Knowing God’s Will: Conform or Transform (Part Two)
Introduction
Romans 12:1-2 give us several conditions to knowing God’s will for our lives. It reads:
Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual 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)
In the previous article we examined verse one, the appeal of Paul for us to offer our bodies to Christ, living for Him in a way which is pleasing and holy, our reasoned spiritual worship. We noted that our bodies cannot be thought of as separate to our soul, even though our bodies will die. What we do in our bodies affects our present relationship with the Lord, and also the future of our souls. God will judge everything we do in our bodies and we will be rewarded appropriately.
In this article we examine the second part of Paul’s appeal which refers to the mind or will. Whatever we will to do is decided in our minds and fulfilled in our bodies. Therefore, Paul tells us in verse two;
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)
The 'world' Paul is speaking of is not the natural creation. Rather, it is both a system of rebellion against God led by Satan, and a 'market place' mentality that tells us to live for our bodily pleasures rather than the sanctification of our souls. Scripture has several severe warnings regarding the world which many churches basically ignore. In his first letter to the Church, the apostle John gives detailed descriptions and warnings regarding the world which echo Jesus’ teaching and those of the inspired apostles. For example:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17
Please note the following:
1. John begins with an emphatic command to not love the world or anything in the world. He then states that if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in them. These are incredibly serious statements which are seldom expounded in affluent Western Churches.
2. John now gives three distinct examples of what he means by loving the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life. The word epithymia (ἐπιθυμία) translated as lust means to earnestly desire and even crave something to the extent of being a slave to that desire. Lust of the flesh is not specifically about sexual sin as some imagine. The word ‘flesh’ is sarx and is not restricted to our bodies, which is ‘soma’ in Greek. Rather, sarx refers to how our emotions, cravings, habits etc, are tied together in how we live in our bodies and being ruled by those desires and cravings.
The heart of this issue is in seeking fulfillment, satisfaction and happiness in anything other than Christ. If I find the right partner, have my dream job, have the right house, if I have children, have good health I will find happiness and satisfaction. In simple terms, this is a form of idolatry which is grounded in the root of sin which demands to rule our own lives as we see fit.
Lust of the eyes is tied to the issues of coveting what we desire but do not have, a condition that leads to jealousy, envy, competition, etc, and also sexual attraction, greed, gluttony and whatever we desire to fill what we think we must have.
Pride of life is sometimes translated as ‘boasting of what we have and do’ which gives the correct meaning. Pride of life is about self in the center, it is the heart of egoism which manifests itself in many ways and most commonly in comparing ourselves to others. Who is the most popular, the most intelligent, most financially successful, the most handsome alpha male or sexually seductive female, the list goes on and on. The elevation of self is the primary root of sin, witnessed first in the fall of Lucifer who said, ‘I will make myself like the Most High’ (Isaiah 14:14).
In verse 15 John makes a distinct contrast between love of the Father and love for the world, and in verse 17 he underlines this contrast again. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. There is a choice between two incompatible positions. We either belong to Christ or still belong to the world and are enslaved by the world. One is to have submitted our lives to the will of God in Christ, the other is to be living in rebellion to God.
Sadly, many so-called churches promote the very heart of sin, self-centeredness. If your worship music and sermons do not point to Christ and only Christ, you are in a worldly church, a social club. If you are only hearing about expanding your territory, or growing your personal vision, or planting seeds for prosperity, or having your best life now, you’re in a self-promoting club. If your services look more like a rock concert with a light show, smoke machines or other secular gimmicks, then your church has replaced the moving of the Spirit with creating an atmosphere. This is not feeding the sheep, but entertaining the goats.
Paul tells us not to conform to the pattern of the world. The word conformed means to be molded, or fitted into a pattern through a process of imitation. The idea here is that the world tries to force everyone into its pattern of thinking, its way of life, and people become world shaped through imitating the world’s example.
People naturally imitate what they see and hear. This is how we learn to speak our native language. We hear the words, see a corresponding action, and we imitate this. We could use the word conform in this context saying that children are conformed to learn their native language. Paul’s appeal to us is that we should no longer continue to imitate the world and end up molded into its shape, but to be imitators of Jesus Christ and molded into his shape.
The question is sometimes asked by Christian sociologists about nature and nurture. Is it our flesh nature which eventually guides all of us to sin against God, or is it that we only have sinners to imitate? Perhaps the truth is that it is both. However, there are other factors at work in the world as well.
Consider that two of the most powerful forces which we are molded into are our traditions and cultures. Our traditions and cultures are made up of those things which our predecessors imitated from their parents. Traditions and cultures may often be contrary to Scriptural teachings. When we give our lives to Christ we agree to follow Him exclusively and this includes giving up everything in our cultures and traditions which do not glorify him. In the passage from 1Corinthians 6 about Christian men having sex with prostitutes, we see a Roman cultural tradition being continued by Corinthian males. This practice was obviously contrary to Scriptural teaching about holiness, and therefore contrary to the will of Jesus Christ.
The second part of Paul’s appeal is to be transformed by the 'renewing of our minds'. The Greek verb Paul uses is ‘metamorphoo’ from which we take the English word metamorphous. This means to change from one thing into another thing. This word is used to describe when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. It is also used to describe what happened to Jesus in Matthew 17: 2 on the mountain where he was 'transfigured'. Many commentators believe that what the disciples witnessed in Jesus is very similar, or even exactly the same as what happens to us at the rapture, or when we leave this body.
The essential teaching to understand here is that which must be renewed, specifically, our minds. Why the mind? Firstly, that the human soul is already renewed, even perfected in Christ for ‘by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy’ (Hebrews 2:14). In this we are ‘new creations, the old has gone and the new has come’ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
But the habits we formed while conforming to the world are seated in the mind. Throughout our lives, leading to new birth, we have formed specific ways of reacting to whatever was happening around us and it is these habits which must be transformed and replaced with new godly habits. Many unbelievers try to do this in their own strength, they make a ‘new year resolution’ which lasts a few weeks and fall away, for habits are powerful things.
For the Christian, being transformed through the renewing of our minds is the gradual process of becoming like Christ as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, a process which is empowered by the indwelling Spirit.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with every increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
Please note the following:
1. Through our new birth we are finally free, that is, free from the penalty of our former slavery to sin and death (Romans 6). The veil which blinded us has been taken away, and we see the glory of Christ, a glory which is also reflected in us through His Spirit within us.
2. We, through the power of the indwelling Spirit, are being transformed with ever increasing glory by the same Spirit. Paul says that this transformation ‘comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ It is the Holy Spirit dwelling within us who does the work of transformation. Our part is obedience. As we determine to stop conforming to the world, the Spirit is renewing our minds to the mind of Christ.
Consider 1 Corinthians 2:10-15 which links all of this to knowing God’s will.
10 These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit – taught words.
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Please consider the following:
1. (v 10-11) Paul states that in the same way that a person knows there own thoughts via their own spirit, in the same way we may know the thoughts of God through the Spirit of God. To know the thoughts of God is to know God’s will.
2. (v12) He have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. Like John, Paul contrasts these two incompatible positions, God and the world. The indwelling Spirit of God explains spiritual realities as we are ‘Spirit-taught’.
3. (v14-15) The person without the Spirit of God cannot accept what comes from the Spirit. The person with the Spirit can make right judgments about all things, whereas the other can only make human judgments, that is, worldly judgments. When we are commanded to stop conforming to the world, the Spirit of God confirms this. We know what we must change through the power of the Spirit because we are ‘Spirit- taught’.
4. (v15) We have the mind of Christ. What an incredible privilege we have been given. Christ never conformed to the world, never became a slave to sinful habits, never followed the system of the world and demanded His own will. Now, through the indwelling Spirit we too have the mind of Christ to the extent that we are ‘being transformed by the renewing of our minds’.
In Summary
Many teach that a Christian has two natures, a sinful nature which we inherited, and the divine nature we received at new birth. Scripture contradicts this teaching emphatically. Yes, before new birth we were controlled and enslaved to our flesh nature, but this was not an inherited nature, but a principle of self rule, of self-enthronement. Paul tells us throughout his letters that this ‘old self’ has been ‘crucified with Christ’ (Romans 6, Galatians 2), that we are ‘new creations’ and that this ‘nature’ is gone, passed away (2 Corinthians 5). None of these verses can ever be diluted to mean that the old self is still alive.
What we battle against is not a nature but the habits we formed. Hence we are commanded to be renewed in our minds, not in our nature. Unfortunately, many translations use the term ‘sinful nature’ for sarx, the Greek word for flesh and Christians believe they are constantly having to fight this nature which is alive in them until their death. Some quote Romans 7, a passage which is entirely about Paul before his new birth. In chapter 6 he has already stated that we have ‘died to sin’ (v3) that we were ‘baptized into Christ’s death so that we may live a new life (v4-5) that the ‘old self is crucified with Christ’ (v6), that we are no longer ‘slaves to sin’ but been ‘set free from sin’ (v7), to count ourselves ‘dead to sin but alive to God in Christ’. He then expounds about being slaves to righteousness.
In chapter 7 he speaks in the historic present, recalling his life as a Pharisee, trying to live the law and failing. The in chapter eight he celebrates the new life in Christ, contrasting living according to the flesh and according to the Spirit. He tells us that the mind governed by the flesh is death and this mind cannot submit to God (v5-7), that those with the Spirit have no obligation to the flesh (v12) that we are children of God and co-heirs with Christ (14-17) that in all things we are ‘more than conquerors’ (v37ff) and that nothing can separate us from God’s love that is in Christ (v39). If you desire to understand Romans 7 more deeply, please watch my video entitled ‘Confessions of an Unregenerate Pharisee’ found here:
In this passage we are examining in Romans 12 we are urged to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, we are commanded to stop conforming to the world, and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In Ephesians 4:22-24 Paul uses similar language telling us to ‘be made new in the attitude of our minds’.
The Holy Spirit within us is continually transforming us into the likeness of Christ as we walk in the Spirit. Every day the Spirit guides us and directs us about how to live. We hear his voice helping us to make decisions about almost every area of life. But His voice is soft, He doesn’t scream in our ear. We can choose to ignore Him and we all do this on occasions. We have many old habits which dominate our thinking patterns and these take time to change. We have the powerful influences of tradition and culture and we must discern what is right and wrong in these areas. But if we are really honest with ourselves, we are seldom confused about how we should live, especially in the day to day areas of life.
The process of transformation is gradual, but total, a renewing of the human mind towards the perfect mind of Christ. Hebrews 10:14 expresses this fact beautifully.
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14)
Christ has given us a declaration of perfection at new birth, this is His gift to us. From that moment on, He, by the Spirit within us, is 'making us holy'. We have surrendered our will to His will. In this we now belong to him and are his own possession (Ephesians 1:14). We can now make judgments from the Spirit’s perspective rather than just a human perspective, we can discern right from wrong, and as we are transformed, we may, as Romans 12:2 states, we can ‘test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will’.
If we simply walk each day listening and obeying Him in the little things, saying ‘no’ to our worldly habits which we desire to be rid of, then we can know for certain that this process of renewal is happening inside of us. We may not notice huge changes over night, but we shall see them as we look back, and other people will also see those changes. As our wills become more in tune with God’s will, then obviously we will understand His will more fully.
Trust in the process. Don’t go sin hunting in your life or stand in condemnation of yourself, but let the Spirit lead you on the narrow path and know the joy of His freedom from sin.
I pray this video/article has been encouraging for you. Please share it with those who may benefit from its message.
Steve Copland