Romans 12:1,2 “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. And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
PART ONE: To Whom is the Apostle Writing?
Recently my wife and I watched a movie about the apostle Paul. After watching scenes of brutal hardship experienced by Paul and his fellow believers as they awaited martyrdom in prison, there was a palpable heaviness in our spirits. But insight came one week later in a video by Bill Johnson entitled “Find Your Groove.” It reminded me of the need to expect not only blessings if one is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, but to anticipate suffering and persecution. One must willingly accept a lifestyle of self-denial and taking up a cross daily if one is to have a close walk with Jesus (Luke 9:23). Life in a groove of martyrdom to self cannot be escaped should one seek to become a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan, the father of lies, has been masterful in deceiving a majority of sheep who sit under the teaching of false shepherds who occupy many if not most pulpits in America. Rarely is there emphasis on the words of Him whom multitudes profess as their Savior and Lord: “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:24). It’s a challenge to find pulpits where ‘cheap grace’ is not promoted, a term given to compromise of the gospel by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author of a classic book The Cost of Discipleship which draws heavily on the teachings of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Like Paul, Bonhoeffer lived the life of a martyr. Dying at the end of a hangman’s noose at age 39, Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazis only hours before the end of World War II for his steadfast proclamation of the gospel. His best-known books, The Cost of Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison, are such valuable contributions to Christian theology as to one approaching life in terms of both thoughts and lifestyle. Like Paul, Bonhoeffer realized that when Jesus calls a person to Himself, He bids that person to become His “witness” (Acts 1:8). Witness is a word that is translated om the Greek martus, meaning to be a martyr by dying to anything which tends to interfere with undefiled devotion for Jesus Christ and His words revealed in Scripture. Like the apostle, Bonhoeffer knew that being born again is a cataclysmic crisis, not at easy process into which one smoothly slides as often preached today. Nor is being born again a result of works of the flesh or of making a ‘decision for Christ’ (the will of man) as the Scriptures make abundantly clear (John 1:13; Ephesians 2:8,9). The only basis for a new life spiritually is why Jesus came to earth, i.e. Redemption. Man is only lifted into a domain where Jesus lives by God’s own personal entrance into man. We must become a home for God’s Spirit, a reality made possible at incredible cost to Jesus…and ‘costly’ as well to the self-life and personal rights of sinners who desire to be redeemed. In his letter to the Romans, Paul isn’t pleading with those like most in America today who have been exposed to little other than chap grace. Many of the Romans had already experienced sacrifice and persecution, yet Paul uses a word translated as beseech or plead to emphasize the earnestness of his words. And he follows with “therefore” to indicate that something said earlier is there for a reason. That something in the previous chapter tells us God “cut off” fellowship with most of those He had “redeemed” (Exodus 15:13) through the blood of a Passover lamb, a type of our Redemption today through the precious shed blood of Jesu who became “our Passover” by His sacrifice at Calvary (1 Corinthians 5:7). Paul’s words in our text imply that not all Romans had found their groove in terms of offering themselves to God as living sacrifices. They’d continued to conform to the ways of the world, resisting a meaningful renewing of their minds. Paul is warning them that a fate similar to their ancestors applies to believers in Jesus who continue conforming to a world that is the enemy of God: “Whoever makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Such is also true today. Satan creates counterfeit shortcuts for restoration of communion with God like His being so loving that He does not demand true repentance and has done everything for us so that we simply have to ask to be forgiven for past sins without change in lifestyle. False teachers of whom Jesus and the apostles repeatedly warn have preached lies of this type since biblical days. They teach that since Jesus did what we cannot ever do for ourselves to pay for Redemption, we only need receive a gift of salvation that is cheap for us instead of costly. Individual verses are taken out of context such as, “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). They dismiss a truth that calling on the name of the LORD involves the following: “Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, so times of refreshing may come from the presence of the LORD and that He may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before” (Acts 3:19-20). Short of turning from our ways to the ways of God, forgiveness isn’t possible, let alone receiving the faith needed to believe in Jesus. His teaching has always been, “Repent and believe” in that order, never “Believe and repent” (Mark 1:15). The elementary principles of Christ start with “repentance” (Hebrews 6:1), but cheap grace ignores with basic meaning of repentance as required for salvation. Asking to be forgiven or saying “I’m sorry” is made a substitute for genuine repentance. As a result, many who profess Jesus have never truly experienced the divine work of the Holy Spirit in conviction of sins (John 16:8) which is needed to produce the “godly sorrow and repentance leading to salvation” (2 Cor 7:10). Many invite Jesus to be their Savior but never accept Him as being Lord of their lives. It stems from ignorance as to the meaning of words translated as “grace” in the Bible. The Hebrew translated as grace in the OT is chen (Strong’s Concordance #2580), a word that means free of cost. The OT definition of grace is the unmerited favor of God as shown to man, consistent with events in the Hebrews’ deliverance from Egypt as a people said to be redeemed by God (Exodus 15:13). There was no evidence of repentance as they left Egypt carrying their idols of precious metals, set free by God’s unmerited favor after having done nothing at all to warrant Redemption other than killing a Passover lamb, a foreshadowing of Jesus becoming “our Passover” through His sacrificial atoning death upon the Cross. Set free by God’s unmerited favor, they arrived at Mount Sinai where the Law and the commandments were received, a covenant which they promised to obey faithfully (see Exodus 24:3). But they rebelled against the ways of God, and, though once a redeemed people, were eventually rejected by God (Romans 11 and 1 Corinthians 10. The unmerited favor which they had received was treated exactly like what it had cost them. The cost of nothing was treated as worth nothing. Without a firm understanding on this point, we’ll never appreciate what Paul is saying regarding the will of God for our lives and a desperate need for transforming of our lives through the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Rather few, including those in ordained ministry, are aware of difference between the Hebrew chen meaning unmerited favor and the Greek charis translated as grace in the NT (Strong’s #5485). There is no mention of unmerited favor in the definition of charis. The lexicon meaning of charis is divine influence of the heart which is reflected in the life of a person receiving grace. It’s more than the convicting work of Holy Spirit which brings godly sorrow and repentance that leads to salvation. Charis is the grace that produces godly character and sanctification as described by Paul in a letter to Titus: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Him-self His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14). With this understand of grace described by Paul, we can realize why Paul beseeches us to submit to the transforming work of Holy Spirit which requires a conscious renewing of the mind. It’s a work of the Holy Spirit that extends well beyond that which is referred to as salvation, and contradicts false teaching that everything is achieved for a sinner once and for all by that called salvation. When the apostle tells us to offer our lives to God as a “sacrifice,” he uses a Greek word which literally means to slay or kill. We are commanded to submit to sanctification, dying to our old worldly ways and begin living in a manner that proves the acceptable, good and perfect will of God as a witness to Christ. It’s a message found throughout Paul’s letters, that sincere belief in Jesus Christ results in a changed life. “From the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Do we appreciate what Paul is telling us by the inspiration of Holy Spirit? Final salvation depends upon more than just expressing belief in Jesus as to what He accomplished on behalf of mankind at Calvary. It involves a command to be transformed (sanctified) by no longer conforming to ways of the world….and is not an option. Jesus will not be a Savior of those refusing to submit to Him as the Lord of their life and living in obedience to His teachings by the power of the Spirit. The Greek work translated as “transformed” in Romans 12:2 is the same word translated as “transfigured” in the transfiguration of Jesus on a mountain when the brightness of His preincarnate glory radiated from His presence. Our lives are to be so transformed through sanctification that the presence of Jesus radiates from within those who have received a new identity in Christ and have made Him alone their “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Renewing of the mind is essential for this transformation to take place.
