Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
1I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship. 2And do not be being conformed to this age, but be being transformed by the renewing of your mind, into [that] you [are] proving what [is] the desire of God, the good and well-pleasing and perfect.
My, my. Here I sit. I’ve been studying and pondering on Romans 12:1,2 now for over two months. It feels like I’ve sailed from one end of the universe to the other and back again. I barely know how to put into words all the amazing truth I’ve been shown. But I must. This is precisely why I type these blogs. My soul needs to distill this seeming infinity of what I feel the Lord has shown me. It often happens that it all only coalesces as I sit here and type.
Where do I begin? Hmmmm. These two seemingly simple verses are literally the hinge-pin of reality. Romans chapters 1-11 are an exhaustive summary of the realities of human existence – in fact, of this entire created universe. To deny a single word of those eleven chapters is to deny the reality in which we live – like refusing to believe we’re surrounded by air. The Gospel, I realize (ch. 1-11) is not just our neat and tidy little plan of salvation. This Gospel we believe literally defines us.
It tells us where we come from and who we are, or should I say, “Whose we are.” It tells us who God is, what’s our problem, and His glorious answer for it. It explains the very universe we live in. To embrace His Gospel is to, for the first time, truly begin to live in reality. We are not overgrown amoebas. We are human beings, uniquely and deliberately created in the image of God Himself, each of us granted the glorious opportunity to exist at all! Given the choice, our entire race has chosen to reject God’s will (reality) and then try to build a world and live lives as we would will. In so doing, what we have brought into our world is death itself – in all its horrific, ugly consequences.
Every human being wants to be happy, but love and joy and peace will elude us all our lives until we look up, accept our proper place, and begin living lives under the infinitely sovereign, good, and just God who created us.
That is precisely what I mean by these two verses being the hinge-pin of reality. In verse 1, the Lord called us to present to Him these bodies of ours (the very connection between our eternal spirits and this material world) and to live our lives as continual sacrifices of praise and adoration and service to Him. As He Himself says, that’s only reasonable.
Verse 2 then addresses the monumental change which must take place, or should I say it is the wonderful transformation the Lord will accomplish in the hearts and lives of those who come to Him? It is to leave death and begin to live. It is to leave the darkness and finally walk in the light. It is to know the Truth which sets us free – free to break loose from the chains of bad habits and self-destructive choices which we are very aware have wrecked our lives. It is the freedom to start living in reality. Chapters 1-11 told us what is reality. Now 12:1,2 calls us to start living that reality and the rest of the book will tell us what that means.
Verse 2 explains the process the Lord would use to accomplish all this glorious, wonderful transformation in our lives. He begins by saying we must not be conforming ourselves to this world (literally “to this age”). In Christian circles, this is known as not being “worldly,” which is a good adjective. However, I would suggest that modern Christianity has largely gone astray at exactly this point, as too many have abrogated to themselves the privilege to define what “worldly” means.
May I observe, that is exactly what “worldliness” is – this deciding for ourselves what the Bible means? A thousand times, “No!” If we would know the truth, then we must seek it, not from our own corrupted minds but from the Lord Himself – in His Word, the Bible.
Instead of coming up with our own list of “no-no’s,” what do we find in the Bible? We should begin at I John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
“The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” – the love of pleasures, possessions, and applause – are the engines that drive “worldliness.” These things call us not to our list of “rules,” but to a serious assessment of our hearts. “My son, give me thine heart.” People can appear very religious at church, but what is driving them the other 166 hours per week? What drives you and me? A realization of this problem in myself moves me to pray with David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxious thoughts and cares; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23,24).
If we would not be conformed to this world, we must begin by recognizing the real war zone – my heart. In Romans, Paul has already addressed this battle and called it our flesh – not so much our physical bodies, but this lusting it was born with, a spiritual problem which surfaces in physical problems. What does he say over in Galatians? “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,…hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;…” (5:19-21). Note the “hatred, contentions (drama), jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions.” Those are what the Lord would have us know are the kind of evidences which tell us we’re being “conformed to this world.”
Instead, He wants us to be “being transformed.” And what are we to be transformed into? Paul will answer that clearly in chapter 13: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Jesus. One of the reasons God saved us was “that we should be conformed to the image of His Son” (8:29). If you and I sincerely wish to be “transformed,” we need look no further than Jesus Himself. The really, really good news is that means you and I actually can live “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22,23).
And how is that change to occur? “By the renewing of your mind.” That immediately takes us back to Scripture. Our Bibles. The Bible itself and our time in it is the engine that drives our transformation. The Bible is the Word of God – God’s communication of His heart and mind to ours. Someone once said, “To look into the Bible is to look into the very face of God.” II Cor. 3:18 tells us that “Beholding His image, we are changed into that image, from glory to glory…” Someone else once said, “No Bible, no God. Know Bible, know God!”
That last little quip is short but true. If you and I would know God, we must know our Bibles. And if we would be transformed, if we would be enabled to know a life of love and joy and peace, it will happen because we spent that time in the Word, in the presence of our God, who is Himself love -- seeking to know Him, to know His heart, to see the world through His eyes.
And, here in v.2, on this side of this glorious hinge-pin of reality, what does that transformation ultimately produce? Us proving (and approving) what is that “good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.” The first thing I want to note is that God’s will is good. Once again, people (all of us) form in their minds all kinds of crazy ideas of what “God’s will” is. I would suggest, one of the very first impressions we should keep in our minds is that His will is good.
Numerous time in the Bible, we are told things like, “You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you…” (Deut. 4:40), and “Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good…” (Deut.12:28). What more could we ask for, than a God who wants to do us good? And not only for us, but for our children? It should come as no surprise that such a God should promise us, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:40)!
He wants to do us good, but He also wants to make us good. Back to the fruit of the Spirit – “love, joy, peace…” The Bible tells us the fruit of everything we do to know our Bibles, to seek the Lord, even our struggles to try to understand His will and do it, even our trying and failing – the end it will produce in us is a life of love and joy and peace.
When you and I would crack our Bibles, we need not fear the “will” we find will be oppressive or absurd or difficult or capricious or anything else but to do us good and to make us good! If our view of faith is not making us better people, there is a screw loose somewhere. To be more like Jesus is to be more like Him who was the very model of everything any human being should aspire to be.
Do you see why I said these two verses are the very hinge-pin of reality? Chapters 1-11 clearly establish what is good in this world, then from 12:1 on, the Lord will tell us how He wants it all to do us good and make us good! If everyone would study to understand Romans 1-11, then live the truths of 12-16, our earth would be a veritable heaven!
There is SO MUCH more we could see from these two seemingly simple verses, but I must say, I’m excited to study on. I’ve always thought of the rest of Romans as being just sort of a miscellaneous assortment of practical admonitions. Having studied myself all the way to this hinge-pin of reality, I am rather looking at it as asking the question: “And so, having given us Romans 1-11, a detailed and extensive treatise of our Lord’s glorious gospel, what does He think are the most important admonitions to rise from it?” Rather than a “miscellaneous assortment,” I expect to find a very deliberate explanation of what our Lord sees as the very most important lessons He wants us to learn. If you and I would live in reality, what should be some of the biggest issues we must get straight in our heads? I want to try to listen carefully, knowing His will is “good, and well-pleasing, and perfect!”
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