Transformed, Not Conformed
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1a Therefore I urge you, brethren,
You all know, that when there is a “therefore”, you have to find out what it is there for.
Luckily for us, we have just spent the last 5 months going through the first 11 chapters of Romans, and now we are well acquainted with what this is there for.
Lets look at some of the highlights:
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
And finally, in Romans 11:30-31
30 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience,
31 so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.
These first eleven chapters have been setting the theological foundation for our lives as believers in Christ.
It is important for us to know these truths, because this is the foundation. Some want to think that what we do is the most important thing about this life, but this isn’t what Paul is teaching. The most important thing is what you believe, specifically, that you believe God and His plan for salvation. Without that foundation, none of what we read next matters.
1b by the mercies of God,
We just read about this in Romans 11:32
32 For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
We have all been shown mercy. We aren’t here because we are perfect nor are we here because we deserve it, we are here by God’s mercy that is upon us.
One more thing, it is by the “mercies of God”, not “by the command of God.”
This is what we do in response to His mercies, and remembering what we read in Romans 8:15
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
We aren’t to be led to fear by what we see. Just like Paul had reminded the Galatians not to be brought under bondage again, here, Paul is telling us that these things are meant to be a response, not a law.
1c to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
By God’s mercy, we are to present our bodies as a sacrifice.
This is where the spiritual meets the physical. Which means, the effects of what has happened spiritually has a real and tangible effect in our lives.
What does this sacrifice look like?
First, it is living!!!
This is opposed to dead.
When sacrifices were made, it was always with death and shedding of blood.
Death was always necessary for a sacrifice. But this, this is a living sacrifice. Consider what Paul already said in Romans 8:10-11
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
We are alive because of Jesus Christ, not dead. We have the Spirit of the Living God. So the sacrifice is to life, not to death. An easy way to look at this would be in Luke 9:23 with what Jesus says:
23 … “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
To live a life, denying ourselves, picking up our crosses, or in other words, dying to ourselves, our desires, what we want, and living our life for Jesus, following Him.
The word living in the greek is the word Zao
This speaks not only of life, but a resurrected life. Look at what we read about that in 1 Corinthians 6:14
14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
Then we read in Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
And we also see what Paul says in Colossians 2:12-13
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
And finally, Paul exhorts the church in Colossians 3:1-2
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
We have been raised with Christ so that we may live for Him and not for ourselves. But it is living, it is life, just as Jesus would describe it in John 10:10
10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Secondly, the sacrifice we make is holy.
The word for holy simply means dedicated, consecrated, Set apart!!!
We are called to be set apart!!!
The other part of Holy also means to be ritually pure. Meaning, the sacrifice was meant to be for the Lord, and only the Lord. This was not one that was dedicated to any other god or idol, but wholly set apart for Him.
This means our sacrifice is to be one that is wholly set apart to the Lord. Not a sacrifice to any person or job or career or establishment… but to the Lord!!
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
“Do not be conformed”
the word here in the greek is “Syschēmatízō”
What word do you think we get from that? System, or systematic.
It means to shape, or mold after, or to model after.
This is what the world wants you to do. The world wants you to be molded and shaped like it. It wants you to just simply fall in line, think the way it wants you to, act the way it wants you to, and to be just like everyone else in the world.
But Paul here is specifically saying… “No, don’t do that”. Do not be conformed to this world. Don’t be shaped by it, don’t be molded by it. John would explain the world to us in 1 John 2:15-16
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
These are the things the world wants to mold you into, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. But this is not what the Lord wants for us. Paul gives us what the Lord wants…
“But be transformed”
The Greek word for transform is the word “metamorphoō”
This is the word we get metamorphose from. It means to change the essential nature of something.
This is the same word for what happens to a caterpillar, who once they crawl into their cocoon, their nature is completely changed. It is a very painful and slow process, where the caterpillar literally dies and is what I can best describe as dissolved that it can be rebuilt into something new.
This is the same process that we go through. This is us. It isn’t something that happens overnight, but through the process of transformation, we are being changed, the essential nature is being completely made new. How are we being changed??
Through the renewing of our minds.
This is what we just went through, the first eleven chapters. They may be hard and difficult to understand, but Paul just took us through the process of renewing our minds. Not to think of how the world will do things, but what God has done. The fact that we no longer have to earn our salvation, but simply believe, that is renewing our minds. And this knowledge is what transforms us.
Think about it… Why do we come to church every Sunday, sit here and hear someone teach through the Bible? So that our minds are renewed.
Why do we read our Bibles, listen to worship music, go to Fellowship groups, travel to conferences, and go get a cup of coffee with other Christians… to renew our minds.
This is why reading our Bible is important, so that what we read changes our minds. We don’t know everything, but let me tell you, the word changes our minds. Paul even says this in 2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Our minds are renewed through the Word.
This is why we listen to Christian radio or worship songs. Because we want our minds to be influenced by the words of Spiritual songs instead of songs that are inundated by things of the world and foul language. Think of what Paul says in Ephesians 5:19
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
Spiritual songs and making melody with your heart to the Lord, you can do that on your way to work or at the gym or while you are doing a project. Even better yet, we get to do that right here, on Sunday morning, to renew our minds.
And fellowship. We hang out with other christians, because they help us to understand what it is like to be a follower of Jesus. We read that in Proverbs 27:17
17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.
Then Paul will also say in 1 Corinthians 11:1
1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
When we fellowship with others, our minds are being renewed, from what we use to think to what the Lord wants us to think. Only in fellowship can we really hear from others that we are saved by grace through faith and remind eachother of that wonderful truth.
All these things are renewing our minds, which is what is transforming us so that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. It doesn’t happen just magically, it happens through the renewing of our minds.
This is why we can be patient with one another, because it is a process. When someone just doesn’t seem to get it, its okay. Let the Lord do His work while their mind is being renewed.
This is for all of us, as we are being transformed. You are being renewed, and this will be important as Paul begins to instruct us how we ought to live…
