Romans 12.1-2
Total Makeover
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.
The text Romans 12.1-2 is a natural bridge between the two major sections of Paul’s letter.
In light of what he has just said in the first 11 chapters about the mercies of God, he now
makes an appeal to the Roman believers to live their lives in accordance with the grace they
have received through faith. This pattern is common for Paul. He frequently follows
theological exposition with practical advice for godly living. Sometimes, as in the case of
the Roman epistle or the Ephesian letter, the opening chapters lay the foundation for the
application that concludes the epistle. Sometimes Paul will do this with just a couple
sentences. The following examples illustrate this technique: the importance of the
resurrection of Jesus found in 1 Corinthians 15.1-57 is followed by an instruction to stand
firm in the faith (1 Corinthians 15.58); in 2 Corinthians 1.3-4a Paul writes, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all our affliction, which is followed by the application of this truth in 1.4b, so that we
may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are
comforted by God (note too: Ephesians 2 and 3 the church’s heritage in Christ is mirrored with
unity of the church body in Christ in Ephesians 4; also Colossians 2 which describes the
believer’s life in Christ is coupled with the believer’s responsibility to die to his earthly nature).
Paul’s theory of Christian theology is always balanced with in the practice of Christian
ethics.
THE MERCIES OF GOD
Paul’s exhortation is something more than a “request” and something less than a
“command.” The authority of his appeal stems from his role as the mediator of God’s truth
and is based on the mercies of God that he made plain to them in the preceding chapters:
Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their
disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also
may now receive mercy. For he has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all
(Romans 11.30-32). It is because of these great mercies that Christians ought to present
themselves to God and live lives commensurate with their faith (cp. Douglas Moo, Romans,
pp. 749-50). The Christian is not constrained against his will to behave as a holy person,
though the inward working of the Holy Spirit will urge him to live in a manner pleasing to
God (Philippians 2.12-13). The ever-present awareness of God’s abundance mercy presses
itself upon the consciousness of the believer and theology motivates him to give himself to
God. “Acts of severity are rather forced from God; he does not afflict willingly
(Lamentations 3.33). The bee naturally gives honey, it stings only when it is provoked; so
God does not punish till he can bear no longer. ‘So that the Lord could bear no longer,
because of the evil of your doings’ (Jeremiah 44.22)” (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p.
93).
Paul has carefully demonstrated that God’s mercy is free. There is nothing in the life of any
individual that merits the mercy of God. One may easily force God to punish him, but
there is nothing he can do to compel God to love him (Romans 3.10-11, 23). God’s love is
never a matter of compulsion; it is freely given (Hosea 14.4). “Every link in the chain of
salvation is wrought and interwoven with free grace. Election is free, ‘He hath chosen us in
him, according to the good pleasure of his will.’ Eph i.4. Justification is free. ‘Being
justified freely by his grace.’ Rom iii.24. Salvation is free. ‘According to his mercy he saved
us.’ Titus iii.5. Say not then, I am unworthy; for mercy is free. If God should show mercy
to such only as are worthy, he would show none at all” (Watson, pp. 95-96). Because the
mercy of God is great and free the believer ought to be very careful not to abuse it. God’s
mercy is like the sweetness of the flower for those who fear God. Those who persist in sin
abuse mercy and make it their enemy; when mercy is abused it becomes the agent of God’s
wrath. “Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not.
God’s mercy is a holy mercy; where it pardons it heals” (Watson, p. 97).
SACRIFICE
The language of sacrifice used by Paul stresses the importance of believers giving themselves
unreservedly in service to the Lord. As Creator, God has a legitimate claim on the life of
every person, but as the author of salvation he has a further claim on the life of the
believer. The Christian’s life was redeemed through the blood sacrifice of God’s Son
(Romans 3.23-25; 5.9; 1 Corinthians 7.23; Ephesians 1.7; Galatians 3.13). Having said
this, one must not mistake Paul’s meaning; he is not implying that the believer’s sacrifice is
a means of balancing the books, so to speak. Quite to the contrary, no sacrifice can repay
the debt owed to the Lord: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his
counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him
and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11.34-36). The image of a
living sacrifice is used because it is the most reasonable thing a Christian can do in light of
the grace he has received. “Paul uses sacrificial language to urge believers to give themselves
wholly to God. They are to present their bodies as living, holy and well-pleasing sacrifices
to God. The word bodies (sōmata) designates the whole person, signifying that every
dimension of our lives should be under God’s dominion. Believers are a ‘living sacrifice’
because they have died with Christ and will be raised with him (Rom 6:3-5)” (Thomas
Schreiner, Paul: Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ, p. 252).
THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD
By presenting his body (whole person) sacrificially to the Lord, the Christian can escape
being conformed to the pattern of this world (present age). The moral laissez-faire of
2
Roman society made it difficult for Christians to avoid being tempted by every manner of
sinful behavior. So, while the Christian is a new creation in Christ, he is not immune to
the corrupt influences of world. But, as Paul has demonstrated in the opening section of
his letter, Christ delivers the believer from the death-producing grip of this present age.
Now that he is born again in Christ, the believer must take pains not to conform to the
pattern of the age, but to continue in the work that has been begun in him by the renewal
of his mind (cp. 1 Corinthians 2.6, 8, 16; Galatians 1.4; Philippians 2.6).
The perception of worldliness is often perceived of as some form of immorality, such as
profane language, stealing, lying, avarice, sexual impropriety and the like. However, the
greatest threat to the believer is not in his being tempted to violate some moral absolute
(i.e., the ten commandments), but in the more subtle undermining of his Christian
worldview. For example, most Christians are receptive to the appeal to be tolerant. But the
word tolerance is often used as meaning something more than forbearance. It is has
become of late synonymous for plurality or diversity (a buzzword for homosexuality). The
rise of modernity in the 20th gave birth to pluralism, privatization and secularism to
mention but a few of the more understated threats to a Christian worldview. To illustrate
my point, observe that secularism is a philosophy while secularization is a process. The
Christian often decries secularism while he is blinded to the process of secularization
taking place in his own life (cp. 1 Corinthians 7.31).
Though technology has done much to ease the burdens of many, the soul of man remains
in state of crisis. A brief look at the history of the 20th century is enough to dispel any
thought that mankind has advanced morally. The century was witness to two world wars,
numerous catastrophic international conflicts, the killing fields of Cambodia,
Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, an epidemic of drug addictions, a marked increase in
juvenile suicide rates, global addiction to pornography, rampant immorality and the
dissolution of the family unit, to mention but a few of the failures of the modern
consciousness. The social fabric of all societies appears to be collapsing. Thomas Oden
attributes this to at least four things.
Autonomous individualism, which focuses on the detached individual as a selfsufficient, sovereign self. … Narcissistic hedonism best symbolized the waning sexual
revolution. … We are now having to live with the consequences of the sexual and
family devastation brought about by egocentric hedonism. It is visible in living color
whenever one turns on the television for what is called entertainment, which turns out
to be fixated on sex and violence. The social fruits of unconstrained hedonism are
loneliness, divorce, and the substitution of sexual experimentation for intimacy.
Reductive naturalism is the view that reduces all forms of knowing to laboratory
experimentation, empirical observation, or quantitative analysis. … Absolute moral
relativism views all moral values as merely relative to the changing, processing
3
determinants of human cultures. (Thomas Oden, “On Not Whoring After the Spirit of
the Age¸” No God but God, ed. Guiness & Seel, Chicago, Moody press, 1992, pp. 193194).
TRANSFORMATION AND THE RENEWAL OF THE MIND
The transformation that is to take place in the Christian’s life has a cognitive element to it.
“Paul does not envisage a mindless emotionalism, but a deeply intelligent approach to life,
as characteristic of the Christian who has been renewed by the Holy Spirit. The term mind
is not confined to intellectual pursuits (it includes an important moral element), but it
certainly embraces them” (Leon Morris, Romans, p. 435). Moreover, the evangelical
Christian restricts his or her ability to be a change agent when he thoughtlessly capitulates
to the unspoken “rules” of the age. Beyond that, his ignorance of the Bible, theology and
Christian history within the framework of classical orthodoxy renders him defenseless
against the successive tides of godless philosophies or faddish theologies in the guise of the
new Christian orthodoxy. Every generation has its own voguish pedagogue who attempts to
update the gospel story. A few years ago Robert Schuler made a futile attempt to start a
new theological reformation with his book on possibility thinking (thankfully, it was so
poorly conceived that it was easily dismissed). Other attacks on the historic faith, like
process theology or open theism are not as easily rebutted.
APPROVING THE WILL OF GOD
If a Christian wishes to defend himself against the encroachment of modernity and
postmodernism, I think he would do well to consider three things. First, he needs to be
able to articulate exactly what it is that he believes. Many of the historic creeds and
confessions of the church are profitable for accomplishing this. Secondly, he needs to
meditate on the things he has confessed to be true. A disciplined Christian life ideally
includes time and space for contemplation (Psalm 1). Finally, it is not enough merely to
recite words of faith, a parrot can be taught to do that. The believer’s life needs to conform
to the truth of his confession. By this he attests to the good, acceptable and perfect will of
God.
4