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“THE RENEWAL OF YOUR MIND” (2)
(Romans 12:1-2)
SUBJECT:
F.C.F:
PROPOSITION:
INTRODUCTION:
A. There’s a rather well-known story about a
U.S. company that built a factory in a third-world
country where there was no shortage of workers.
After they had trained their employees, they put them
to work, and the first Friday handed out their
paychecks. Nobody came back on Monday. Why
not? Because in one week the workers had earned
more than they normally made in a year. They had all
of their needs covered for a long time—so why go
back to work? Do you know how the company solved
this problem? They distributed catalogs from a major
department store. Soon, the people were all back to
work, eagerly trying to earn more to spend more to
accumulate more stuff.
Advertisers are very shrewd when it comes to
human nature. Their basic ploy is to intensify some
perceived inadequacy and then promise to fill it.
“You’re still dealing with that two-year old car,
laptop, tablet, Smartphone, or house? Isn’t time you
stepped up to the latest like everyone else?” They
know how to manipulate the worldly pressure to
conform, even if it is only to get you to buy more
stuff.
B. But as we saw last time from Romans 12:2,
we must realize and reject the world’s coercion to
conform. Obviously there can be no transformation if
you stay the same. And last time we tried to come to
grips with the intense pressure we face from the
world. Without the help of Christ, we are enslaved to
the world, to its self-centered and God-denying
attitudes and expectations. Many years ago I was
leading a youth group in my home church, and I
wanted to demonstrate the pervasive and inescapable
influence of the world. This was in the late 1970s and
it was very easy to do. I simply pointed out that of the
15 or so people who had gathered, every single one
was wearing blue jeans and white sneakers, including
me. The world had dictated our fashion, and we all
obediently complied.
You say, “Well, it’s not like that anymore.
We’re into individuality now. Everyone expresses
their individuality.” But think about what you just
said, “Everyone expresses their individuality.” So
now the world dictates that we all express our
individuality, and we all obediently comply with the
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world. Like everyone else, we try to create our own
style, look, and favorite playlist. And we need to
recognize and repudiate the world’s pervasive
influence, what David F. Wells described as “that
system of values and beliefs, behaviors and
expectations, in any given culture that have as their
center the fallen human being [the flesh] and relegate
to their periphery any thoughts about God.
Worldliness is what makes sin seem normal in any
age and righteousness seem odd.” (God in the Wasteland, 29)
C. Our second movement, then, is to attack
the source of these worldly attitudes and expectations
which lurk in our hearts, and that is by the continual
renewing of the mind. That’s the only way we can
make any real progress in being transformed into the
image of Christ. “1I appeal to you therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do 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.”
I. WE MUST GET TO THE “HEART” OF THE
MATTER.
A. Our target is transformation at the deepest
level, what the Bible refers to as the “heart.” In the
Hebrew that’s “leb” (layv) and the Greek is “kardia.”
Don’t mistake the heart for the emotions. We often
talk as though the heart referred to our feelings. So a
song or a film or a story “touched my heart,” we say,
meaning it stirred my emotions. For the biblical
writers, the seat of the emotions was a bit lower in
the anatomy, not the heart but the bowels or the gut.
B. Rather, the heart is the center, who you are
at the core, the inner person as a whole. And the heart
is either enslaved to self or surrendered to Christ.
And our goal, then, is that increasingly the heart
submits to Christ, passively accepting what he
permits and actively obeying what he commands. It’s
at this level that the transformation into the image of
Christ takes place. The problem is that we are all
born with a heart that is completely devoted to sin
and self, what the theologians describe as “total
depravity.” We see this early in the biblical record in
Genesis 6:5: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every intention
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of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually.”
You say, “Yes, but when Paul describes this
great transformation into the character of Christ in
Romans 12:1-2, he does not mention the heart but
rather the mind. What’s the relationship between the
heart and the mind?”
C. That’s a great question. And the simple
answer is that the mind is one of the powers of the
heart, along with the affections and the will. You
recall that our Lord Jesus declared that the greatest
commandment is that we “love the Lord our God
with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.” These
are not four distinct components of the inner person.
Rather the heart possesses these three powers of the
soul or affections, the mind or intellect, and the
strength or the will. When the heart is transformed,
the whole person is transformed as well which
involves our thinking, our feeling, and our choosing
and doing, the mind, affections, and the will.
But the mind is primary. Paul declares: “2 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.”
II. WE MUST REACH THE HEART THROUGH
THE MIND.
A. God reaches the heart through the mind,
through his truth. That’s why our Lord Jesus was
primarily known not as a miracle worker but as a
preacher and teacher. He came to preach the good
news of the impending Kingdom of God. He spent
much of his teaching time correcting false teaching:
“You have heard that it was said, but I say to you….”
Our transformation into the character of Christ is a
transformation of the heart. It involves the whole
person, but it begins with truth, truth that is, of
course, aimed at the mind.
The mind is the doorway to the heart. The
transformation of the heart is effected by the renewal
of your mind. And this is evident from the first
eleven chapters of Romans. In this first great section
of his epistle, Paul, all along, has been addressing the
mind, reasoning with us in the great truths of God.
B. In the first three chapters we found the
disturbing truth that God has consigned the whole
world to judgment because no one is righteous before
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him. And then in chapters 4 and 5, just when all was
lost, God intervened by creating a righteousness for
us by which we could be right with God, a
righteousness achieved by his Son. Paul went on to
explain that this was God’s plan all along,
foreshadowed in the Old Testament but made evident
in Christ. This righteousness not only qualifies us for
heaven when we die. The truth is that when we are
born again, we die right now to sin and self and begin
to live for Christ. And we appropriate this gift of
righteousness by turning from sin and self and
trusting in Christ. What’s more, God also gives us his
Holy Spirit who indwells us and inwardly assures us
that we are the children of God, that we have been
named heirs in Christ, and that nothing can separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
So, Paul explains, the Holy Spirit uses these
great truths to renew our minds. The Spirit drives
these truths deep within, which also drives out the
folly and self-deception we’ve been operating on,
replacing ignorance and error with knowledge and
reality.
C. But these truths are so remarkable and
compelling that they also strike a chord with our
affections, igniting our hope. And these deep
affections of joy and gratitude and love for Christ are
then fuel for the will to choose and to act upon the
truth, propelling us into a new life. So this
transformation of the heart begins when God’s truth
engages the mind, which enflames the affections,
which empowers the will. In this truth we see clearly
the coaxing allure of the world and its futility, its
utterly empty promises. And we grasp with wonder
the glory of Christ and his promises to us, and
eagerly pursue a new life of faith in Christ and
obedience to his better way.
If we aim only at the mind and simply try to
get our doctrine, our words straight, we wind up in
magical religion thinking that theological formulas
are all that matter. If aim only for the affections,
seeking deeply-moving, emotional experiences above
all, then we end up in mystical religion, and equate
godliness with deep feelings. And if we aim only at
the will and moral reformation, then we devolve into
moralism and pridefully think that our superior
behavior is what really impresses God. All three of
these false religions: magic, mysticism, and
moralism, do not reach the heart. They leave the heart
still enslaved to the sinful self. The sinful self may be
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able to hide itself quite well. It may be able to carry
on a detailed theological discussion. It may also feel
very good. And it may achieve some outward moral
reform, mostly so it can then look down on others.
But there has been no real transformation, because
God’s truth has not been allowed to pierce the heart
creating true love for Christ and grief and hatred for
sin. The false believer can easily fool others. Worst
of all, he can even more easily fool himself.
III. WE MUST BE CONTINUALLY RENEWED
BY THE WORD OF GOD.
A. Only the alien Word of God in the adept
hands of the Spirit of God has the power to pierce the
heart. Only this Word can truly engage the mind,
which enflames the affections, which empowers the
will for faith, repentance, and obedient service.
B. And, alas, we face a serious problem in
this regard. For a long time there has been a serious
defection from a high view of the Scriptures as the
Word of God. Both the authority and the infallibility
of the Scriptures have been under continual assault
for over 300 years. It began among the unbelieving
intellectuals in Europe. In time it captivated many in
the mainline denominations. It made more headway
through the development of a perspective known as
Neo-Orthodoxy. And now it has arrived on our
doorstep in many formerly evangelical churches.
The lingering heresy of Neo-orthodoxy tried
to drive a wedge between Jesus and his Bible,
declaring that the Bible is not the Word of God, only
Jesus is the Word of God, which is perhaps one of the
most ignorant and absurd statements every uttered.
But Jesus is not like a crooked politician today who
says one thing, and then denies it tomorrow. The
Bible is his Bible. There is no incompatibility
between the Scriptures and Jesus, for it is his own
Word. Every word of the Bible is the word of Christ.
Jesus himself affirmed every word, every “jot and
tittle,” that is every stroke of every letter of the Bible.
Do you know what that means? So, for example, a
capital “A” is composed of three strokes. Not only is
the every letter in the Bible the very Word of God
which shall never pass away, but each stroke of every
letter is the Word of God.
Every letter in every word in every clause in
every sentence in every paragraph in every chapter in
every book and the whole thing altogether is the
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Word of God. Jesus, the Son of God, regularly
quoted the Old Testament and stood completely on
its authority. He corrected his detractors explaining
that they erred because they did not know the
Scriptures or the power of God. He authorized his
apostles as his official spokesmen and promised that
his Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth.
C. And you understand why this is so
important. Without the renewal of the mind, we are
lost, hopelessly trapped and enslaved by the preloaded worldly wisdom of the self. Only this alien
word from God can possibly confront and overturn
the thoroughly self-serving lies we have ingested and
based our lives upon. And if we, like Eve in the
Garden, start to doubt that “God really said” these
words, that the Bible is not simply good advice to
take or to leave but the very Word of God for which
we must give an account, then the power of sin and
self-deception will be just too strong for us. If we do
not accord the Scriptures their rightful weight and
place as the infallible and authoritative Word of God,
then that Word will never fully engage the mind and
so will not enflame the affections and so will not
empower the will for faith, repentance, and obedient
service to God.
CONCLUSION
The heart does not come into the world
neutral or inclined to the good or “basically good.” I
need to warn you that this error was the teaching of
the ancient heretic named Pelagius. He was
successfully opposed and refuted by St. Augustine.
He is the false teacher who was most frequently
condemned by the whole church. And he taught that
Adam’s sin had no lingering effect on our race,
except that of a bad example. Pelagius taught that
every baby is born into the world untainted by
Adam’s sin, neutral, and fully capable of perfect
obedience if he really tried.
But God’s Word is clear: the heart enters the
world completely devoted to itself with a murderous
hatred of all rivals, especially God himself. It is
utterly incapable of doing the works that God
requires. And even after we come to faith in Christ,
we need the continual renewal of the mind according
to the Word of God. If that slows or ceases, the sinful
self regains strength, reasserts his lies, and resists
transformation. We need the continual renewal of our
minds according to the Word of God. 
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