -Anonymous
Sacrifice is important, but even in the OT God made it clear that obedience from the heart was much more important (see 1 Sm 15:22; Ps 40:6; Amos 5:21-24). God wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices–daily laying aside our own desires to follow him, putting all our energy and resources at his disposal, and trusting him to guide us (see Heb 13:15-16; 1 Pt 2:5). (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 230)
Some people think that all it takes to be a Christian is to scribble a cheque or to give a few hours of service here and there on special projects for the church. But that’s not what believers are called to. My life is to be set apart and consecrated to God. That is what is acceptable to him; that is what delights him; that is what pleases him; that is the appropriate response to him and for him. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 195)
Just as God is the basis of reality so that everything flows from him and takes its form from him (“For from him and through him and to him are all things,” Rom 11:36), so also our relationship to God is the basis of all other relationships and our duty to him the basis of all other duties. Because this is so, Paul sets out the principles that should govern our relationship to God in verses 1 and 2. He reminds us that we are not our own and that we should therefore present ourselves to God as willing and living sacrifices. (James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary: Romans, Vol. 4, 1488)
The body is still the center of sinful desires, emotional depression, and spiritual doubts. Paul gives insight into that sobering reality when he said, “I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27). In order to maintain a holy life and testimony and to minister effectively, even the great apostle had to exert himself strongly and continually in order to control the human and sinful part of himself that persistently wanted to rule and corrupt his life and his work for the Lord. In Romans 8, we learned that he had to kill the flesh. Paul also said that God had given him a “thorn,” or a stake, on which to impale his otherwise proud flesh (2 Cor 12:7). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 143)
As with our souls, the Lord created our bodies for Himself, and, in this life, He cannot work through us without in some way working through our bodies. If we speak for Him, it must be through our mouths. If we read His Word, it must be with our eyes (or hands for those who are blind). If we hear His Word it must be through our ears. If we go to do His work, we must use our feet, and if we help others in His name, it must be with our hands. And if we think for Him, it must be with our minds, which now reside in our bodies. There can be no sanctification, no holy living, apart from our bodies. That is why Paul prayed, “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes 5:23). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 143-44)
“I think you have just put your finger on the problem,” I said. “The key to spiritual victory and true happiness is not in trying to get all we can from God but in giving all that we are and have to Him.” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 138)
True worship includes many things besides the obvious ones of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. It includes serving God by serving others in His name, especially fellow believers. Sacrificial worship includes “doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb 13:15-16; cf. Phil 4:14). But above all else, our supreme act of worship is to offer ourselves wholly and continually to the Lord as living sacrifices. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 138)
Christians who offer a living sacrifice of themselves usually do not consider it to be a sacrifice. And it is not a sacrifice in the common sense of losing something valuable. The only things we entirely give up for God–to be removed and destroyed–are sin and sinful things, which only bring us injury and death. But when we offer God the living sacrifice of ourselves, He does not destroy what we give Him but refines it and purifies it, not only for His glory but for our present and eternal good. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 147)
Sam Shoemaker said it well: “To be a Christian means to give as much of myself as I can to as much of Jesus Christ as I know.” (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Romans, 214)
Now it is obvious we can’t offer our bodies as dead sacrifices. Dead bodies would be useless to the Lord. To make them a LIVING sacrifice, we have to USE them for Christ and not for ourselves. By denying ourselves the privilege of using our bodies to please ourselves (do our own thing), and devoting them to the service of the Lord, we make the sacrifice Paul asks. Observe that he appeals to us to do this? Moses commanded the Israelites to make their sacrifices, but Paul asks for ours. He wants it to be a loving, voluntary sacrifice made on the basis of what God has already done for us. That’s why he reminds us of the mercies of God. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 317)
This sacrifice must be holy. The only way to make it holy is to dedicate it to the Lord. How does he do that? He offers it on the altar of his daily life. Yes, the Christian’s altar is his routine of life within his own private world. The very place where he lives and carries out the duties of living, is his altar. When a believer says to the Lord, “I here and now commit myself to Thee,” what he really means is that he is going to submit his body to the Holy Spirit’s leading in the smallest details of his life. Unlike the OT priest, NT believers do not go into a physical temple with their offering. They LIVE in their temple (1 Cor 6:19). (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 317-18)
The popularity of sacrifice in ancient religion, however, could lead to abuses. People could think that all they had to do to please their god was to offer the sacrifice, without regard to their own attitude or sincerity in doing so. The OT prophets, of course, railed at the people of Israel for just this offense, insisting that God would only honor sacrifices that came from a pure heart (e.g., Hos 6:6; Mi 1:6-14). Both Jewish and pagan authors in Paul’s day also warned about the same kind of attitude. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 396)
The Jewish philosopher Philo made a similar point, arguing that “that which is precious in the sight of God is not the number of victims immolated but the true purity of a rational spirit [pneuma logikon] in him who makes the sacrifice” (Special Laws 1.277; see also 1.272; cf. T. Levi 3:6). Paul, then, is making a similar point. Worship that pleases God is “informed”; that is, it is offered by the Christian who understands who God is, what he has given us in the gospel, and what he demands from us. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 396)
In order to maintain the sacrificial imagery throughout the sentence, Paul uses five more and less technical terms. He represents us as a priestly people, who, in responsive gratitude for God’s mercy, offer or present our bodies as living sacrifices. These are described as both holy and pleasing to God, which seem to be the moral equivalents to being physically unblemished or without defect, and a fragrant aroma. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 321)
This blunt reference to our bodies was calculated to shock some of Paul’s Greek readers. Brought up on Platonic thought, they will have regarded the body as an embarrassing encumbrance. Their slogan was soma sēma estin (‘the body is a tomb’), in which the human spirit was imprisoned and from which they longed for its escape. Still today some Christians feel self-conscious about their bodies. The traditional evangelical invitation is that we give our ‘hearts’ to God, not our ‘bodies’. Even some commentators, apparently disconcerted by Paul’s earthy language, suggest as an alternative ‘offer your very selves to him’ (REB). But Paul is clear that the presentation of our bodies is our spiritual act of worship. It is a significant Christian paradox. No worship is pleasing to God which is purely inward service performed by our bodies. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 321-22)
When sacrificing an animal according to God’s law, a priest would kill the animal, cut it in pieces, and place it on the altar. Sacrifice was important, but even in the OT God made it clear that obedience from the heart was much more important (see 1 Sm 15:22; Ps 40:6; Amos 5:21-24). God wants us to offer ourselves, not animals, as living sacrifices–daily laying aside our own desires to follow him, putting all our energy and resources at his disposal and trusting him to guide us. We do this out of gratitude that our sins have been forgiven. (Tyndale House Publishers, Life Application Study Bible, 2050)
A great battle that the Christian faith has had to fight from its very beginning has been against the perpetual tendency to externalize worship. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 12, 59)
It is very interesting to observe that in the second century AD the most common charge that was brought against the Christians was that they were atheists! And the explanation for that was that while the pagans worshiped a multiplicity of gods, the Christians did not; they only worshiped one God and they did it in this inner manner, without temples, without burnt offerings and without making sacrifices. They seemed to be worshiping God altogether inside themselves and in their minds; they did not need ornate buildings and all the ritual. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 12, 64-65)
III. We need to resist being conformed to this age (Mt 13:21-22; 16:26; Mk 10:42-45; Rom 8:5-13; 1 Cor 2:6-8; 3:19; 7:30-31; 15:33; Gal 1:4; Phil 3:20-21; 1 Tm 6:10, 17; Jas 4:4; 1 Pt 1:14; 4:3-4; 1 Jn 2:17; 5:19)
It is in the midst of this great societal prosperity and a multitude of distractions that the Lord wants us to walk with a single mind toward His glory. Can we do it? Yes, but we may need to rid ourselves of our televisions, or at least fast from them for a month. If that is too much, deny it entrance into your mind for a week. The degree of difficulty in turning the television off is the measure of our bondage. If we cannot let it go, it is because we are its captive. (Francis Frangipane, The Days of His Presence, 122-23)
Conforming to the world’s pattern will involve the following ways of thinking:
• We have a right to have all our desires fulfilled (see Rom 8:5; 1 Pt 4:3-4).
• We have a right to pursue and use power (see Mk 10:42-45).
• We have a right to abuse people (see Lk 11;43, 46-52).
• We have a right to accumulate wealth for purely selfish reasons (see Mt 16:26).
• We have a right to use personal abilities and wisdom for self-advancement rather than for serving others (1 Cor 3:19).
• We have a right to ignore or even hate God (see Jas 4:4). (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 232)
There is a certain sense in which we are not supposed to be ‘with it.’ Of course, some people interpret this passage to mean that the real test of spirituality is to show the whole world that we are out of it, in the sense of being irrelevant, insignificant, odd and peculiar. But that is not what Paul is talking about here. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 196)
There is such a thing as nonconformity for nonconformity’s sake. We all want to be different, so that in the group we will stand out. There are Christian distortions at this point. Often Christian ethics is determined simply on the basis of antithesis–if the world wears lipstick, the Christian doesn’t wear lipstick, to show that she is spiritual rather than worldly. If the world goes to movies, Christians don’t go to movies, to show that they are more spiritual, more pious. That’s nonsense, that’s the kind of attitude the Pharisees had, which distorted the truth. Christ calls us to a special kind of nonconformity; a refusal to conform to the sinful patterns of the world, to patterns of disobedience. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 196)
So the verse means “Do not let the age in which you live force you into its scheme of thinking and behaving.” (James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary: Romans, Vol. 4, 1523)
Stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world, an expression which does not come from, nor is representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. (Kenneth Wuest, Wuests’s Word Studies from the Greek NT, 206-7)
The committed life, however, is shown by the degree in which the believer stays in the secular world without being trapped by it and without failing to be a witness to it. The tension is aptly described by the Master’s words explaining that we are “in the world but not of it.” (D. Stuart Briscoe, Mastering the New Testament: Romans, 216)
Paul does not say not to conform; that would be a utopian dream. What, after all, does it mean to be human if not to choose patterns and models which provide meaning in life? The question was not whether one should conform, but to what one should conform. He urges his readers to cooperate with the work of God in their lives by being “conformed to the likeness of his Son” (8:29; also Eph 4:13). (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 284)
Satan was “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph 2:2) and ‘the prince of this world” (Jn 16:11). Paul is not suggesting an other-worldliness that rejects all of art, culture and technology. Instead, he warns believers not to allow the prevailing world view to shape their thoughts and behavior. (Clarence L. Bence, Romans, A Commentary for Bible Students, 199)
Did not even Juvenal say, “We are all easily taught to imitate what is base and depraved”? “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Cor 15:33), and in this present world it is well-nigh impossible completely to avoid “bad company” or even to steer clear of the bad habits which are still clinging to what, on the whole, can be called “good company.” Therefore, unless we are on our guard, we are in great danger of falling prey to “the pattern of this evil age.” (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 404)
The main reason Paul warns against allowing oneself to be fashioned after the pattern of this (evil) age is that man’s chief aim should never be to live only for himself. He should do everything to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).
A second reason is this: constant yielding to the temptation of becoming fashioned after the pattern of “this (evil) age” (1 Cor 2:6, 8; Gal 1:4) ends in bitter disappointment; for, “The fashion of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31). (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 405)
It is possible to avoid most worldly customs and still be proud, covetous, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant. Only when the Holy Spirit renews, reeducates, and redirects our minds are we truly transformed (see 8:5). (Tyndale House Publishers, Life Application Study Bible, 2050)
The current of society always moves in the direction of conformity. (Andy Stanley, Visioneering, p. 210)
In Rom 12:2 Paul prohibits conformity to worldly patterns. The phrase literally says, “Do not scheme together according to this age.” Just as worship is systematic, so is worldliness. We are being delivered from our entire era’s deep structures. A particular age has a shape or a culture. Everything in life comes in patterns, whether it be trends in the social world, political structures, or personal habits of the heart. C.S. Lewis says somewhere that he could tell what kind of person you are by whether you began the day reading the newspaper or the Bible. Becoming disentangled with the world is more than following a list of rules. It means radically changing one’s behavior patterns. (Philip Graham Ryken, Give Praise to God A Vision for Reforming Worship, p. 346)
If advertisers thought that human beings were rational actors, self-consistent and centered, they would attempt to prove the superiority of their product in rational, perhaps functional terms. Advertisers don’t, and this shows that they believe human beings are clusters of desires, particularly desires for novelty, for membership in a “cool” group, for envious looks from neighbors and friends, for a taste of the American dream. Advertisers also clearly believe that human beings are susceptible to the influence of images, jingles, and slogans. Selves are not fixed, and their desires can be manipulated. Human beings can be brainwashed. So not only does advertising shape desire, but every time an ad goes out that assumes human beings are decentered, changeable selves, it reinforces the postmodern view of the self. (Peter J. Leithart, Solomon Among the Postmoderns, p. 145)
Revising worship services to make them more emotional and entertaining can only teach the congregation subjectivity and spiritual hedonism.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,” writes the Apostle Paul, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). This text alone is enough to shoot down the argument that the church must change according to prevailing social trends. “The pattern of this world” is not to determine church ministry. (Gene Veith, Postmodern Times, 228)
Peer pressure too strong? Latch onto another peer!
“The antithesis of worldly behavior, and the cure for conformity to the world, is set forth particularly in the “upside-down kingdom “ of the Sermon on the Mount. The lifestyle of the kingdom is not proud but poor in spirit, not self-confident but meek and sensitive to conviction of sin, not self-righteous but repentant, not praise-seeking but God-obeying even to the point of suffering persecution, not vengeful but forgiving, not ostentatious or laborious in piety but secretive and simple, not anxious or acquisitive but content in serving God, not judgmental but merciful. If these patterns can be nurtured in the church, they will affect the moral structure of the rest of humanity.” (Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life, 97)
IV. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 6:4; 8:28-30; 1 Cor 2:14-16; 3:1; 2 Cor 4:16; 5:17; Gal 5:16-26; Eph 4:17-31; 5:7-21; Col 3:1-16; 2 Pt 1:3-4; 1 Jn 3:1-2)
“If you long to be cut free from the world, if you long to be free to love and to do what you ought to do then give yourself to the renewing of your mind.” (John Piper at message given at College Baptist Church Hillsdale Mi 10/13/05)
When a person comes to Christ, that person is “transferred” into the new age or new realm. He or she is no longer under sin’s dominion (see ch. 6). Yet sin still affects the believer. Although we belong to the new era introduced by Christ, the old era is still with us. We still live in a world strongly influenced by sin and ungodly ways of thinking and behaving. We are not magically set apart from that world when we believe. Indeed, God wants us to stay in that world so that, as “salt and light,” we may redeem it for him. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 396)
Remembering that we belong to the new age Christ inaugurated, we must seek to live out the values of that new age, allowing the Spirit to transform our innermost thoughts and attitudes. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 396)
When we begin to think as Christians, we get a new mind. From that new mind our heart is changed, and when the heart is changed, our life is changed. That is how we become transformed people. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 411)
How people think is the basis for who they become. (Marva J. Dawn, Truly the Community: Romans 12, 65)
Where the Spirit of Christ lives and works, a new mode of life results. Even that is implicit in what Paul says in 1:16, that the gospel is the power of God; this power also manifests itself in that it transforms man’s ways and conduct. But we should observe carefully that it is not we who help the gospel to have this transforming power in our life; it is the power of the gospel which renews and transforms us. What God has done through Christ is primary. Because this has happened the Christian’s conduct is to be different from what it was formerly. (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 416)
The Church of our day is sadly lacking in that separation from the world. The intense attachment and obedience to Christ, the fellowship with His suffering and conformity to His death, and the devotion to Christ on the throne seem almost forgotten. Where is our confident expectation of the never-ceasing flow of living water from the throne of grace which gives the assurance that the fullness of the Spirit will not be withheld? No wonder the mighty power of God is seldom known and felt in our churches! (Andrew Murray, Receiving Power from God, p. 73)
Man (the Christian) is always in the condition of nakedness, always in the state of becoming, always in the state of potentiality, always in the condition of activity. He is always in sin and always in justification. He is always a sinner, but also always repentant and so always righteous. We are in part sinners, and in part righteous, and so nothing else than penitents. No one is so good as that he could not become better; no one is so evil, as that he could not become worse. (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, 168)
Having spoken of the metamorphosis in our text, we can see what God is getting at when we realize that the goal He has for us is nothing less than what He calls a summorphos. That is to say, we are to have the same form as the Lord Jesus Christ. John puts it, “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Discipline, 28)
It is not we who cause the gospel to have this transforming power, but the gospel itself which transforms us. The surrender of life is the believer’s responsibility, but the transformation of life is God’s. Sanctification, like justification, is equally the work of God in the believer’s life. Thus the apostle summons believers to be transformed (v. 2), to be led by the Spirit (8:14), to become his “workmanship” (Eph 2:10). (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 284-85)
If the Church’s worship is faithful, it will eventually be subversive of the culture surrounding it, for God’s truth transforms the lives of those nurtured by it. Worship will turn our values, habits and ideas upside-down as it forms our character; only then will it be genuinely right-side up eternally. Only then will we know a Joy worthy of our destiny. (Reaching Out without Dumbing Down – Dawn – pages 57-58)
I love Wilburt Rees’ comment: “I’d like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine…I want ecstasy, not transformation, I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.” (Dr. Chris Thurman, The Lies We Believe, 69)
It is the central point of this book that spiritual transformation only happens as each essential dimension of the human being is transformed to Christlikeness, under the direction of a regenerate will interacting with constant overtures of grace from God. Such transformation is not the result of mere human effort and cannot be accomplished by putting pressure on the will (heart, spirit) alone. (Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 41-42)
One of the best ways to understand how God can change a man’s character and actions is to look at what Aristotle said about finding the “mean” or the middle of life. (see Page 101 in Book of Virtues) We can try to conform our actions, but if we lack desire or heart to make the effort, then we will always be a slave to our desires and to the vices of our life.
But if we accept Christ into our lives, we have a new desire, a new motivation which will give us the courage, desire, and heart to seek and control our actions towards the “mean” or the middle or that which is morally correct and honorable.
Without Christ, without the change of the heart, it is a fruitless effort that only leads to frustration and ultimately despair.
Jesus is not saying that loving deeds earn heaven for us but that loving deeds are the marks of a heaven bound person. — Alistair Begg
A- Transformed by God’s Word (Ps 119:11, 105; Jn 17:17; Rom 10:17; Eph 5:26; 6:19; 1 Thes 2:13; Heb 4:12)
If you want to live a godly life, then it is indispensable to your spiritual growth that you dig into the Scriptures deeply, to understand what God is revealing. This is part of the sacrifice of the Christian life. There is a sacrifice of your body and there is a sacrifice of your mind. It is not a sacrifice of the mind in the sense that you vacate your intellect, but in the sense of giving your mind as a present to God, to be instructed by him, so that your thinking will honour him. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 197-98)
I am very much aware that Scripture memorization has largely fallen by the wayside in our day of microwave meals and television entertainment. But let me say as graciously but as firmly as I can: We cannot effectively pursue holiness without the Word of God stored up in our minds where it can be used by the Holy Spirit to transform us. (Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace, 175)
While some books inform and others reform, only the Bible transforms.
B- Transformed by God’s Spirit (Jn 14:16; 15:26; 16:7; 1 Cor 2:9-16; 2 Cor 3:18; Gal 5:25; Eph 5:18; 2 Thes 2:13; Ti 3:5)
Paul does not say, “Transform yourselves,” but “Let yourselves be transformed.” Transformation is basically the work of the Holy Spirit. It amounts to progressive sanctification. “And we all, with unveiled faces, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 406)
To be transformed means to go above and beyond the forms and structures of this world. Christians are called to be light to the world, to be the salt of the earth, to show a more excellent way. This is not so much a call to drop out of society and culture, as a call to excellence, dedicating our lives to the glory of God. The means by which we are to be transformed is through the renewing of our minds. We have to relearn things from a new perspective. We need new values. We need to train our minds so that we begin to think God’s thoughts after him. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 196-97)
It is time to put away all that is permissive, and even what is permissible, and find what is permanent. If we want our dream of attaining His glory to come true, we must all wake up. (Francis Frangipane, The Days of His Presence, 129)
Only the mind that is constantly being renewed by God’s Spirit working through God’s Word is pleasing to God. Only such a mind is able to make our lives “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual service of worship.” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 151)
The word transform also means transfigured. When Jesus was transfigured before His three disciples, the glory of the Lord did not shine ON Him, but THROUGH Him (Mt 17:2). For a moment His disciples caught a glimpse of that uncreated glory that was a part of His face. A similar thing happens to us when we sacrifice our bodies to the Lord and allow His indwelling presence to be revealed through them. As we are transformed, the inner glory of the Lord is reflected in our lives and even our faces (2 Cor 3:18). (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 320-21)
People who are content only with an intellectual understanding of the gospel are guilty of antinomianism. They say, “I see the truth, I believe it, I’m saved now. It doesn’t matter, in a sense, what I do. If I’m saved, I’m saved.” People who believe in election are particularly prone to fall into this terrible sin.
And the trouble with such people is that they have never really understood the doctrine. The fact that they can say that they know the doctrine of God and the doctrine of the fall and the doctrine of justification by faith only, and election and all the other great doctrines, while their conduct is not affected to the slightest extent, means that either they have not understood the doctrines or they are lunatics! Fancy glorying in a knowledge of doctrine which does not affect your life! The thing is ludicrous. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 12, 27)
It is astonishing to me that so many people try to define true Christianity in terms of decisions and not affections. Not that decisions are unessential. The problem is that they require so little transformation to achieve. They are evidence of no true work of grace in the heart. People can make “decisions” about the truth of God while their hearts are far from him. (John Piper, Desiring God, 247)
What is the basis of holiness? The ancients, beginning with Jesus and Paul, agreed that holiness was not a question of purity overcoming passion but of transforming passion into purity’s service. (Gary L. Thomas, Seeking the Face of God, 66)
The labor of the apostles was not devoted to persuading the Church to comply with certain doctrines, but that Christ would be formed in the Church. Paul testified of this to the Galatians: “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). This is the purpose of all true ministry–that Christ is formed. Jesus is the finished work. Our goal is not formation, but TRANSFORMATION! (Rick Joyner, There Were Two Trees in the Garden, 58)
CONCLUSION/APPLICATION:
If Christianity were to become illegal in the USA, would your life offer enough evidence to establish a conviction against you?
Faith is not faith until it is acted upon. That is the litmus test. Faith without works is dead. So is love without energy. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, p. 142)
Mistake number 1 – Is to think that you can get to heaven by good works.
Mistake number 2 – Is to think that you can get to heaven without good works.
(Alistair Begg sermon, “Living with Significance – Part 2”)
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward of healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?
…Away with such a word, such a view, and such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us. (Livingstone’s Private Journal: 1851-53, 108, 132)
Worship point: Strive to see yourself as God sees you. As a sinner in desperate need of a Savior. Then worship God 24/7/365 as you offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable, spiritual worship.
Spiritual Challenge: Be intentional about recognizing and avoid being conformed into the “spirit of this age”. Be equally as intentional in allowing the Spirit of God and the Word of God to transform you into the person you were created and designed to be. Someone who bears the image of God (Gn 1:26-27), is child of God and a partaker of the divine nature (Jn 1:12-13; Rom 8:16-17; 2 Pt 1:4) and conformed into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29; Phil 3:21). Cheer up! It all begins with recognizing your desperate need for metamorphosis.
John Chrysostom (4th century Christian orator/preacher), “How can the body become a living sacrifice?
• Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice.
• Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering.
• Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust.
• But, more: this suffices not, but besides, we must actively exert ourselves for good, the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing them that curse us, the ears at leisure for listening to God.”
If you are not living the transformed life, it is simply because you do not wish to avail yourself of the power that is present within you when you have received Christ as your Savior. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Discipline, 30)
This is our contention as Christian people–that nobody can live this kind of life except the Christian. That is our answer to the humanists. Humanism is bound to fail, indeed it is failing, and herein lies our opportunity. Our contention is that it is no use telling men and women what they are to do, for they cannot do it. What humanity needs is not knowledge and information, it is power. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 12, 30)
Preach the gospel everyday, and if necessary . . . Use words. — St. Francis of Assisi
Quotes to Note:
As we answer the call to commitment, we are called to voice a monumental “no” to the schemes of this fleeting evil age and a determined “yes” to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in renewing our minds. The “no” without the “yes” will lead to a life of futile negation. The “yes” without the “no” will lead to frustration because Christ will not dwell in Satan’s house. These are not suggestions, but are rather imperial commands to be obeyed by all. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Romans, 216)
Worship is the way we live, not what we do on Sunday morning. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 397)
What determines whether or not men and women are Christians is not what they do, but why they do it. And so that is the apostle’s emphasis here. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 12, 21)
. . . be transformed by the renewing of your mind — Romans 12:2b
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