Today I was thinking about a passage in Romans 12:1-3 which 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. 2 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. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Transform your mind
Much has changed in my way of thinking since I first became a Christian. It is understandable that God demands that we transform our minds. It does not make sense to stay in our old way of thinking. We have to overcome our old ways. In 1 Peter 1:14, Peter emphasized “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
Before Christ, we were a bundle of desires and ignorance. We needed to give that up, so we would not be enslaved to passions and desires (1 Thess 4:3-5). My pre-Christ passions were frequently difficult. As a young adult, I obsessed over it. Finding God was liberating. I was no longer obsessed with the power of my passions and thoughts.
Another understanding of this renewal that helps is the words in Ephesians 4:17-18, which refer to heart hardening (i.e., being callous and unconcerned about how things affected me).
Verse 18 says They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. A hardened heart can not submit to the supremacy of Christ.
Renewal
The Greek word used here for ‘renewal’ is ‘anakainosis’. The only other occurrence of this word is in Titus 3:5. In both contexts, we need to understand renewal does not refer to the idea of ‘change our passion’, but rather, to ‘renew our spirit’ — something which can only be done through the influence of the Holy Spirit.
I am glad it is the Holy Spirit, working in me to transform. He does it from the outside to the inside, by exposing us to content about God that is transformative. He guides us to hear the gospel, read the Bible, to study Christ-exalting writings, and to meditate on Christ.
As an example of this transformation, I use the example of war hero stories. Certainly, we can go through life and never hear hero stories. But, when we hear such a story, it will change and inspire us. It helps us believe and understand that humankind does have redeeming qualities, and people can come into a deeper relationship with fellow man, and with God. In a similar way, hearing a sermon, singing a worship song, or studying the Bible can deeply change our perceptions.
The Spirit also changes us from inside to the outside. The Spirit occasionally has to break a hardened heart to remake it into something that He can work with. There is a visible metaphor of this in CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Aslan breathes on all the creatures that have been changed to stone by the white witch, and they come back to life.. Hard hearts are stuck. Only the Lord can turn them into a heart of flesh.
Transforming renewal becomes usefully important when we see a passage such as 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 which says: 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 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 ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Think about the phrase ‘contemplating the Lord’s glory’. It is the main part of our process of transformation and renewal. If we are thinking about our sin, we cannot overcome it. When we seek the Lord’s glory instead of sin, the Holy Spirit helps us to transform our minds. The sin becomes insignificant, and contemplating the glory of the Lord removes the mindset of sin.
Contemplating his Glory
