The Secrets of Holy Living Notes Rom
Getting spiritual victory Rom. 12:1-2 Notes
John MacArthur #1-- “The key to spiritual victory and true happiness is not in trying to get all we can from God but in giving all that we are and have to Him. Countless thousands of people today, including many genuine Christians, flock to various churches, seminars, and conferences in search of personal benefits—practical, emotional, and spiritual—that they hope to receive. They do just the opposite of what Paul so plainly emphasizes in Romans 12:1–2. In this forceful and compassionate exhortation, the apostle does not focus on what more we need to receive from God but on what we are to give Him. The key to a productive and satisfying Christian life is not in getting more but in giving all.
True worship includes many things besides the obvious ones of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. It includes serving God by serving others in His name, especially fellow believers. Sacrificial worship includes “doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:15–16; cf. Phil. 4:14). But above all else, our supreme act of worship is to offer ourselves wholly and continually to the Lord as living sacrifices.
The commands spelled out in these verses can only be carried out by His children. The unregenerate person can’t give God his body, soul and spirit because he has no desire to do so. The Bible says doing these things to the lost man is foolishness.
Conformed- The verb itself is passive and imperative, the passive indicating that conformation is something we allow to be done to us, the imperative indicating a command, not a suggestion. This word means an outward expression that does not coincide with what’s on the inside. It is used of masquerading or putting on an act. It literally means we are not to masquerade as a worldly person. New Testament scholar Kenneth Wuest paraphrased this clause: “Stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world, an expression which does not come from, nor is representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. John MacArthur-- It is not uncommon for unbelievers to mask themselves as Christians. Unfortunately, it also is not uncommon for Christians to wear the world’s masks. They want to enjoy the world’s entertainment, the world’s fashions, the world’s vocabulary, the world’s music, and many of the world’s attitudes—even when those things clearly do not conform to the standards of God’s Word. That sort of living is wholly unacceptable to God.
Transformed- verb is passive, imperative. Passive indicating something we allow to be done to us.
Renewing of our mind—a mind saturated by and controlled by the word of God.
That ye may prove-- That is to say, when a believer’s mind is transformed, his thinking ability, moral reasoning, and spiritual understanding are able to properly assess everything, and to accept only what conforms to the will of God. Our lives can prove what the will of God is only by doing those things that are good and acceptable and perfect to Him.
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