Transformation

Romans 12:2 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.

“Do not be conformed to this world.” The word conformed here means to literally fashion ones self after another. In other words, Do not fashion yourself according to this world.

“But be transformed.” Transformed comes from the Greek “metamorfoo,” which translated is “Metamorphoo.” Meta means “with, after, behind” and morphoo means “to form.” Being transformed is like metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is to change. I like the illustration of a butterfly. A butterfly is not born beautiful; no it goes through stages before it emerges from its cocoon as a beautiful butterfly. It takes time, energy, and desire for a caterpillar to change into a butterfly. Likewise, as a Christian it takes time, energy, and desire for us to be transformed. This word is only used 4 times in scripture. Twice it refers to Christ being transfigured. The definition of morphoo follows: “being to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure. Christ appearance was changed and was resplendent with divine brightness on the mount of transfiguration.”

The other time transformed is used in the Bible is in 2 Cor 3:18: “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.” Being changed is a process; it takes time.

And how are we going to be transformed? By the renewing of our hearts or bodies? No, by the renewing of our minds. To renew is to completely change for the better. Think in terms of a renovation. When we renovate a house we completely gut it out one room at a time. The same is true with us. When we renew our minds, we completely gut out areas of our thinking and completely change for the better. Renovation also takes weeks, sometimes months to complete. Renewing of our minds does not happen overnight. The word renewing comes from the root meaning “to be changed into a new kind of life as opposed to the former corrupt state.” Before we renew our minds we are corrupt. As we continue the process of renewing our minds we are changed into a new life. So when we renovate, we typically hire a contractor. How does the renewing happen in us? Titus 3:5 has the answer: “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit renews our thinking. This is the only other place in scripture that the word renewing is used.

“Renewing of your mind.” Our mind gives us the capacity to understand, reason, think, and logically process. The mind is defined as “comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining.” The mind is where we think and reason. R.C. Sproul said that the mind is the path to the heart. We can’t renew our heart by first not renewing our minds. Everything we do, say, or act upon first runs through our mind. God has given us incredible minds and I don’t believe we use them enough. Think about it. How often do we truly reason through something? Or truly put all of our thinking power to work? Not very often. Sitting in church, we are thinking about what we are going to have for lunch, what the person in front of us is doing, how nice the new banners look, oh, and of course listening to the sermon. Studies have shown that we only remember 25% of what we heard 24 hrs before. That is pretty sad, that we can only remember ¼ of we hear a day later. God has given us a mind, we should use it! And renew it!

“So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” This statement tells us WHY we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The phrase “so that” informs us of a conclusion. “Prove what” is defined by us being “certain of something.” So by renewing our mind we will be certain to know the will of God. It then further defines what the will of God is…that which is good, acceptable and perfect.

This verse is loaded. It starts with a command not to fashion our lives like the world. However, if it stopped there then the verse wouldn’t be very significant. But it continues…we are called to be transformed by renewing our thinking in all areas of our life. We are given a command about what not to do and then a command about what to do. It is like a little child who is playing with a toy they shouldn’t be. If we just tell them that they can’t play with that particular toy then what will they do? As soon as we turn our back they will be playing with it again! But if we show them a toy they can play with and redirect their attention then the other toy becomes meaningless. The same is true with us. If we are just commanded not to conform to the world then sooner or later we will fail. However, if we redirect our attention to transforming our thinking, then conforming to the world will become meaningless.

In just this one little verse Paul answers several fundamental questions about renewing our minds. He not only commands us to do this but answers how to do it and the benefits of doing it. May our prayer be that we are continually transformed by the renewing of our minds; completed not by us, but by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, hearts, and minds.