The Altar Life
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· 51 viewsRomans 1-11 gives us knowledge of our extreme sin and the extreme payment for our sin in order to empower us to live the altar life of Romans 12:1-2.
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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 1-11 gives us knowledge of our extreme sin and the extreme payment for our sin in order to empower us to live the altar life of Romans 12:1-2. Last Sunday we heard Paul’s appeal for complete surrender as a living sacrifice. Furthermore, we learn that one does not surrender a life in an instant because that which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.
Romans 12:1 admonishes us in light of “God mercies” (Romans 1-11) our only reasonable response is to offer ourselves as “living sacrifice”. We called to make a decisive commitment in (12:1). Paul, with personal knowledge and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, helps us maintain our commitment in (12:2) by supplying us with to “altar binding” verbs. “Conformed” is presented in the negative “do not be” and “transformed” is present in the positive “be”. I call them “altar binding” verbs because they helps us maintain our commitment (as they are present tense) meaning continuation without end.
These “altar binding” verbs empowers us to keep our “living sacrifice” from slithering off the altar of sacrifice.
“Do not be conformed” literally means, STOP DOING THIS! Which means they were already allowing themselves to be poured into the mold of this godless world. He is commanding them to stop acting like earth dwellers. However, he is not saying believers are to make a list of “don’t’s” we need to stop doing, which is the essence of legalism. The only way to not be conformed is to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.
Do you know if your life with the Father is based on legalism or love. When you sin the legalist says; “I broke God’s rules” while the relationship that is rooted in love says; “I broke my Father’s heart”. Legalism will not make you work harder, it will make you give up.
The only way to escape being conformed to the world is to be transformed.
Continued conformity to the world's way of thinking and acting is inconsistent with a living sacrifice lifestyle. Conformity to the world is the process of a living sacrifice crawling of the altar. Conformity to the world is forbidden because it negates and seriously mars the presentation the believer has made as a living sacrifice. Paul uses this verb in the present tense to reinforce the dailiness of our duty to resist.
We are to stop allowing ourselves to be fashioned after the schemes of this passing evil age in which we live. Practically this means we must be careful what we read and watch. We must not be afraid to be like Christ
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
Christ is hated because sin is loved.
This same idea of not being conformed to the world is found in
No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
You can’t be in God's army and be a civilian. As citizens of heaven
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are to “set [our] mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth"
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
John Piper in his sermon “The War Against the Soul and the Glory of God” taken from 1 Peter 2:11-12 advises believers to not be conformed but instead to "cultivate the mindset of exiles" What this does mainly is sober us up and wake us up so that we don't drift with the world and take for granted that the way the world thinks and acts is the best way. We don't assume that what is on TV is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the priorities of advertisers is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the strategies and values of business and industry are helpful to the soul. We don't assume that any of this glorifies God. We stop and we think and we consult the Wisdom of our own country, heaven, and we don't assume that the conventional wisdom of this age is God's wisdom. We get our bearings from God in his word. When you see yourself as an alien and an exile with your citizenship in heaven, and God as your only Sovereign, you stop drifting with the current of the day. You ponder what is good for the soul and what honors God in everything: food, cars, videos, bathing suits, birth control, driving speeds, bed times, financial savings, education for the children, unreached peoples, famine, refugee camps, sports, death, and everything else. Aliens get their cue from God and not the world.
James says that those who seek to practice pure and undefiled religion must keep themselves unstained by the world
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James further warns us of the danger of "Friendship of the world”
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Compromise leads to conformity which leads to defeat.
C H Spurgeon in his devotional (Morning and Evening) addresses the inestimable worth of not being conformed to the world...
If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms to this world, it must be so as by fire (cp Jude 1:23). Such a bare salvation is almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Reader, would you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding death bed, and enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country? Then be worldly; be mixed up with Mammonites (those devoted to the pursuit of wealth), and refuse to go without (outside) the camp bearing Christ's reproach.
But would you have a heaven below as well as a heaven above? Would you comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your Lord? Then come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing (2Co 6:17, Is 52:11). Would you attain the full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:22)? You cannot gain it while you commune with sinners.
Would you flame with fervent love? Your love will be deadened by the drenchings of godless society. You cannot become a great Christian - you may be a babe in grace, but you never can be a perfect man in Christ Jesus while you yield yourself to the worldly truths concerning conduct and modes of business of men of the world.
It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell.
It has a bad look when a companion of the King of kings is too intimate with his king's enemies.
Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and little frivolities (those things not having any serious purpose or value) and little rogueries (dishonest, unprincipled, mischievous ways of conduct) will rob religion of a thousand joys.
O you who profess Christ and are too little separated from sinners, you know not what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength, and makes you creep where you ought to run. Then, for your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one.
Do you understand what Spurgeon is saying? If the passion and flame we once had for Christ has lessened, one of the reasons may be that we have become too enamored with this present evil age. Nothing will dampen our love for Christ as will love for the world.
It is when the believer is separated from sin that he or she exerts the greatest influence for God.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
The price of spiritual power is a purity of heart. Spiritual transformation starts in the mind and heart. A mind dedicated to the world and its concerns will produce a life tossed back and forth by the currents of culture but a mind dedicated to God’s truth will produce a life that can stand the test of time. We can resist the temptations of our culture by meditating on God’s truth and letting the Holy Spirit guide and shape our thoughts and behaviors. A true follower of Christ desires to be free from sin, not to sin freely.
Hear me well! Christians, because of the mercies of God, are not called to isolation from the world but insulation from the world.
A scuba diver lives in the water but breathes the air. He is able to function because he takes his environment with him. If he "conforms" to environment around him, he will eventually die!
Transformation is an outward expression of one’s inward character and nature.
Transformed does not refer to what is outward and transient, but to what is inward and real and thus that which produces an outward expression which proceeds from and is truly representative of one’s inward character and nature. The Greek word “metamorphoo” is only used twice in Scripture. It is used here and on the Mount of Transfiguration. At the Transfiguration of Christ, Jesus' essential divine nature, shone outward, for a brief time and to a limited degree. In a similar way, the believer's inner redeemed nature is to continually be manifest outwardly in our daily thoughts, words and deeds.
How does transformation transpire? by the renewal of your mind
The renewing of our minds "is the gradual conforming of the man more and more to that new spiritual world into which he has been introduced and in which he now lives and moves...the restoration of the divine image”
This renewing of our minds is nothing short of a "mental revolution" - taking our "normal" (selfish, self centered) human way of seeing life and giving us a point of view we could not have without God's Spirit changing our way of thinking. Paul moves beyond the initial change of mind to a continual yielding of the mind to the will of God. One of the best ways to "energize" and facilitate this "mental revolution" which produces transformation is to memorize the living Word of God, allowing implantation of the "seed" which His Spirit can germinate into a new way of thinking for as Jesus declared
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
It behooves every believer therefore to have a steady intake of these words which are the only words that guarantee "spirit and life"!
Many books can inform, but only the Bible can transform.
For example, are you having trouble loving someone totally unlovable!? Then allow the Spirit to "renew your mind" by memorizing 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 asking God to change your thinking in the process. Don't be legalistic but also don't think lightly of the power of His Word, His Spirit and the grace in which you stand to change your mind, heart and actions. Remember that the Word of Truth is not given to merely inform but to transform. Our Father is not seeking smarter sinners but saints who are growing more and more like their Savior through the intake of the Word.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.
The crucial ingredient in this mind renewal process is regular ingestion of "everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD", cultivating an "infant like"
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
like newborn babes long for (to long for something, with the implication of recognizing a lack—‘to long for, to deeply desire, deep desire.’). The verb tense indicates this is NOT optional! Do this now. Without delay. It is vitally important! For the pure ("no additives", unadulterated, nothing that would cause decay!) milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.
Every believer needs to cultivate a heart attitude like Job who affirmed...
I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
I have not departed (withdrawn, ceased, removed myself) from the command of His lips; I have treasured (laid up, concealed or hidden = the same Hebrew verb used by the psalmist in Ps 119:11) the words of His (God's) mouth more than my necessary food"!
Job’s treasuring helped him to pass his testing.
As the believer saturates their mind with the abiding seed, the living and active Word of God, the Spirit progressively "renovates" our mind so that the way we see, think and feel lines up more and more with the mind of God.
Renewing requires
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
The purpose of the transforming renewal of our mind "is that Christians may prove, i.e., discern in their experience, what the will of God is. An unrenewed mind cannot do this; it is destitute of moral discernment—has no proper moral faculty."
The world discern has two implications: one is the idea of testing and proving something's value and the other idea is the capacity to assess it and approve of a value when you see it. I believe the NIV best translates this one Greek word with two English words; test and approve. A mind that is being renewed is able to test and approve what is God’s will.
In the margin of many pages in D. L. Moody's Bible, he wrote the letters T and P, meaning Tried and Proved.
Calvin remarks that "If the renewal of our mind is necessary for the purpose of proving what the will of the Most High is, we may hence see how much this mind is opposed to God.
The heart-cry of the believer (should be)
THE WILL OF GOD - Nothing More - Nothing Less - Nothing Else - Nothing Better
The word “will” should not to be conceived as a demand, but as an expression or inclination of pleasure towards that which is liked, that which pleases and creates joy. When it denotes God's will, it signifies His gracious disposition toward something. Used to designate what God Himself does of His own good pleasure.
In these first two verses of Romans 12 note the progression...
Dedication leads to Discernment leads to Delight in God's will.
Altar-life is: being ever more and more "renewed in their mind to prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God." The progressive renewal of the Holy Spirit leads to growing like-mindedness to Christ; then comes a delicate power of spiritual perception--a holy instinct--by which the soul "quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord," knows how to recognise the meaning and the application of the Lord's commands to daily life in a way that remains hidden to the ordinary Christian. Keep them dwelling richly within you, hide them within your heart, and you shall taste the blessedness of the man whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night." His commands will no longer come to you as a law standing outside and against you, but as the living power which has transformed your will into perfect harmony with all your Lord requires.
Do not tolerate even a single sin. Since Christ died for us, how can we trifle with the evil that killed our best friend? Labor earnestly in prayer to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Ask earnestly for the discovery of every secret sin--of anything that is not in perfect harmony with the will of God. Walk in the light, yielding yourself in an unreserved surrender to obey all that the Lord has spoken. When Israel took that vow it was only to break it all too soon. The New Covenant gives the grace to make the vow and to keep it too. Be careful of disobedience even in little things.
Disobedience dulls the conscience, darkens the soul, deadens our spiritual energies--therefore keep the commandments of Christ with implicit obedience.
Be a soldier that asks for nothing but the orders of the commander.
And if even for a moment the commandments appear grievous, just remember whose they are. They are the commandments of Him who loves you.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
They are all love, they come from His love, they lead to His love.
Do not obey what God has said because He is God. Desire to obey God because He is good.
Each new surrender to keep the commandments, each new sacrifice in keeping them, leads to deeper union with the will, the spirit, and the love of the Saviour.
Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon.
For many of us this morning our level of surrender does not match of knowledge of God. As I said last week, “God is calling us to surrender all that we are aware of to all of God that we know.” Don’t mistake your Father’s leniency for approval. See His marvelous grace towards you and allow it to convict and compel towards the altar life.
As you leave today’s gathering.
Bind yourself to the altar life by refusing to conform to this world by the transformation of your life through the renewal of your mind. So that you may test and approve what is God’s will.