Part 3- Transforming and Renewing Our Minds and Lives

Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are Romans 12:1-2. 

1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 
2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

In my last post, I looked at the first part of Romans 12:2 where we are told not to conform to the world. If we are Christians, we are to be conformed to God’s purpose for our lives, not the world. Let’s continue on from last week’s post and finish up Romans 12:2. 

Before I dive into the rest of Romans 12:2, I want to remind everyone that this letter is written to the members of the Lord’s church in Rome. (Romans 1:7) These are people who have already obeyed the gospel and become Christians. They have repented, confessed, and been baptized for the remission of their sins and been added by God to the church of Christ. (Acts 2:47)
The first thing that we are told in Romans 12:2 is “do not be conformed to this world”. We cannot present our bodies as a “living sacrifice” as Romans 12:1 tells us to, unless we do this. Instead of conforming to the world, the verse says we are to “be transformed”. So this means we have to change, or go through a metamorphosis like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. The word transformation means a dramatic or radical change. And this is not a one time thing. When it says “be transformed” it means continually “be transformed”……stay “transformed” because remember, Paul is talking to Christians who had already begun their transformation when they obeyed the gospel. But I need to continually transform daily after I obey the gospel. And that takes effort on my part every single day to stay transformed into the image of Christ. I fall short so often in this, but I will never stop trying until my last breath.

Before I go further into the verse, I would like to go a little deeper into the transformation process for those who need to hear this information. So the question is…..how did these Christians to whom Paul is talking in Romans “transform” to begin with? How do we? Well, first we have to repent. (Matthew 4:17, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) When we repent of sin we are deciding at that point that we want to transform or change. We are not just saying we are sorry only to turn around and go back to the sin we were in. We actually want to go through a metamorphosis and leave our life of sin forever. Then we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) We are confessing the name of who we want to transform into the likeness of which is Jesus Christ, our Savior. We are telling everyone that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Then, we are buried with Christ in baptism. (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12) When we are baptized, we bury our “caterpillar”, our old and sinful self and we leave the world behind. We come into contact with Christ’s blood through baptism and our sins are washed away. (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16)  Baptism is how we “call on the name of the Lord”. (Acts 22:16) Ananias told Paul in the verse I just referenced to “arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” After baptism, we don’t belong to the world anymore. We belong to Christ. We cannot belong to both the world and Christ. We come up out of the waters of baptism and we are a beautiful butterfly so to speak, a new creature in Christ who is walking in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17)  Is there magic in the water? No, the water is not magic. It is the obedient act of baptism that puts us in Christ and at that point, our transformation has begun, not before. We are not saved until we come up out of the water a new creature. Christ commanded his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” How do we become a disciple of Christ? We are baptized into Him.  I am reminded of the account of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-19. Was it the muddy water of the Jordan River that cured Naaman of his leprosy? No, it was the obedient act of washing in the river seven times that caused Naaman’s transformation from being sick to being well. In the same way, the obedient act of baptism begins our transformation. It is obedience, not the water!! Naaman would not have been saved from his leprosy had he not obeyed and we will not be saved from sin if we don’t obey. Baptism saves us from our sins (Mark 16:16) and God adds us to His church after we are baptized. (Acts 2:47) 

So……….are we through when we come up out of the water? Are we completely transformed when we are first baptized? No, we are new babes in Christ. If we were finished after baptism, we would not need Paul’s message in Romans 12:1-2. We have to grow into maturity and we continue to grow every day that we are physically alive. And as I said before, it is different for everyone. Sometimes we let our old “caterpillar” show through and we have to get ourselves back on track. It is tough out there in the world with all those temptations that Satan throws at us. We are bombarded every day. So…..how do I get back on track and cover that caterpillar that is trying to show through? Because, I definitely cannot look and act like the world and still transform myself into the image of Christ. So how do I continue to transform after I’m baptized into Christ? How do I stay a beautiful butterfly? How do I keep my old sinful self, or as our comparison is, our “caterpillar” from coming back?  The next part of the verse tells us that we are transformed “by the renewing of your mind”. But what does that mean? It means that we renew our minds with God’s word. The more we renew our minds with God’s word, the more we will transform into the image of Christ. If we don’t renew our minds with God’s word after we are baptized, then we won’t continue to transform. We won’t grow. We will look more like the world than Christ, and our beautiful butterfly will eventually be gone. We will belong to the world again, because we have not let Christ continue to transform us through His word. If we want the blessing of being in heaven with God and His Son someday and have that crown of life, we must be faithful until death. (Revelation 2:10) To truly be faithful, we must transform and renew with God’s word. We must seek first the kingdom of God which means we must seek first His church and things pertaining to it. (Matthew 6:33) His church consists of His people. We are to put God and our brothers and sisters in Christ first in our lives.

If I have the right mindset and attitude, worship and Bible study attendance will help me to grow and stay transformed into the image of Christ. My attendance also helps my brothers and sisters in Christ to grow and stay transformed which goes back to Matthew 6:33, seeking God’s kingdom, aka, the church, aka, my brothers and sisters in Christ first. Do we see the connection? It is encouraging to others if I am there at every service. And vice versa, it is encouraging to me to see others at every service. Hebrews 10:23-25 says very plainly, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Regardless of what the world tells us, assembling for worship is a command. But what about Sunday night service? What about Bible study on Sunday morning and Wednesday night? In the Lord’s church, we normally have two worship services on Sunday. We also assemble for Bible study on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Hebrews 10:25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. It does not specify whether it is assembling for worship or Bible study. The way that I take this verse is that if our congregation is assembling, we should be there if at all possible. We should want to be there. It will be uplifting to us and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes we have circumstances out of our control that keep us from coming and I’m in no way talking about those types of things. Evidently, according to Hebrews 10:25, there were Christians who were “forsaking the assembly” back at that time just like we sometimes do today. It must have been a problem because the Hebrew writer felt it necessary to tell the Christians back during the time this was written and, in turn, tell Christians today not to be people who forsake the assembly. I know that I have fallen short in this area at times in the past, but I am striving very hard to do better. I don’t want to ever let the words come out of my mouth again or have this thought enter my mind again…….. “I don’t have to go on Sunday night or Wednesday night because I went Sunday morning”. I am not punching a clock. I am ashamed to say that I have had that attitude in the past. Let’s ask ourselves, would we miss anything happening on any other night of the week? My kids were heavily into basketball and sometimes we would have basketball games a couple of nights a week. Then, Wednesday night bible study rolls around and we are all a little tired. I had to ask myself a question. Would I miss my kid’s game just because I’m a little tired? Do I want to teach my kids that we can make it to everything else during the week except Bible study and worship? No matter what our congregation is assembling for, whether it’s worship, Bible study, gospel meeting, vacation bible school, or anything else that we have the opportunity to attend, let’s all make the effort to be there and support each other and support the wonderful work being done by our bible class teachers and our preachers. Not to mention, with our attendance and focus while we are there, we are letting our Creator know that He is number one in our lives and we want to know more about Him. I know that I can’t earn my way into heaven with attendance at Bible study and worship. Jesus has made the way for us to get there. I know that with all my heart. But, because of what God has done for me through Jesus, I want to be there. I can’t tell you all how bad I have fallen short in this in my life at different times. I never missed anything that my children were ever involved in. I was there if at all possible, because I loved them so much. I should feel this way about the church that Christ died for. I love God and His kingdom here on earth so much that I don’t want to miss anything if at all possible. I have grown to love Wednesday night Bible study. In a busy work week, it keeps me grounded in what is truly important and “renews my mind” so that I can make it through the rest of the week. It is great to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ who are “of the same mind” in the middle of my work week. (Philippians 2:2)

However, even if we are going to worship and Bible study every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, our growth can still be stunted if we are not living out our faith daily, doing our own personal Bible study, and praying to God each day. I know from personal experience that you can be at services every time the doors are open, yet be disconnected from God and feel lost. I was simply going through the motions and that is just as bad as not being there at all. I wasn’t studying on my own. My prayer life needed major help. Until I started making time for Him every day, I struggled to stay on track spiritually. And we all struggle some days, simply because we are human and life can be overwhelming. But what better way to deal with being overwhelmed with life than to pray to God and ask Him to help us, tell Him everything going on that is overwhelming us, and then open God’s word and let Him soothe our souls? And Christians, even though we lead busy lives, let’s not lose sight of our purpose on this earth which is to bear fruit for God, to help teach others how to be saved. And how can I fulfill my purpose to teach others if I don’t study myself? It’s not easy some days. Some days we have more time than other days. It is about putting forth effort and putting Bible study and prayer as a top priority each day. We can do it my friends!! It is soooo worth it!!

Ok…..on to the last part of the verse, “ that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” This means that through renewing our minds with God’s word, we will learn what is good and acceptable to God. We learn that God’s will for our lives is perfect simply because He is God. We may not always understand God’s will but this is where trust comes in. We just have to trust Him. Romans 8:28 assures us with these words, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” May we never forget that his ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9) How would we ever know what is good and acceptable to God without renewing our minds with His word? How would we know his perfect will for our lives without studying His word? Obviously, we can’t know every detail of God’s will for our lives. It wouldn’t be good for us if we knew everything that was going to happen to us. God knows what we need to know and He has given us all we need in His word. Some things are just not meant for us to know right now. However, we can know God’s ultimate will for us and that is a home in heaven with Him and His Son. We just have to sincerely dive into God’s word and follow His plan to get there. 

Transformation does not happen overnight and it is different for every person, because we all have different life experiences, different upbringings, different things that tempt us, etc. God never promised us that it would be easy. In fact, Jesus told us in Matthew 10:22 that we would be hated by all (meaning the world) for His name’s sake, but He also assured us that if we endure to the end we will be saved. What a comforting statement from our Savior!! So we run the race with endurance and never give up. (Hebrews 12:1) God never gives up on us as long as we are enduring in the faith and when we do fall, and we all do, He is there with open arms to take us back if we only take that first step towards Him. We gain more and more endurance the more we give of ourselves to Him through forming good habits of worship and Bible study attendance, daily Bible study, and daily prayer. Transformation is a process that we all continually work on. I am a work in progress. And I have a long way to go. We all do actually. I have been a teacher for thirty years. As an educator, I have always set the bar high for my students, because I want them to have something to strive for, and I want them to know that I believe they can accomplish anything they want in this life. I want them to have the confidence to try and reach that bar. Setting the bar low does not challenge anyone. My students will not grow with low expectations. I did the same with my own children. I set the bar high because I wanted them to know that I loved them and I believed they could achieve anything. Well God does this same thing with all of us. His expectations of us are high. Is it even logical that He wouldn’t set a high bar for His children? He’s God, our heavenly Father. He knows what each of us need individually to make us better people if we will truly trust Him and let His word guide every aspect of our lives. He knows that without a high bar to strive for, we would not be the kind of people He wants in heaven with Him. We can never reach that bar, but God expects us to strive for it. The world makes it out like God has set the bar low, or that there isn’t even a bar at all, and that we don’t really have to put forth any effort and it is really sad. That is how Satan has twisted people’s minds through false teaching. I pray every day for more people to see the truth and for doors to open so that I can help others. Friends, I know I have spent lots of time on Romans 12:1-2, but I found so much inspiration from diving into just those two verses. Just think about how much inspiration we can get from the entire Bible!! It is a book of endless inspiration. I pray that we all continue to transform and renew daily through God’s word and strive to reach the bar that God has set for us………which is to be like our savior, Jesus Christ. 

Have a blessed week ahead and thank you for reading my blog!!

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