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Grace Bible Church

4000 E. Collins Rd.   P.O. Box #3762   Gillette, WY  82717   (307) 686-1516

 

- Preaching the Living WORD through the Written WORD - 2 Tim 4:2 -

 

 

 

 

2007 GBC THEME

Renewing Our Lives And Minds In Christ” - Part 3

(Rom 12:1-2)

Grace Bible Church, Gillette, Wyoming

Pastor Daryl Hilbert

 

(Listen - Part 3a MP3 or Windows)

(Listen - Part 3b  MP3 or Windows)

 

I.        THE BELIEVER’S LIVING SACRIFICE

II.      THE BELIEVER’S SPIRITUAL SERVICE OF WORSHIP

III.   THE BELIEVER’S NON-CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD

 

IV.    THE BELIEVER’S TRANSFORMATION

 

A.      Commitment to be a Living Sacrifice

 

1.       Paul has exhorted the believer to commit his life to Christ by be a living sacrifice unto God to do whatever, wherever, and whenever.

2.       The believer is to do so as his rationally spiritual service-worship.

3.       Paul further explains that a believer cannot at the same time allow himself to be conformed to this present evil system.

4.       Instead, the believer is to be spiritually transformed by the renewing of his mind through the Word of God.

 

B.      Spiritual Metamorphosis

 

1.       Believers are not to be conformed to the world but in contrast (allà), are to be transformed into a Christ-like living sacrifice. This transformation is a believer’s spiritual metamorphosis.

a)       “Transformed” comes from the Greek word, metamorphóō, which literally means to change from one form into another. In biology, metamorphosis means, a change in the form and often habits of an animal during normal development after the embryonic stage (i.e. maggot into a fly; a caterpillar into a moth, or a tadpole into a frog etc.). (American Heritage Dictionary)

b)       In Classical Greek, the dominant motif of the word was used of mythological gods who changed into earthly or perceptible appearance.

c)       In the New Testament, it was used of the Transfiguration of Christ, where Christ’s earthly appearance was transformed into his divine glorious appearance (Mt 17:2; Mk 9:2; cp. Lk 9:29).

d)       However, in Rom 12:2, the idea of transformation refers to the internal process whereby our inner redeemed nature is increasingly manifested in the believer’s daily life.

(1)     The moment a sinner places his faith in Christ, he becomes a new creature in Christ with a new redeemed nature (2Co 5:17).

(2)     The Scriptures call this regeneration by the Holy Spirit (Tit 3:5, lit. paliggenesía - “born again”; cp. Joh 3:3). Because of regeneration and the believer’s new nature, he is now able to have victory over sin.

(3)     Yet, the believer’s new nature is not manifested without a struggle with the sin nature, the world, and the devil.

(4)     The spiritual metamorphosis takes place when the believer’s new nature continues to become more prevalent than his old nature with its practices.

 

C.      Renewal of the Mind

 

1.       On the one hand, the spiritual metamorphosis is a divine process, which God, through the Holy Spirit, performs in the believer (Phil 1:6).

2.       But, on the other hand, the believer is responsible not only to cooperate but also to participate in his sanctification (Phil 2:12-13).

3.       This is emphatically evident in the fact that Paul commands the believer to be transformed (metamorhóusthe - pres pass imper from metamorphóō; literally, “You must keep on being transformed”).

4.       It is also evident by the fact that Paul tells the believer to be transformed by the “renewing of the mind.”

5.       It is the believer’s co-responsibility to renew his mind so that spiritual transformation takes place.

6.       Renewing (anakaínōsis from aná - up, again, i.e. “re” & kainós - new in character or nature; here in instrumental case) the mind is …

a)       [It is] the activity of re-thinking with God’s thoughts and point of view. These new thoughts are becoming of the believer’s new nature and not the world’s point of view (Isa 55:8-12; Col 3:1-2).

b)       [It is] the renewal of thought and will which Christians constantly need if they are to show by their moral conduct that they belong to the new aeon and are members of the new humanity. (TDNT)

c)       [It is] the gradual conforming of the man more and more to that new spiritual world into which he has been introduced, and in which he now lives and moves; the restoration of the divine image; and in all this so far from being passive, he must be a fellow-worker with God. (Trench)

 

D.      Practical Application

 

1.       Since the command to be transformed is a present imperative, renewing of the mind is accomplished in the believer by the “continuous” saturation and meditation on the Word of God.

a)       The outward transformation is effected by an inner change in the mind, and the Spirit’s means of transforming our minds is the Word. (MacArthur in loc.)

b)       God’s own Word is the instrument His own Holy Spirit uses to renew our minds, which, in turn, He uses to transform our living. (ibid.)

2.       Scripture attests to the continuous activity of meditating on the Word of God for the believer.

a)       The believer is to meditate on the Scriptures continuously (Ps 1:2-3; Josh 1:8; Ps 119:97; Col 3:16).

(1)     The biblical view of “meditation” is not the contemporary idea of emptying the mind. Rather, it is filling the mind; filling it with God’s Word.

(2)     One of the Hebrew words for “meditation” is hagah, which means to moan, growl, utter, speak, or muse. It is the idea of speaking to oneself or thinking to oneself as in the onomatopoetic word, “hmmmm.”

(3)     The believer is to meditate, contemplate, think to himself, and speak to himself in the Scriptures continually.

b)       The believer is to store up the Scriptures in order to gain victory over sin (Mt 4:4; Ps 119:9, 11, 101; Ps 37:31).

c)       The believer is to treasure the Scriptures as a source of God’s wisdom (Pr 2:1-6; Ps 119:98-100).

d)       The believer is to hear and remember the Scriptures to grow in faith (Rom 10:17).

e)       The believer is to respond to temptation with Scripture (Mt 4:4, cp. 1-11; Note: There are some 54 quotations of Scripture by Jesus recorded in the Bible.).

3.       Practical Steps to Renewing the mind:

a)       Choose an area of struggle or need in your life.

b)       Find a section(s) of Scripture dealing with that particular struggle or need (See List).

c)       Memorize and meditate on those Scriptures

d)       Discern and apply principles of Scripture to your life and the lives of others.

 

 

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