“I 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.
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 servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God."
In the first verse of the epistle to the Romans,
we are introduced to the man
who was called by God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be the apostle to the Gentiles -
set apart for the gospel of God
This bond-servant who was set apart from birth
by God's grace,
is the man who personally authored the thirteen epistles that
are specifically directed towards Church-age believers today.
As a slave of Christ,
Paul willingly delighted to serve the Lord
and submit to Him in everything.
Called by God as an apostle,
Paul had been sent by the highest authority
and commission with a peculiar service.
Indeed, he uniquely
fulfilled the singular requirement of an apostle,
which was to SEE the resurrected Lord,
on the road to Damascus.
As a preacher of the gospel of grace to the Gentiles,
which was given uniquely to Him by revelation from God,
should we not pay particular heed to all he teaches us in all his epistles on how to live godly in Christ Jesus?
We may not have been called in the same way as Paul,
but we can follow
his example of love, reverence, and
devotion to Christ.
We can search Paul's writings so that we too
may know Christ and the power of His Resurrection
and the fellowship of His suffering.
We too can live our life for Christ
in the place where God has planted us
as we wait for His any day appearing.
We too should learn from Paul:
"The servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God."
The phrase “transformed by the renewing of the mind” is found in Romans 12:2. Chapter 12 marks the transition in that epistle from the apostle Paul’s theological teaching to his practical teaching. The book of Romans is probably the closest thing in the Bible to a systematic theology. Paul did not found the church at Rome, but he had every intention of visiting that church on his way to Spain.
As a result, Paul wrote this epistle as a way of introducing himself
to that congregation and to
give them an overview of the gospel and
what it means in the lives of believers.
After teaching the great doctrine regarding the
gospel of God’s righteousness that is ours
through faith in Christ in Romans chapters 1—11,
Paul begins to exhort us to godly living.
How are we to live in light of the saving power of the gospel?
That is what Romans 12—16 aims to teach.
The practical section of Romans begins with a great “therefore.”
Seeing all that God did on our behalf, therefore live like this.
The first of Paul’s great exhortations is to be renewed in our minds:
“I 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. 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”
(Romans 12:1–2).
The phrase “the mercies of God”
refers to all of what has preceded in chapters 1—11. The exhortation that Paul presents is that since we have been
the
gracious recipients of God’s great mercies,
we are to be “living sacrifices” to God.
How do we do this?
We are living sacrifices to God by
not conforming to this world,
but by being transformed by the renewal of our minds.
This exhortation really serves as a summary statement of all that follows.
A living sacrifice to God is one who does not conform,
but is transformed.
We are not to be conformed to this world. Paul is using
the word world here to refer to the
spirit of the age.
In other words, world refers to the popular worldview that
rejects God and His revelation.
As unbelievers, we are naturally conformed to the world (Ephesians 2:1–3).
As believers, we are no longer conformed to this world because
we no longer belong to the spirit of this age.
We have been translated from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of
God’s beloved Son
(Colossians 1:13).
Therefore, rather than continuing to conform to this world, we are to be transformed by having our minds renewed.
It is interesting to note that Paul says that we must be transformed by the renewing of our “minds.” The mind is the key to the Christian life. The reason why non-Christians do not respond to Christian truth is that they cannot discern spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 2:14). The gospel is a call for the unbeliever to repent of his sin and embrace Christ by faith. The Greek word translated “repentance” carries the notion of a change of mind.
Our thinking must be changed (transformed) from old, ungodly ways of thinking into new, godly ways of thinking. What we know in our minds to be true forms a conviction in our hearts of that truth, and that conviction in our hearts translates into action. Therefore, we must first renew our minds.
The only way to replace the error of the world’s way of thinking is to replace it with God’s truth, and the only infallible source of God’s truth is His revealed Word, the Bible. Transformation through renewed minds comes as believers expose themselves to God’s Word through the faithful exposition of it each week in church, personal Bible study, and group Bible study. A solid church that believes in preaching the Word, reading the Word, and singing the Word is invaluable in helping us renew our minds.
There are no shortcuts. There is no magical formula for renewing our minds.
We must fill our minds with God’s Word.
As Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth;
your word is truth” (John 17:17).
Systematic theology is an important tool
in helping us to understand and teach the Bible in an organized manner.
Systematic theology is the division of theology into systems that explain its various areas. For example, many books of the Bible give information about the angels. No one book gives all the information about the angels. Systematic theology takes all the information about angels from all the books of the Bible and organizes it into a system called angelology. That is what systematic theology is all about—organizing the teachings of the Bible into categorical systems.
Theology Proper or Paterology is the study of God the Father. Christology is the study of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pneumatology is the study of God the Holy Spirit. Bibliology is the study of the Bible. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Eschatology is the study of the end times. Angelology is the study of angels. Christian Demonology is the study of demons from a Christian perspective. Christian Anthropology is the study of humanity. Hamartiology is the study of sin.
In addition to systematic theology, there are other ways that theology can be divided. Biblical theology is the study of a certain book (or books) of the Bible and emphasizing the different aspects of theology it focuses on. For example, the Gospel of John is very Christological since it focuses so much on the deity of Christ (John 1:1, 14; 8:58; 10:30; 20:28). Historical theology is the study of doctrines and how they have developed over the centuries of the Christian church. Dogmatic theology is the study of the doctrines of certain Christian groups that have systematized doctrine—for example, Calvinistic theology and dispensational theology. Contemporary theology is the study of doctrines that have developed or come into focus in recent times. No matter what method of theology is studied,
what is important is that theology is studied.
My Prayer
Lord, Thank You for revealing the mystery of the Church and
opening up the light of the glorious gospel Christ
to all who believe in Christ Jesus as Saviour.
In Jesus' name we pray, AMEN.