Not Conformed But Transformed - Part 1

Romans 12:1-2

INTRO:

Good morning.   Today’s lesson is from chapter 12 of Romans verses 1 and 2.  In general I will be using the New King James or the King James for reference.  Look with me now at this text.    “1.  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.  2.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:1-2. 

 

Those verses are familiar to us, yet in reading them recently I found myself needing to examine my understanding of them   It seems to me that as we read, we should also take time to study and try to gain a better understanding of the scriptures with the purpose of developing in our lives, a deeper spirituality.

 

1. Living Sacrifice: Paul says in Romans 12:1 – “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.”
   1. We know that God would not give us a command without giving us instructions on how to fulfill that command or provide for us counsel on how to recognize the importance of it to our spiritual life.
      1. How does a person give their physical bodies as a sacrifice to God?
      2. When that happens, what does that look like? That is, if we were to see it happen, what would it look like?
      3. In a sense I believe that verse two gives us an important insight into this.
   2. It helps us better discern what it looks like for us to actually give ourselves in the way that Paul describes here.
2. Do not conform but transform: Paul goes on in Romans 12:2 – “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
   1. The conjunction “and” in this text at the start of the verse tells us right off that we can understand this verse if we study it with verse one. They are connected.  Here Paul is giving us a better understanding of how we present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
   2. The description of a living sacrifice in Paul’s words has both a positive and a negative exhortation. It is in that sense, comprehensive.
   3. Paul presents throughout Romans 12 what I believe is a very comprehensive picture of the spiritual person, by giving us different angles from with which to look at ourselves… our spirituality. How a person lives their life, how they develop their spirituality, and how they react to the world that is around them.
   4. Paul says here, as he says other places, that this process of offering a sacrifice, of giving our lives to God or being pleasing to Him, is putting off some things, and putting on other things. It is a change.   You and I cannot diminish that idea in our own minds or in the minds of others to whom we would teach the gospel.  God demands change.
   5. In Genesis we read in chapter one that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female”. “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”  But Satan came and brought to man a change that was away from God, disobedience.   God demands that to be one with Him again man must change back.   This is the restoration plea.
      1. The scriptures point to this change that God has always called individuals to make.
      2. The preaching of the gospel is a message of change.
      3. There is no room in Paul’s statements here, or anyplace else where the Bible talks about this change, to imply a compromise. Nor is there any room for there to somehow be reconciliation between that which we change from or from that which we put off, and that which we acquire or put on.
      4. The world must be put behind us. Our lives as Christians are before us and there must be this change.   Paul presents it here as we mentioned in what I think is both a positive and negative way.

• “Be Not Conformed to this World”  Let us begin with the negative side in the lesson this morning. 
  1. Here Paul gives the command that we be not conformed to this world. The words in the original language are insightful.  This is given as a passive imperative, that is, it is a direct command, not a suggestion.   What Paul is saying here, and the language bears out, is a command.  It is passive in that the conforming is by something that we allow ourselves to be conformed to.  It’s something that works on us.   It’s not just something we do, but it’s something that works on us which accomplishes this task or has a certain result.   We allow the “world” to “conform” us—to make us into what it would like to make us.  Let’s look more closely at this concept of conformed.
  2. What does this word “conformed” mean? Our English word means “to be or to become the same or similar”.   It means to conform to some outside influence or for something to be conformed to you as an outside influence.
     1. A few years ago psychologist Ruth W. Berenda and her associates carried out an interesting experiment with young people designed to show how a person coped with group pressure. The plan was simple.  They brought groups of ten adolescents at a time into a room for a test.  
        1. Each group of ten was then instructed to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts. What one person in each group did not know was that the nine others had been instructed ahead of time to vote for the second-longest line, regardless of the instructions they heard.
        2. The experiment began with nine young people voting for the wrong line. The tenth would typically glance around, frown in confusion, and slip their hand up with the group. The instructions were repeated and the next card was shown.  Time after time, the self-conscious tenth would sit there saying a shorter line was longer than a long line, simply because they lacked the courage to challenge the group.  This remarkable conformity occurred in about 75% of the cases, and was true of small children and high-school students as well.   
     2. Do you remember bean bag chairs? I do and I have had one in time past.   Sort of silly when you think about it and after I got older I wondered “what was that all about”.   I have wondered about many things that have come and gone which people seem to buy into.
     3. You throw a sack of pellets on the ground and you sit on it. They were big in the 70’s.   You sit in the bean bag chair and you get up—that was the hard part.   I could not get out of one today, I’m sure.  You get up and look back at the chair.   What you see is that the chair has conformed to your body.   There’s an impression where you sat down.  That’s the aspect of conformation.   It means that something happens and you conform to something or something conforms to you.
     4. The Greek word has a similar meaning to our English definition, it is suschematizo ‎(soos-khay-ma-id’-zo) from which we get the English word scheme or schematic. It means to fashion alike, i.e. conform to the same pattern (figuratively) and suggests the idea of “fashioning or shaping one thing like another” (Vine).   Therefore to conform means that you fit a pattern.  You see a pattern before you and you conform to that pattern therefore you become like it or you become similar to it.   We think of that in the physical terms of a blueprint or schematic. 
     5. If you build a house you have a blueprint. If you have a builder, if he’s a good builder, he will look at a blueprint before he even starts.  He’ll look at it several times as he builds the house to be certain the house conforms to the blueprint.
        1. That’s the use of the word here in the original language. We are not to allow the world to conform us, to make us like the pattern the world presents to us through social norms,… pressures,… customs… and perhaps contrary laws.
        2. The ASV of verse 2 says: “And be not fashioned according to this world:” The translated verb “fashioned” suggests forming something with external force.   

• There are some interesting translations of this verse and one that caught my attention is by J.B. Phillips; “Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

1. “This world”. Let’s look at the words “this world”.  The use here implies the culture we’re in has a pattern.   It holds things that are in common with the elements of the world.   There are others that conform to this and live by this world or pattern and are part of it.   The Christian is called out of that on a personal level, on a congregational level.   We’re called out of this world so that we may not conform to it.   We do not allow ourselves to be molded.   The pattern, in Paul’s language, is what is presented by this world.   Do not be conformed to this world Paul says.   We should note that there is more than one word in the original language of the Bible that is translated as “world”.   However, there is not the same meaning.   We have to look at the context in which this particular word is used in the translation to get the full meaning of the word “world”.
   1. The word “Kosmos”( κόσμος) is the most common Greek word used in the New Testament that is translated into “world”.   It refers to both the geographical sphere we live on as “God created the world” (earth) and also to the people who inhabit the world.
      1. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Here we understand it is not referring to the ball of dirt and water, but that He loved the people who are on the earth.
      2. Kosmos is used in other passages, particularly by the apostle John to refer to Satan’s dominion and influence. It is used in the negative sense in 1 John chapter 2.

• 1 John 2:15 – “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.” Here the world does not mean the aspect of the globe, nor does it just mean the people that inhabit the earth.   It means the aspect of the dominion or the influence of Satan whether it’s expressed in activities or people or philosophies or ideas.   John says many times there is a distinction between Christ and the world.   Those two things cannot be reconciled.

2. Now “Kosmos” is not the word that Paul uses in Romans 12:2. He doesn’t use the word we find most often used to describe the dominion of Satan.   Rather he uses the word, “aion” (eon) which often is translated “age” or period of time.   It is used in scriptures often to describe a period of time that has spiritual or moral characteristics.   Sometimes it describes an aspect of age that is to come, and the Bible describes the different events that are to come with the age or the age of an individual.  Sometimes it is used to describe an aspect of the present age.
   1. We use that word in the same way occasionally. We might sigh and say. “What is this world coming to?”    We probably don’t mean what’s going to happen to the planet.  We mean what’s the culture around us going to look like.  Or what is society going to look like?
   2. We describe this aspect of a culture by the use of the term “world”. The Bible does the same thing and that’s what Paul’s doing here in Romans 12 when he says we are not to be conformed to the world in which we live—to the society, the culture in which we live.

• There is another way I believe that word is used. We find it in Jesus’ parable of the sowing of the seeds.   Jesus told the story of how a sower went forth and sowed seeds on the ground.   Some of that seed fell to ground among the thorns.   The thorns grew and choked out the seed so they could not grow.   Jesus’ parable predicts the ability of the word of God to grow in certain spiritual soil. 

22. Jesus says; “and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word”(of God) Matthew 13:22.   I would suggest to you that these “cares” are specific to the period in which you and I live.   Our parents, our grandparents, and our great grandparents had “cares” associated with their time.   Including some that you and I no longer have to struggle with.  
23. We have “cares” associated with our culture that those folks didn’t have to think about and maybe our children won’t have to think about either. Each particular time has “cares” that are unique to them.   It is a spiritual discernment for us to recognize those “cares” that belong to the “world” that have the propensity to strangle the word of God out of our lives and keep us from developing spiritually.    Now there are those cares, those concerns; which I believe repeat themselves culturally as society goes on.   We have to recognize they have their root, they have their design, in Satan himself.  That’s what I believe Jesus teaches here in the parable of the soil. 
24. We recognize is that we live in an age that is antagonistic toward God. I don’t think any of us would disagree with that, but so did the people of the first century.  The apostles wrote about and spoke about this by inspiration in the scriptures.   Look at Galatians 1:4 - “who(Jesus) gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”  The deliverance that God has for us in Jesus Christ is described in the Bible as rescuing us from our culture, rescuing us from the influence of the world around us.

• In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says: “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” He says there is a god of this age—Satan himself who has the ability to blind people’s eyes so that they can’t understand the gospel when they don’t seek after spiritual things.

3. The terminology here, I believe, certainly is applicable to us. The Bible gives us some real insight to the aspect of the dangers of the culture in which we live… whatever that culture might be.   What Paul’s is telling us here is that culture has the ability to mold us into its own image.   We have a very great propensity to be like the people around us.   God consistently calls us away from that.   What the language also tells us that we cannot allow ourselves to be drawn in to the culture.   Notice the personal responsibility there.
4. If we are going to be molded to culture it is because we allow We don’t have to be molded to the people around us, to the world around us.   When someone is influenced by their culture to do the things that the culture suggests and society does, then they are driven by the world to be conformed by that world.   Sometimes we describe those people as being “worldly”.   We use the word itself to describe the person.   Sometimes we talk about the threat of worldliness and that the church has to be careful lest it is influenced by worldliness.

1. What then is worldliness? What does a worldly person look like? or sound like? or think like?   How would you describe them?  What does that person look like today?   I think that we most often picture the worldly person as a philandering, drinking, cussing, spouse abuser down the road or an unbeliever—one who doesn’t believe in God.   They go clubbing and run around with their friends.  They use bad language.  That’s a worldly person.
   1. When we describe this aspect of worldliness we certainly ought to recognize that those things are of the world and speak against them as God does, because God gives specific prohibition against such things. I think though there’s a danger here in our view.   In our comprehensive definition of worldliness it’s very easy for us to say: I don’t do those things so I must not be worldly because those are the things that describe worldliness and I don’t do those things so I’m not worldly in that sense.  Does that seem familiar?   Does that definition fit us?
   2. This view serves our purposes when we look at what God tells us in Romans 12 telling us about not being conformed to the world. That must not be me.   That must not be you.
   3. One writer suggested that a list of “worldly” traits should be way more comprehensive. It is suggested we sometimes have a very shallow view of what God is calling us out of.   It has been suggested, for example, that maybe one of the characteristics we should include on this list is “consumerism”.  What does the worldly person look like?  What about this:
      1. The insatiable need to buy and consume things, to have things. How does that fit our definition of worldly?
      2. We live in a society where everything is geared to, everything run by money and what money can buy. To have things becomes the greatest pursuit of life because it becomes the ultimate blueprint for how we pursue life.

• Is that part of the blueprint offered us? Is success defined by whether we accomplish that?   The one with the most toys, best things and so on is the successful one.  Could it possibly be that that’s what Paul’s talking about when he says you cannot be conformed to this world?

4. Jesus said to the people of his day (to people with a lot fewer things than we have) “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15) He went on to tell the parable of a rich man, one who the world would call very successful, so successful that he had to have bigger places to put his things.  Jesus tells the judgment of God on this man and concluded by saying, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  (Luke 12:21)  The rich man thought about what his tomorrow would be in the context of whether he would be physically successful. 
   1. What Jesus was describing was a worldly person, a person that was not morally bad, but in the terms of the prospective of their life, their aspirations, their desires and their lifestyle they had been conformed to the culture around them.
   2. They believed that what should be important to them was what was important to everybody else. They thought that the way you measure success is the way everybody else measures success.

• Are we to think like the people around us?  We must not be molded by the world.   That’s what Paul is warning against, what he’s describing here…   The ability to not be molded is what he is describing as the sacrifice that we make toward God.

1. Do we offer our bodies as a sacrifice to God because we do not allow our bodies and our lives and our physical experience to be molded by the world around us? Yes, we live differently.   Our sacrifice is living the Christian life on a daily basis.

1. How Do We Fit in the Mold of Our Age? In what ways do we need to apply this teaching that Paul presents?   The implications go far beyond the common vices that we correctly shun in our lives.   John accounts that we must not be conformed to the affections of the world.
   15. 1 John 2:15-17 – “15. 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. 16.  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. 17.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
       1. John through the Holy Spirit has the unique ability to make the dichotomy of right and wrong, light and darkness, the world and Jesus so clear to us. His language is simple, given by God to present to us when we cannot reconcile what is light and what is darkness.
       2. How do we think about ourselves in God’s true assessment of us? We are sinners and we cannot in any way be acceptable to God in that sense.  If we claim to walk in the light as He is in the light, we must put away darkness in our practices.  John tells us of the Father… and of the world… they cannot be reconciled.
       3. That’s a struggle for all of us. He says: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.”    If I understand that passage, John not only tells us that the Kingdom of the Father and the Kingdom of Satan, are separate.   But they are mutually exclusive
   16. He’s telling us in our daily experience of living as a Christian we must choose one or the other. That’s how the human experience plays out in living the Christian life.   God gives us the opportunity to make choices.   Through those daily choices that we make, we either give our body as a sacrifice to God and do not become conformed to the world, or we do just the opposite of that.   There is no middle ground.
       1. Jesus agrees with that in His own teaching. Luke 16:13-14 – “13.  "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.'' 14.  Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.” The English word “derided”, which is translated from (ekmyktērizō) is not used much today.  Strong translates ekmyktērizō as “to deride by turning up the nose, to sneer at, to scoff at” .
       2. Would we expect any other response from individuals that wanted to incorporate covetousness in religion? There are a lot of folks that work that way today, ones who even claim to be religious leaders.   They teach the message that what God really wants for you is to be financially prosperous.   He wants you to be a millionaire.   He wants you to get ahead in life so He’s laid down principles in the Bible that can help you succeed in business and can help you become rich.  
       3. Jesus says those two aspirations are mutually exclusive. They are irreconcilable.   They cannot in any way be brought together.  One is of the world and one is of the Father.  If you seek after the things of the world the love of the Father is not in you.   I suppose that if they read these verses in the view of teaching a prosperity gospel they have to sneer at Jesus too.
       4. Jesus makes it clear that we as Christians are called to a different set of values, to a different lifestyle, to a different practice and to a different way of thinking. We cannot be conformed to the culture around us.
   17. How do we identify that? The values of this world are easy to identify.   I don’t think we have much trouble with that, do we?   Do you have much trouble identifying the values of the world we live in?
       1. Materialism and selfish indulgence (especially sexual indulgence) rule the day. Individualism and personal freedom are cherished more than anything else in people’s lives.   Self-esteem and personal ambition are promoted as the greatest things you can acquire for yourself.   Just feel good about yourself and have the personal ambition to succeed.   Put yourself first.  Those are things that are all around us.
       2. The Christian must honestly assess these things and ask where did they come from? Can I open the teachings of Jesus Christ, can I go to Jesus’ personal ministry and examples of His life, can I live as Jesus lived in His own culture and come away with these things?   We can’t.
       3. Sometimes I am confounded by how modern religious teachers can stand up and call for individuals to send them money so they can be wealthier than more than half the people they’re speaking to. They build monstrous empires around them and claim solidarity with the Savior who did not have a stone to lay His head on.
       4. They claim to be following the example of one who gave no preference to physical prominence or social class or money. He actually said it’s easier taking a camel through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.    Jesus life and teachings confront our culture folks, and they confront us.   Our culture would have you molded into the idea that these are the things that really matter.
   18. God calls us from that, sometimes in specific details. He calls the Christian to abstain from the activities of the world around him and remain pure.   These are not the things that belong in the life of the Christian.
       1. We read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 –“ 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?    For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”  You simply cannot do whatever you want to do with your body.   The world will teach you that you can.  That’s the value that the world has for itself.   People make those choices because “it belongs to you” they are told, but God says, no it does not belong to you because it belongs to Him.
       2. Ephesians 5:3-6 – “3. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.  5. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.  6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”  
       3. 1 Peter 4:3-5 – “3. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4.  In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5.  They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
       4. The character of the Christian is counter-cultural in more than just the activities of the body. Jesus calls for a revolution of the mind.   Jesus’ declarative statements in Matthew 5:3-10 are more than just sermon platitudes.  They are the revolutionary marching orders to the Christian in his battle against worldliness.  
          1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
          2. Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

• Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.

1. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
2. Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
3. Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

• Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
• Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

1. These are not the values of our culture.  If we pursue these things we will not be conformed to this world.   We will be transformed.

5. Notice that Jesus follows up by giving us a positive command to influence others. It is a demand that flows from who we are – “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (v. 13-16)   When we do this we glorify God through the holy (separated) sacrifice of ourselves to Him.

 

CONCLUSION:

In our lives do we feel that there are any sharp corners?   Or do we fit comfortably where we live?   One writer, J.C. Ryrie, asks some pertinent questions:

 

Are you willing to give up anything which keeps you back from God?…  Is there any cross in your Christianity?   Are there any sharp corners in your religion, anything that ever jars and comes in collision with the earthly-mindedness around you?   Or is all smooth and rounded off, and comfortably fitted into custom and fashion?   Do you know anything of the afflictions of the gospel?    Is your faith and practice ever a subject of scorn and reproach?    Are you thought a fool by anyone because of your soul?

 

Do you remember Demas in the Bible?  He is mentioned 3 times in scripture.  In Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24 he is specifically described by Paul as His fellow laborer, numbered with the other disciples.   But then there is that last reference in 2 Timothy 4:10 – “for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica”   This is his epitaph.  What will ours be?

 

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus (John 8:24); repent of our sins (Acts 2:38); we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew 10:32); and be baptized for the remission of our sins (1 Peter 3:21)… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church. 

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism.  If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today.  If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing. 

 

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Reference Sermon

David Schmidt