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Precept Ministries – Romans IV

Lesson 3 – Romans 12:1-8

Roots of Right Thinking

True worship has its root in right thinking. Last week as we began Romans chapter 12, true worship began with a total presentation of ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. It was our reasonable service of worship. This week, we will look at the root of true worship which is in right thinking. As we put down our roots in the soil of a renewed mind, it will bring forth a fruit of righteousness, of holiness, of real Christ-likeness.

Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your (rational, reasonable) spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

When Paul moves from the presentation of ourselves in verse 1, he moves into a different verb tense in verse 2, the present tense: “Don’t keep on being conformed to this world but keep on being transformed.” True worship begins with a presentation of yourself but it doesn’t stop there. It’s a continuing growth process that has its root in proper thinking. The more you grow in the knowledge of the word of God and the sober assessment of who you are, and the more you grow in effectively serving Him, the more you will have a character that is literally transformed into the image of Christ. From image into image into image and that is exciting.

As seen in Romans 12:1, if I am going to serve God by worshiping Him, or if I’m going to have that rational or logical or spiritual service of worship, it will be in three key relationships:

  1. To God. What is my relationship to God if I am truly going to worship Him? It is to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice. This is a decisive act that inaugurates true worship. If you have never done this decisive act or, even though you know Christ is in you and you have been saved, you now decide you are going to present yourself or give yourself to God as a living sacrifice, then all your worship [up until now] has been a sham or hasn’t had its root in true worship. True worship can’t exist apart from this decisive act of presenting yourself to Him. This is what he’s calling for.
  2. To God’s Word. True worship has a right relationship to the Word. Right now in Christendom (in 1987), there are some marvelous books and tapes on the market because there is a need in the body of Christ to really worship God. But some of us are confused about what true worship is and where it begins. It begins with giving ourselves to Him,however it is a continuously ongoing process as [long as] we have a proper relationship with the Word of God as seen in Romans 12:2.
  3. [To yourself. It’s seen in your relationship to God by presenting your body; it’s seen in your relationship to the Word by renewing your mind; and it’s seen in your relationship to yourself by having a sober assessment of your measure of faith and your place in the Body of Jesus Christ.(Copied here from the top of page 6 for organizational clarity.)]

Romans 12:2And (“And” is a conjunction. It means that after you’ve made the decisive act of presenting yourself and: ) do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Spiritual Service of Worship Related to God’s Word

“Conformed” is “mesuschematizomai” (μήσυσχηματιζω). “Me” is a negative meaning “do not be”. It is a present imperative verb. Imperative means it’s a command. Present tense is continuous or habitual action. The “me” negation in front of [suschematizo] indicates that this is a process already going on. Thus Paul is saying: “Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The “me” forbids the continuance of an action that is already going on. It is possible for a Christian who does not renew their mind to be conformed to this world. The word “conformed” is interesting in its relationship to the word “transformed”. The word “conformed” has to do with an outward expression. It’s like a masquerade, putting on a mask that is contradictory to what’s inside. This is not to be confused with hypocrisy.

The Phillips translation says:Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold… We can think of the world squeezing us into its mold so that it affects the way we dress—but it means far more than just being in style. Some Christians think it’s a sin to be in style or to have a haircut or jewelry like the world. This is not what God is talking about. It has more to do with the mind and thinking than with dressing but it can affect the way you dress and can affect your outward behavior. This is a Word that the church desperately needs.From Wuest [sp?]: “Stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after the world, an expression which does not come from, nor is representative of, what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God.” Being conformed to the world is strictly an external thing and not something that affects who you are in Christ Jesus or your position in Christ or in being a child of God. But it greatly affects your walk.

Today, the greatest way that the church is being wrongly affected is in their thinking process. If you look at the church of Jesus Christ in the United States of America, you see so much of the world’s methods of dealing with things: men planning great campaigns and strategies, Christian organizations using fantastic marketing techniques and money raising schemes, ways to promote superstars. What we have in the US today is a mentality of Christian superstars that we drool over. We can’t wait to touch them, get their autographs and swoon in their presence and say that they are so wonderful that we want to emulate them. There are Godly examples ofpeople who have Christ-likeness, but this is something different, this Madison Avenue kind of activity. When we take on that mentality it can affect us so that there is nothing different about us outwardly than the world. This is not about living in overt sin but in how one thinks, acts, dresses, moves, etc. True worship does not allow the world to squeeze you into its mold but puts down its roots in right thinking. What has happened on the inside works throughout your whole being until it affects the outside so that what is true on the inside is manifested on the outside. Do you see the difference? If you are not staying in the context of Romans 12, you can go in all different theological directions. Don’t do that. Take this in the light of Romans 12.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed (present passive imperative:Passive means that the subject is receiving the action of the verb [rather than performing the action of the verb.] “Don’t be passive and allow the world to squeeze you into its mold.”) …to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. After all, if I am going to worship Him, I have to worship Him in His way. I can’t choose how I’m going to worship Him. If I’m really going to worship Him, “worship” means to look at somebody’s “worth-ship”, their value. If I’m truly going to worship Him, I’m going to bend the knee and say, “Lord, not my will but Yours be done.” I want to know His will, which I can do through the renewing of my mind.

“Transformed” is “metamorphoumai”. This is a present passive imperative form of “metamorphoo” (μεταμορφόω). What is the English word? Metamorphosis. What creature comes to mind? A caterpillar. Caterpillars spin cocoons and emerge as beautiful butterflies. An inward change actually transforms that caterpillar into a butterfly and we call that metamorphosis. It doesn’t happen instantly by waving a magic wand but it takes a process. It takes a period of incubation for the sake of transformation. Kay believes that this is where Christians have failed. That’s why the metamorphosis of Christians into the likeness of Jesus Christ from what we were in the flesh to now what we are becoming in Christ Jesus, takes longer in some Christians than others. They do not shut themselves up for a time of incubation, or they do not allow incubation time in their day-to-day living, so asto be more and more transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. This is where the difference lies between the small and the great in the eyes of God—not in the eyes of man. If we looked at Christianity in the eyes of man, we would see it in the context of who has the best PR agent.

Kay wrote a book called Everlasting Love and this book has been made into a Christian musical, which Kay was excited about seeing. A young man with “Christ With the Nations”, read the book and said that it would make a fantastic musical that they could use in evangelism. Kay couldn’t go to the opening night so had been waiting for months to get the video of the musical. It was so neat for her to see thestory that God had given to her put into music. The first song at the beginning of the video of her story started with the orchestra and the credits rolling. Kay’s husband, Jack, said that they hadn’t given her credit. Eventually they did and Jack said, “You’re really going to be popular.” Kay’s response: “Honey, with my type of ministry, I’ll never be popular.” Kay knows she will never hit the big-time Christian stardom with her type of ministry. Not if she’s going to be true to what God has called her to do, and she’s so thankful for that. We need to renew our minds to keep us on target in a true rational spiritual worship of God.

Present passive imperative. This is a command that you cannot ignore that follows “presenting your body”. It will be an ongoing process. A quote from Bishop Moule from a book published in 1928: “So from the side of his conscious experience, the Christian is called to a hallowing [setting apart] of himself, decisive, crucial, instantaneous, but its outcome is to be a perpetual progression. A growth, not so much into grace as in it, in which the surrender and purpose becomes a long series of deepening surrenders in habit, in action, and a larger discovery of self and of the Lord and His will takes effect into the shining of the transfigured life more and more into the perfect day. As we are yielded to the Lord in sober reality, we are in His mercy, liberated in growth but the growth is to come in different ways in the diligent application of the renewal of the mind to the details of His blessed will.”

Being not conformed to the world but being transformed by the renewing of your mind is something that goes on and on until finally you are taken off this earth either by death or by the coming of the Lord. It is an ongoing process but the more you devote yourself to it, the more you will be changed.“Transformed” as used in Matthew 17:2 is translated as “transfigured”.

Matthew 17:1-2 Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

What happened? Who is Jesus Christ? John says:

John 1:14b and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus left heaven, took upon Himself the form of man and contained in that form was all the glory of God—the radiance (Hebrews) of the glory of God. On that day of the Transfiguration, all that glory was inside in His perfect humanity, who revealed to us as man was to be; all that glory of the fullness of the Godhead that dwelt in Jesus Christ bodily, therefore dwells in us; all that glory on that day burst through like the shining of the sun. That’s what God says is to happen to us more and more as we are renewed in our mind, as we are transformed and the glory of God—Christ in you—more and more shines and shines until finally when we see Him as He is and we are like Him it will burst forth in all of its radiance. We can hasten that process by sitting at His feet, by incubation, by shutting up ourselves to God—not away from the world and not away from service, because our true worship of service is going to be seen in our relationship to others. This process has to exist if anything else is going to be right. We are to do this by the renewing of our minds.

“Renewing” is “a gradual conforming of man, more and more, into the spiritual man that God intends him to be as his mind hooks up with the mind of God.” Who has known the mind of the Lord that he might instruct him? (I Cor 2:16a)

Romans 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable (unbelievably deep) His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

In Romans 11 Paul talks about the mind of the Lord, the depths of the wisdom, the riches of the knowledge of the Lord. In Romans 12, he says, “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What God intends is for your mind to connect with His mind that you might have the mind and heart of God in every aspect of life so that you might know how to live. Then the world might not squeeze you into its mold because you are being so transformed from the inside out by the mind of God that you push away the thinking of this world, the mold of this world, with its philosophies and psychologies since you are so filled with the knowledge of God. We’ve been given the mind of Christ. It is ours then to plumb the depths of the mind of Christ.

I Corinthians 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. We have access to that mind by the Spirit of God.

I Corinthians 2:9-11 But just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

So when you are renewing your mind you are shut up in the Word of God with the Spirit of God who is the Teacher who takes the things of God and explains them to you. That’s the incubation that leads to the renewing of your mind.

1 Corinthians 2:11-13 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God (which is laid out for us in Romans 8), so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

If you look at Christendom today you see a lot of human words, philosophical, psychological, metaphysical [words], a lot of which is junk. The world is trying to conform us instead of us knowing what the Lord says and walking in the light of what the Word of God has said to us.

The word “metamorphoo” is used again in 2 Corinthians 3:18. Paul here is comparing the ministry of condemnation and the ministry of death, which is the Old Covenant, to the ministry of the Spirit—the New Covenant. He talks about Moses having the veil over his face because the shining of Moses’s face was fading away. Moses covered his face with the veil because he didn’t want people to see the fading away of the glory of the Old Covenant which would eventually be replaced by the New Covenant. There’s a veil over the heart and mind of man who doesn’t know Christ but when Christ comes in the veil is taken away so that now we can see with Spiritual eyes. We don’t just look at things with our human natural minds but now we have the mind of Christ—the Holy Spirit of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:15-18 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart(speaking of the Jews); but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Where do you behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord? In the Word of God. It is our plumb line. This is why Precept Ministries uses a plumb bob for the symbol of the ministry because it shows what is true—what is straight. The plumb bob hangs straight. You might think something else is straight but when you put it next to the plumb bob you discover that it’s not straight because it doesn’t measure up. So when you are going to worship God accurately it’s got to have its root accurately in the knowledge of God via an accurate plumb line. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. The measure of your beholding determines the measure of the Spirit’s transforming. This is true as long as there’s obedience with that beholding. Just to know but not do is just knowledge that puffs up. Why do I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind? To prove or put to the test what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.