Be Transformed…

Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday in Romans 12:2. Yesterday, we focused on Paul’s warning not to be conformed to this world. Today, we look at the positive alternative to that – transformation.

The word “transformed” comes from the Greek metamorphoo. If that word looks familiar, it should. That’s were our word metamorphosis comes from, and it gives us a good image of transformation. At just the right time, the caterpillar slinks along a limb, finds a good spot, and forms a cocoon. The caterpillar stays in that cocoon approximately 21 days, then emerges as a butterfly. It is transformed, and the transformation is beautiful.

For the Christian, this kind of transformation includes our external behaviors, but it is far more than surface deep. It is a change to the very kind of person we are. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7), so we know that an immediate change takes place the day a person trusts in Jesus Christ. The Bible pictures this as a darkness-to-light, death-to-life change. But there is an ongoing change that happens to us as our minds are being renewed by the Spirit of God.

In other words, we are not simply changing from the world’s to-do list to Jesus to-do list, instead we are allowing the Spirit of God to change us from the inside out. This happens, Paul says, by the renewal of your mind.

This is too important to overlook! When we were dead in our sins, our minds were dead to the things of God. In other words, the problem with our minds is not simply that we do not have enough information to make good decisions. The problem is that an unredeemed mind is corrupted. It is bent toward rebellion and away from God. Paul wrote in Romans 1:28, “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind.”

Even when we have a genuine conversion to Christ, we still have these deep ruts in our thinking, ruts we often fall back into. It is intensely frustrating for a believer who wants to align his life with the will of God, but struggles with old habits. We long to be free of the shackles of sinful behaviors and the guilt and shame that accompany them.

If transformation comes from the renewal of our minds, how, then, are our minds renewed? Renewal of our minds is not something obtained by force of will. Renewal is the work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). We must be utterly dependent upon God’s power and not our own. Many great accomplishments have been done by humankind by the sheer force of will, but not the renewal of the mind!

If this renewal is a God thing, then an ever-growing intimacy with God is our answer. The nearer we draw to the heart and mind of God, the more we will be able to discern and discover His will, and the more willing we will be to pursue that will with all our hearts. This is why the disciplines of daily prayer and Bible reading are so very important. This is why a connection with a body of believers who can challenge you and hold you accountable is so important. This is why listening to Christ-honoring music and reading the works of godly men and women are so important. Our transformation is supercharged by the renewal of our minds as our thinking begins to line up with the heart and will of God Himself.