1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.[1]
I
am not very good at grammar, but what stands out to me is the grammar of the
word, “be transformed." Here is the grammatical break-down:
·
Verb: as a verb,
we cannot escape that it speaks of action. To receive this word of the Lord is
to receive the message that action is required. There is something to be done. The
rest of the grammar helps us understand how to act, but there is action
nonetheless.
·
Present: the
action is not something from the past, already accomplished, no longer
required. Neither is it something for the future, not yet expected. Rather, it
is a present expectation of present activity. There is something to do now.
Every day is now. Every setting and circumstance is another now-moment in which
to be transformed.
·
Passive: while
there is no doubt that we are to do something in the present time, our doing
has a significant passive quality. It is something we do in receiving something
that is done. Our part in this, our activity, is responsive. It is very much
the same as what Paul has said to the Philippians about working out our
salvation with fear and trembling because God is working in us to will and to
work for his good pleasure. We have something to do, but it is in response to
something God is doing. We receive his work, and go with the flow of the
Spirit, so to speak.
·
Imperative: this
gives the sense of, “do it.” It is a requirement. Even though our activity in
this relationship is passive, it is still an activity, and it is an activity that
is required. God is clearly working in us, and has given us a new nature that
is created to be like Jesus, but we must willingly receive that, working out
our salvation with fear and trembling. We can do nothing without God doing something
first, but God is doing something, so now it is imperative, necessary,
required, that we actively receive all that God is doing.
·
Second Person: Paul
is not speaking in the first person, telling us what he is doing. Neither is he
speaking in the third person, telling us what someone else is doing. He is speaking
in the second person, speaking to “you”
who is/are reading this. There is no doubt that the people expected to receive
this work of God are those who read this letter, all those who have faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul addressed his letter, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints,”[2]referring to every believer in Jesus Christ. If we are a child of
God through faith in Jesus, we are the “you”
Paul is talking to. No excuses.
·
Plural: by using
the plural, Paul focuses on the church more than the individual. This is the church.
This is Paul writing one letter to one group of people. The church is to work
together to receive the transforming work of God that comes through the gospel
of our Savior.
When
we put this all together, we have the one body of Christ called to band
together to submit to the transforming work of God that takes place in us
through the renewal of our mind.
In
fact, it is very interesting that, “renewal,”
“your,” and “mind,” are all singular, but “be transformed” is plural. Paul is describing a corporate
transformation, something that includes everybody in the church, but takes
place through the singular renewal of the one mind of the one body of Christ.
It
makes a big difference to how we apply this whether we see this as individual
Christians trying to be transformed through the individual renewal of their individual
minds, or we see all the Christians coming together to participate in the one transforming
activity of the one body of Christ connecting to the one mind of Christ.
There
is a very significant picture of the church that we must keep in mind all
through the New Testament letters. The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is
our head.[3] When we read, “we have the
mind of Christ,”[4]it is not primarily that each individual Christian has the mind of
Christ, but that the church has the mind of Christ.[5] We do not fight and argue over our ideas and opinions, but we gather
to seek to know what is on Jesus’ mind for the church he is building.[6]
With
this imagery that “be transformed”
speaks to the one body of Christ, and “by
the renewal of your mind” speaks of the church’s living fellowship with the
mind of Christ, read this gloriously hopeful and uplifting verse: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one
degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”[7]
When
we see that the “we all,” speaks of
the whole, unified, body of Christ, and “beholding
the glory of the Lord,” is something we all do together, we can look at our
transformation into the image of Jesus Christ as a unified, harmonious,
simultaneous, divinely-coordinated experience.
Paul
writes something similar when he shares with the Colossian church:
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.[8]
Here
we read that Paul’s great struggle was that all the believers would have their
hearts encouraged, “being knit together
in love.” He then identifies that there were things the body of Christ
could “reach” through such fellowship
that would not be reached except when encouraged hearts are knit together in
love. The things we attain through this fellowship are, “all the riches of full understanding,” and “the knowledge of God’s mystery.”
Now,
in case we think this is impersonal information, Paul identifies that “God’s mystery… is Christ.” This is not
talking about knowing the answer to some complex whodunit. Everything to do
with understanding and knowledge is a relationship between an encouraged church
whose hearts are knit together in love, and Jesus Christ.
Keeping
in mind this wonderful picture of the body of Christ knit together in love,
fellowshipping with the glorious mystery of God, which is Jesus Christ, we can
then unite as the body of Christ and look in the same direction for this next
glorious revelation. It is that, in Jesus Christ, “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
How
is it that a hearts-knit-together-in-love body of Christ reaches “all the riches of full assurance of
understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ”? It is
because “all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge” are hidden in Jesus Christ, and he is our head. He is the one
head of the one body of Christ.
When
we don’t know how to “be transformed,”
we don’t look for some self-discovered information, or some man-made program. We
unite as the body of Christ to seek our head. He knows what to do. He “works in you, both to will and to work for
his good pleasure.”[9]As we unite to “work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling,”[10] we connect to the mind of Christ that has already been given to us
in our Savior.
It
seems like I should have been able to say this in a shorter and clearer statement.
It also feels like I could keep going on this until we have viewed it in so
many other ways that Scripture teaches us the same things. Whatever the case,
all human weaknesses aside, God’s “divine
power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through
the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”[11]
We have God’s power through our
knowledge of his Son. We have full assurance of understanding and the knowledge
of God’s mystery because of our fellowship with the one in whom are hidden all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We have transformation through the mind-renewal
that is ours through having the mind of Christ. We are becoming more and more
like Jesus Christ our Lord, because we unite to behold his glory.
And
this is all in a world in which “now we
see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
know fully, even as I have been fully known.”[12]We have this daily hope of becoming more like Jesus, being
transformed from one degree of glory to another, through the mind-renewal given
to the whole body of Christ through Jesus our head.
All
that means that we should face every day with a high degree of expectation. Not
expectation of what we can do; but expectation of what God will do in us as we
submit to the transforming fellowship of the church that is constantly fed, and
nourished, and built up by Jesus Christ himself. He knows what he is doing. Join
with God’s people and watch what he does next.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Romans 12:1-2
[2]
Romans 1:7
[3]
Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18
[4]
I Corinthians 2:16
[5]
In the same way as each individual part of our human body only relates to the
head in union with the rest of the body, the individual believer is always a
member of the body of Christ, and always affecting and affected by the health
of the rest of the body of believers.
[6]
Matthew 16:18
[7]
II Corinthians 3:18
[8]
Colossians 2:1-3
[9]
Philippians 2:13
[10]
Philippians 2:12
[11]
II Peter 1:3
[12]
I Corinthians 13:12
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