Today’s passage from Romans contains much spiritual food for study. I want to focus on the first two verses. These two verses are very important as we seek to grow as Christians.
In the days of the Old Testament, the people of God would frequently bring animals to the altar for sacrifices to God. The animal was killed, and it, and especially its blood was placed on the altar. This was for covering of sin, or sometimes for a peace offering of thanksgiving or gratitude to God. After the perfect sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, there is no longer a need for animal sacrifices. Today, God wants us to bring ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him (vs. 1). Animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were important, but God has always thought obedience from the heart more important. Because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross we no longer need to make animal sacrifices. They are no longer effective. Instead, we need to offer ourselves completely to the Lord. That is our highest form of service. We are to offer ourselves daily by putting aside our own desires. We are to put ourselves at His disposal and trust in Him.
God wants us to surrender every part of our life to Him, not just an hour or two on Sunday mornings. Many people, after getting saved, never learn to live a godly life that pleases our Heavenly Father. Each day we should give ourselves to Him. Paul tells us here in verse 1 to lay our wills, as a sacrifice, on the altar to God, and ask Him to use us for His glory.
As we proceed on to verse 2, we read that we are not to conform to the world, but instead, be transformed by renewing our minds. We are not to conform to this world’s behavior and standards. It must go deeper than that, though. Our whole mind and way of thinking has to be transformed through yielding to the Holy Spirit, and the study of God’s Word. The “world” that Paul is talking about is the system of beliefs and values throughout the world today which are dominated and controlled by Satan.
Our minds need to be committed to listening to God, and obeying Him. This happens when we read and study His Word. Our hearts will change when we submit to Him. We can’t do it by just trying, in our own strength, to sin less. We have to depend on God and trust in Him. The Holy Spirit can change our minds from the influence of the world by studying the Word of God, the Bible. A renewed mind is saturated in the Word, and controlled by it, not the world.
We, as believers are to metamorphosize, to change just like a caterpillar does into a butterfly. We are to make our outward behavior and lifestyle to conform to what we are internally, as a child of God. This is done by renewing our mind. When we live our life according to the dictates of the world, our minds become polluted. Our minds need to be cleaned, and that can be done through the Word of God (II Timothy 3:16; Philippians 4:8-9).
The servants of the King should not be too chummy with the King’s enemies. We are not to conform to the world. We do not need to be like those “of the world” in order to win them. That is a lie of the devil that he uses in order to try to bring down Christians, and draw them into the muck of the world system. Our behavior and actions should be such as to reflect worship and honor to God. Let’s allow our lives to reflect the change we have had from being worldly caterpillars into heavenly butterflies.
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