How Can You Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind?

Last updated on: August 30, 2017 at 12:20 pm by Jack Wellman

How Can You Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind? 2017-08-30T12:20:54-05:00 Jack Wellman

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How can we be transformed by the renewing of our minds?

Don’t Be Conformed

God doesn’t desire more religious people; God desires more disciples after Jesus’ own heart, but we can’t be His disciple without being regenerated by the Spirit of God. When the power of God’s Word enters into a human being, and they yield to the Holy Spirit’s illuminating Scripture, the very real power of the gospel, found in the Word of God, can transform that being. The Apostle Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16), and elsewhere, he writes that, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1st Cor 1:18), so how can we avoid being conformed to this world? The word conformed comes from the Greek word “syschēmatizō” and means “to conform one’s self to another’s pattern,” so Paul tells the believer’s at Rome, “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2a). The word “conformed” is a combination of two words and comes from the Old French word “confourmen,” and from this verb we get “conform,” so con means “together,” and form means “to form” or “shape,” so Paul is saying, do not be shaped together like the world, or do not be molded or conformed to the world’s image. Put another way, we could say, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its image,” so how can we avoid being conformed into the image of the world without Christ?

Being Transformed

The only possible way to avoid being conformed into the image of this world is to be transformed by the renewing or renewal of the mind. Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2). Again, there is no transformation possible until the Spirit of God quickens someone to new life because dead men can’t raise themselves (Eph 2:1, 5). We must become new creations in Jesus Christ before we can even hope to transform ourselves into the image of Christ (2nd Cor 6:17). After conversion, we are told “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). The Bible is clear what reasonable services we are to do for Jesus Christ and it’s found throughout Scripture (Matt 25:34-39; 28:18-20; James 1:27), and when we do these, it is as if it were done to Him (Matt 25:40). These works were laid out for us to do long before we even existed (Eph 2:10), and doing what Jesus commands us to do allows us to test and discern what God’s will is, and what is acceptable to God (Rom 12:2), and what is not (Matt 25:41-46). A renewed mind transforms our life to do good works for God’s glory and to discern whether something is God’s will or not. Before this can ever happen, Paul is clear that a person must acknowledge that “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience writes” (Eph 2:1-2), however “even when we were dead in our trespasses [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:5). Doing things for God’s glory is what it means to be a living sacrifice.

The Image of God

When Philip asked to see God the Father, “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’” (John 14:9)? Paul says Jesus, “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15), and the author of Hebrews adds, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3), so “whoever sees me sees him who sent me” (John 12:45). Did you catch that? Jesus is the “exact imprint of” God’s nature, meaning God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Every student strives to be like his or her teacher. That’s what Jesus said, and if we desire to be His disciple, we will do what He did and obey what He commands. Since Jesus always did the will of the Father, when we do the will of Jesus, we are simultaneously doing the will of the Father. That’s a transformed life with a renewed mind that seeks to do God’s will! All those who saw Jesus saw what the Father was like, but the Apostle Paul reminds us, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18), so today we must see God in the Bible, although we rationally know that He exists (Psalm 14:1, 19:1-2; Rom 1:18-20).

Conclusion

The final snapshot, if you will, of a transformed mind is looking at the mind of Christ. This is the mind of God; dying for wicked, ungodly, enemies of God (Rom 5:6-10), and doing “nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:3-8). Renew your mind daily with prayer, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, to do the things of God, and all for the glory of God. That just might transform other people’s lives too.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is host of Spiritual Fitness and also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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