RESET (W. 2 - Romans 12:2)
Notes
Transcript
RESET: Transforming Your Life
RESET: Transforming Your Life
“Acceptable unto God.” -
think about the contrast. we were once dead in sin, and far from God… children of wrath.
But now we can do something acceptable to God.
“which is your reasonable service.” - rational service
1. Renounce the World
1. Renounce the World
Now, Hayden, what does it mean to “renounce” something?
It means to “Formally reject or abandon something.”
Renouncing something is understanding that it has no value to you, and you don’t believe in it.
It’s valuing something else more!
Some people renounce relationships.
Some people renounce faith.
As Christians, we should renounce the ways of the world...
So, there’s two things i want you to notice about the first part of this verse.
a) The Display of the World
a) The Display of the World
Look back down at verse 1 - “And be not conformed
“And be not conformed to this world...”
“Age” carries with it a sense of the beliefs, the philosophies, the methodologies, and the strategies of the fallen world in which we live. It is not just the world and its people in their fallen state. It is the worldviews and practices that derive from the fallen state that define the age in which humans live at any time in history.
what did Paul say about “the age?”
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
b) the Defense from the WOrld
b) the Defense from the WOrld
External change
The word conformed (Greek suschematizo) refers to an outward, superficial change. The fashions of this world which are based on the values of secular humanism are to be avoided by the Christian. Probably, a good way to say it is, “Be not fashioned after the changing values of this world (or age).”
Superficial change. You may look different by following the world’s wisdom, teaching, etc. But you haven’t changed.
2. Renewed by The Word
2. Renewed by The Word
“But be ye transformed...”
Internal change
“By renewing your mind”
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
And what offensive measure keeps the believer from being conformed to this present evil age? The consistent and deliberate renewing of the mind. To make new (Paul here uses the noun, renewal, anakainosis, instead of the verb anakainoo, to make new) is a combination of “new” (kainos) and “again” (ana). Paul uses the verb form in 2 Corinthians 4:16 where he says “we are being renewed day by day,” and in Colossians 3:10 where he says that the new self “is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
Boa, K., & Kruidenier, W. (2000). Romans (Vol. 6, p. 365). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
“New Again”
3. Reveal God’s Will
3. Reveal God’s Will
“that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
We can know and discern God’s will.
“prove” means discover and or approve.
Many Christians wonder, “what is God’s will for my life?”
It is the will of God—his standards, his desires, his motives, his values, his practices—which gradually pull the monarch butterfly of the believer out of the world’s cocoon into which he or she has been squeezed. It is a knowledge and practice of the will of God that leads to spiritual growth and maturity in the Christian’s life.
Boa, K., & Kruidenier, W. (2000). Romans (Vol. 6, p. 366). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Two ways to read “good, acceptable, well-pleasing and perfect”
1. If they modify God’s will, the meaning is: the will of God is good, well=pleasing to the believer.
2. If they tell what the will of God is, they mean: God’s will is for us to do what is good, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect. This is what most believe.