The Identity of the Renewed Mind
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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.
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;
8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
There is a well thought out order to Paul’s presentation of ideas in this chapter. If we look ahead to where he is going namely the different functions and gifts within the church, we can see the careful ground work in these first few verses.
One of the trickiest things to navigate in the Church is the various functions, callings and gifting of the members and the interaction between them. The Church requires this diversity and when the gifts and callings of the members is working together in harmony and unity it is a beautiful thing and the Church grows in the boldness of power and the witness of Christ is great.
However, when pride, and self interest, personal agendas, begin to infect the Church the very diversity that gave the Church strength and become its undoing.
This is why I believe that Paul has begun this chapter with the living sacrifice of our bodies to God. You cannot come to God with your offerings of talents and abilities. God is not pleased. It’s like the offering of Cain. the works of his own hands. God has no use for our best efforts. We must lay ourselves down at His feet and surrender all to Him. Then and only then can we be used by God.
Paul then told us that our mind must be renewed. Our minds must be transformed. We have had a lifetime of brainwashing by the world. We think like the world but if we are going to serve God and be useful in His work we cannot think like the world. The worlds wisdom if foolishness to God. The world says you need to think highly of yourself, you have to have a good self esteem. You have to put yourself and your happiness above all. But the renewed mind thinks soberly about itself.
Notice the opposite of thinking highly of yourself is not thinking lowly of yourself. In fact to think lowly of yourself is just as prideful as thinking highly of yourself. Paul says do not think more highly of yourself than you ought but think soberly think rightly about yourself.
How can we think correctly about ourself? We must think according to faith.
By faith I know that everything that I am and everything that I have is grace. Grace is God’s unmerited gift that He has given me. So if I am anything it is God’s gift which I did not deserve. It is Grace.
You see, Paul did not think lowly of himself. In fact he thought he had the right and responsibility to write this letter to the church in Rome. But why did he think that?
He says in verse 3 “For I say through the grace given to me”
What grace is he referring to?
1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
2 which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,
6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
Paul evaluated his identity, ministry, calling and purpose based not on what he had to offer God but on what God had given him by grace. And the amazing thing is, is that it is so much more than what he could ever offer. Paul said in Philippians that all that he had to offer was useless garbage literally he said he counts it as dung that he might gain Christ.
You see in renewed mind is not reducing idea of our self the renewed mind is expanding it. In myself I am nothing. I cannot think highly of myself of my value and the value of my best righteousness. because it is like dung. However in Christ, according to the measure of faith and by the amazing grace given to me I am something. All that belongs to Christ that can be mine is mine. I am a joint heir with Christ.
Notice my careful wording all that is Christ’s that can be mine. I am not deity, Christ cannot and does not make us God. I am never made almighty all knowing eternal or any of the qualities or attributes of God which pertain specifically to His deity. This is a false teaching which I would warn you about. There are many “Christian” teachers who would tell you that you can be just like Jesus in the same way that He is like the father. This is heresy and blasphemy.
However, what we do have in Christ is beyond all human comprehension.
Let’s read though some scriptures
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
So when Paul says think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. He is actually calling us to lift up our ideas about who we are. Thinking soberly is not thing small but thinking bigger. It is thinking according to faith and according to grace about who I am in Christ.
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
But the renewed mind thinks soberly because all that we are is by the grace given to us through according to the measure of faith that God has given.
We Are Unique
We Are Unique
We are many members and we do not all have the same function.
The worlds idea of equality is distorted. The world tells us that equality means we all must have the same functions. Interestingly equality is a Christian value.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
However, the biblical understanding of equality in no way teaches that we all have the same functions.
In fact, this is the very point that Paul makes in our passage.
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
There is no room for jealousy in the church. What ever function or gifting that God has given to us is only by His grace. None of us deserve to even be a member of His Church it is only by His grace that we are.
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. What ever function or gifting God has give you He has given you as He pleased and it pleases Him when we humbly and graciously submit to His purpose for us.
Now I would like to mention here that some Church like to do Spiritual gift evaluation test. And though I don’t think there is anything wrong with that if the leadership of those churches have determined that they should do that. I don’t believe that they are necessary and i do believe they can mislead. And I tell you why.
I believe they can be misleading because it gives the impression that I can evaluate my giftings and then determine how I might or if I might be willing to use them in the church. It just doesn’t work that way.
And I think they are unnecessary because we have just seen in Rom 12 how we are to discover our gifts. First offer your body a living sacrifice to God, then resist being conformed to this world and be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then you will prove God will for you, You will prove His calling on your life and you will prove the giftings of the Spirit in you. You will become what you should be within the church and you will be a unique member of the body of Christ.
So the identity of the renewed mind finds its unique place within the body but it also understands its unity which brings us to our next point.
We Are One
We Are One
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
What is this one body? When we are in Christ we are united together and connected with every other saint. Those who are passed, those who are alive and those who will be.
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
So we are unified with all that have and that will believe in Christ. However, the working expression of this unified body is the local Church. Which is why Paul could say to the local Church of Corinth.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
He doesn’t say you are part of the body but you are the body. The local church.
What does Paul mean when he says the body of Christ? The simplest way to understand it is that when Christ was on earth He had a physical body which He used to teach, preach, minister, etc. But now that Christ has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father we have become His body on earth. The Church is His hands and His feet and His voice in the world. So in Christ we have become the body of Christ in the world. and each of us as individuals are members of that body continuing the work of Christ which He began. This is why it is so important that we are an active member of a local church. The work that Christ is doing in the world today He does through His body and the local church is the working expression of the body of Christ. This is the place where we as individual members are able to function within our calling and giftings.
This is why the renewed mind identifies with the body of Christ by uniting with and participating in a local church.
We Belong to One Another
We Belong to One Another
Finally as individual members of the body of Christ we do not belong to ourself but we belong to each other.
Just like the purpose of my foot is not for my foots benefit it is to benefit the other members of my body. My feet take me to where ever in need to go to fulfil the purpose determined by my mind. the purpose being to benefit every other part of my body at the appointed times. When your body needs to eat your mind tells your feet to go to the refrigerator then your mind tells your hands to pick something up and prepare it and put in in your mouth and then your mind tells your mouth to chew and swallow. Each member of your body is working together for the benefit or the other members. So what happens if your foot doesn’t show up one day? or your hands decided to take a day off. Or what if your hands decide um, I don’t feel any hunger why should I be doing all this work when It doesn’t benefit me? If the members of your body cease to work for one another eventually the whole body dies.
This is how God has designed the church. We exercise the gifts that God has given us to serve the other members, not ourselves. We must look out for the interest of the other members.
God does not give us Spiritual gifts so that we can minister to ourselves but to one another. So when we chose to not to go to church we are not only choosing to not be ministered to we are choosing not to serve the other members. I’m not trying to guilt anyone here. We all have times we can’t come to church, in fact I will be away next weekend. I’m just saying that we do miss church we should do so with the full consideration of impact on the other members. We must not have the idea that Church is a place I go sometimes when I feel that I need a bit of encouragement. Being a member of the body of Christ in not a casual affair.
The renewed mind identifies with being a unique person created with a unique purpose to be fulfilled in the unity on the body of Christ by by serving one each another as members of one another. First and foremost the renewed mind identifies in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus this morning? have you identified with the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. In other words, have you repented of your sins and turn to Jesus as your only hope. Are you tried of kicking against the pricks? Are you ready to yield to Jesus as your Lord and saviour and surrender your life to Him. If so, then why not do that today?