The Renewing of the Mind

 The Renewing of the Mind

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 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.

 

Introduction

 

     The human mind is one of the most amazing miracles of God’s creation. If you want to upset an evolutionist, ask them if the mind can be seen under a microscope and how it supposedly evolved. The mind is clearly one of the unique features of human beings. It has the capacity for immense good and for immense evil and everything in between. Many people mind their clothes they wear, the car they drive, the work they do, and the friends they have. But we don’t always pay much attention to our minds. We’re very concerned about our blood pressure, our weight, our strength, etc. But what about our minds? Is our thinking good or evil? Are our desires pleasing to God or not? Are our feelings hurting us or helping us? God wants our minds to be renewed according to His will that we might live our lives constructively and not destructively, dedicated to holiness and not to evil. Our minds need to be renewed by God’s wisdom rather than ruined by sin. How? That’s what this sermon is about.

 

1. Refuse to Be Conformed to the Mindset of the World

 

     The apostle Paul urges us to be living sacrifices to God. That is the goal of the “transformed mind.” But I’m going to set that aside for a moment and start with the problem that we all face. Paul said, “Do not be conformed to the world.”  The first thing we need to know is that our minds can be shaped in a good or bad way. Our thoughts, feelings, and desires can be turned to the good or the bad.  The good mind comes from God, who created our minds. The bad mind comes when there is no input by God and when we have forsaken our Creator. These two ways of thinking – Thinking the thoughts of God and thinking the thoughts apart from God will always be contrary to one another. 

 

     The Bible shows us how this has happened in the past. Pharaoh resisted the mind of God when he refused to let Israel go free from slavery. The prophets of Baal resisted the mind of God when they lured Israel to worship the idol of materialism and lust. The Pharisees resisted the mind of God when they refused the forgiveness of God in Jesus. Solomon said that the talk of a foolish man, a man who rejects the mind of God, ends in “raving madness” (Ecclesiastes 10.13). Paul warns us in his letter to the Ephesians not to walk with those who in the “futility of their mind” are “alienated from the life of God,” and have given themselves over to “lewdness” (NKJ), “licentiousness” (KJV), ἀσέλγεια (Greek) “total lack of self-control.” This is literally “losing your mind.” 

 

     Is this not the mind of many around us today? Unrestrained lust fed by the steady online stream of pornography? Unrestrained anger which explodes into domestic violence, road rage and murder suicides? Unrestrained imaginations that wage war against nature itself with people thinking they can do and be anything they want without any consequences? None of this will end well. 

 

      All of these examples point to one thing: Either our minds are formed by the teachings of God’s word or not. In every age there are those who want to force people to conform to ideas that are contrary to God’s word and His will. Paul urges us not to be conformed in this way. The word here for “conform” literally refers to the way something is forced into a mold and forced to take the shape of that mold. The Christian mind is molded and shaped by God’s word. 

 

     Many people reject this Christian mindset. They have in every age, and they always will. They prefer to see themselves as God and to live by their own will. You and I cannot stop that. We cannot control that. But we can refuse to be controlled by it and conformed to it. We will always be of another mind, another will, another way of living – this is the way of Christ, to whom we have been called.   

 

2. Be Transformed By the Renewing of the Mind

 

     Our resistance to all of this comes when our minds were “transformed” by what Paul calls the “renewing of the mind.” Paul’s words show us that we were once conformed to the mind of this world. We were also gods unto ourselves, dominated by sin, and destined to destruction. But our minds were renewed by the word of God. The Holy Spirit enabled us to accept our guilt, to repent of our sins, and to believe in Jesus for our forgiveness. 

 

Paul talks a lot about this transformed mind in the eighth chapter of Romans:

 

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8.5-8) 

 

     Notice that there are two different mindsets. One is of the flesh, that is, it is without God’s input. It is the mind of sin and transgression. The other is the mind of the Spirit, that is, of Gods word. We remain transformed and renewed when God’s word is continually shaping our thoughts, desires, words, and actions. A person with the mindset of the Spirit is a person who simply asks themselves a lot: What does God want me to think, say, & do? This question never comes to the mind of those conformed to the world.

 

     Let me share with you a good example of a mind that was transformed by God’s word. Rosaria Butterfield was a professor of queer theory and feminist criticism at Syracuse University, and an advocate of LGBTQ+ causes, an atheist, and was in the process of writing a book against Christianity. She received a letter from a pastor that was warm, intellectually serious, and raised legitimate questions about life. This led her to begin reading the Bible seriously. She realized the Bible presented a much different moral universe, but she was also attracted to the beauty, coherence, and the authority of the Bible. She began to realize that she was not just reading Scripture. She said in her own words: “Scripture was reading me.” She felt convicted of her sin and was turned to Jesus and His grace. She knew this would destroy her career and friendships. But she couldn’t go on opposing the will of God. She was transformed. You can read more about her experience in her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. There have been many, many examples of this throughout history. 

 

     But I would like you to think about your own transformation and how it happened and is happening. Think about the events of life and the people you have met that have drawn you closer to God. In my life I think my parents, my sixth grade Sunday School teacher, the vicar who taught my confirmation class, my pastors, and my Christian college and seminary professors. All of them were part of the team that transformed my mind to the mind of Christ. They all had one thing in common: They pointed me to the word of God and encouraged me to read it so that I could “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” 

 

3. Be a Living Sacrifice to Help Save.

 

     When our minds are working in this way, our lives will show it. This is what Paul means when he says that we should become “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” The transformed mind asks this question: Am I pleasing to God? Just asking yourself that question several times a day can make a big difference in your life. The sacrifices that God commanded the people of Israel before the sacrifice of Christ were very important. They were the means of grace through which Israel received forgiveness and through which they also offered to God their thanksgiving and praise. But even then, God also expected Israel to be living sacrifices through faithful living. David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and crushed heart, God will not despise” (Psalm 51.17).

 

     Jesus Christ became the ultimately pleasing sacrifice that took away not only the sins of Israel but also those of the whole world. And, when we live in that joy and renewal of that forgiveness, our lives also become a living sacrifice.  St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) preached about this when he said, 

 

"How can the body become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice. Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering. Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust (burnt offering). But more, this suffices not, but besides we must actively exert ourselves for good; the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing them that curse us, the ear ever at leisure for listening to God" (Chrysostom). [Isn’t it amazing that a sermon that is more than more than 1,600 years old still speaks today!]

 

     Sometimes Christians think that they must have some kind of control over the age in which they live, that somehow they should be able to convince the world to operate by the transformed mind in Christ. This has never happened and never will happen. “Broad,” Jesus said, “is the way of destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7.13). This is what I call the “minority temptation.” When we were children, we asked our parents: “Everyone else is doing it, why can’t I?” Now as adults we wonder: “Everyone else is still doing it and even more so, maybe I’m wrong?” Not at all. Those who told us not to follow the crowd that doesn’t follow Christ were right because it is God that ultimately tells us this. He urges us to stand fast, and to be the living sacrifices – the representatives of His Son, Jesus, in this world. This is what Paul calls “our reasonable service.” Don’t worry when the world scorns you for believing that God created the world, that the one way of salvation is in Jesus, and that we are called to holy not an unholy life. We are here, in this situation now, to show people the mind of God. How would they ever come to know it and perhaps believe it unless they see it in us?

 

Conclusion

 

     Every Sunday morning when you come to worship, every day when you read and remember some words from the Bible, and every moment spent in prayer is a “renewing of the mind” experience. Maybe some will join you. Maybe many will join you. Maybe none will join. But either way we have no choice but to live in the mind of Christ. The only other alternative is the mind of the world and sinful flesh which is nothing more than a step into the abyss of madness. I thank God; we thank God, that He has awakened us to this, and that every step we take in this walk with Jesus is a step to a better life, a better future, and better eternity. Amen.