Transformed
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Introduction
Introduction
Now we come to the other brother.
This may seem like a needless epilogue, but it is actually the most important part of the story.
The older brother represents the Pharisees, for whom the story is told.
Luke 15:25-32
Luke 15:25-32
V. 28-30: What is the older brother’s problem?
According to the old story, his problem should be hypocrisy.
The father should say, you are just as bad as him, and you’re only here because of my generosity.
The problem in us cannot be fixed—we cannot be good enough to satisfy God. That’s why we have to change God’s standards.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
This perspective stunts our spiritual growth.
We think that growth is impossible, or it’s optional.
We want to stay as the Prodigal Son, always destitute, begging pardon.
But what does the father say instead?
“ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
The son’s problem is NOT disobedience. He has been obedient.
This is not so unusual.
Jesus accepts the claim of the rich young ruler to have kept the law.
The Bible names several people to be righteous:
Abel (Hebrews 11:4)
Noah (Genesis 6:9)
Job (Job 1:1)
Abraham (James 2:23)
Rahab (James 2:25)
Joseph of Mary (Matthew 1:19)
John the Baptist (Mark 6:20)
Zechariah & Elizabeth (Luke 1:6)
Simeon (Luke 2:25)
Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 24:50)
Cornelius (Acts 10:22)
Even in Romans, it says,
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform 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.
How can we be transformed by the renewing of our mind?
To understand that, we have to understand the story that Paul is telling in Romans.
Romans 1:18-23
Romans 1:18-23
Key terms:
Godlessness means "without respect for God”
Wickedness means "doing wrong by others”
We have denied God’s power and nature and worshipped and served other things instead, willfully denying God’s place in creation.
This is what the son did.
God’s Response:
Romans 1:24-32
Romans 1:24-32
God surrendered them.
He surrendered them to sinful desires, shameful lusts, depraved minds.
How did this happen?
In Genesis 3, the only action God really takes is to banish them from the Garden, which makes them mortal.
Like the son, they left home and no longer had access to the father’s resources.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned... death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
...sin reigned in death...
The power we are surrendered to is death.
When we rebelled, God SURRENDERED us to the power of DEATH. (Romans 1:18-32, 5:12-14)
For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
The connection between flesh and sin is death. Our fig leaves.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
—
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am [fleshly], sold as a slave to sin.
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my [flesh] a slave to the law of sin.
DEATH corrupted our minds and enslaved us to SIN. (Romans 7:5, 14, 21-24)
Romans 8:1-8
Romans 8:1-8
Jesus frees our MINDS...
Romans 8:9-17
Romans 8:9-17
Jesus frees our MINDS by giving us RIGHTEOUSNESS and ETERNAL LIFE. (Romans 8:1-17)
Romans 8:14-17
Romans 8:14-17
Romans 8:22-30
Romans 8:22-30
Romans 8:30-39
Romans 8:30-39
The Spirit helps us TRUST in God’s PROMISES. (Romans 8:18-30)
Romans 12:1-2
Romans 12:1-2
TRUST transforms our minds to KNOW and OBEY God’s will (Romans 12:1-2)
What, then, shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—
how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies.
Who then is the one who condemns?
No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
