The Big ‘Therefore’ - Romans 12:1-2
[29th June 2012]
Rom 12v1 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. 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.
I thought I would seize this opportunity this morning to talk to the eight graduating students – about the big “therefore”.
The “Big ‘therefore’” is found at the beginning of Romans ch12. This is of course Paul’s great conclusion to the previous 11 chapters of doctrine. The word ‘doctrine’ tends to mean theology these days but it really means Paul’s teaching about the Christian faith in general. There is a sense that during your one or two years here at this college, you have lived through 11 chapters of doctrine, 11 chapters of teaching. You have learned about the Bible, about individual books of the Bible such as Acts or Genesis, about Systematic Theology, Interpersonal Relationships, about Cultural Anthropology, about different world religions, about personal evangelism and so on – you have learned 11 chapters of teaching … then comes this word, ‘Therefore’ at the beginning of ch12.
There is a sense that tomorrow afternoon at graduation you will arrive at Romans 12:1. So now how are you going to use these 11 chapters of teaching – so tomorrow really is the first day of the rest of your lives.
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. The therefore here tells us that teaching has consequences – in duty, belief and behaviour. Although Romans ch6 told us that we are dead to sin but alive to Christ – as we are all too aware, we are still a work in progress as far as being living sacrifices is concerned. But I really want to concentrate on verse 2 of Romans ch12 …
Rom 12:2 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.
But now you have learned stuff and thought about theology and different parts of Christian missions with your minds for two years, it does not mean that you can jettison your mind and now fly on by your emotions or your ‘feelings” whatever they are. ‘Flying by the seat of your pants’ is early aviation parlance. Early aircraft had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgment. Douglas Corrigan, an Irish pilot, was described as an aviator 'who flies by the seat of his pants' which meant “Going aloft without instruments, radio or other such luxuries.”
Corrigan had submitted a flight plan to fly from Brooklyn to California. His subsequent 29 hour flight ended in Dublin, Ireland. He claimed that his compasses had failed. He was thereafter known as 'Wrong Way Corrigan'. Corrigan flew by instinct without instruments and went in the wrong direction – however skilled an aviator he might be. He flew on his feelings. The ‘therefore’ of the Christian life is not based on feelings. The college is not a hurdle to be overcome before you get on to the real business of mission.
Paul’s comments are based on logic even rational conclusions: In his exhortation Paul uses the language of the mind:
“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind … “ when we are born again our mind was renewed. We now see things differently, we think differently – now God is at the centre of everything, and rightly so because he is at the centre of everything. Whereas when we were non-Christians the world’s way of doing things was at the centre of everything we thought about.
We are also called to test, so that you may discern what is the will of God.
These are things you are to do with our heads, with our minds. One of the characteristics of our present age, is that media communicates immediately to our emotions, by-passing the mind, there is no time to think. No time to test, no time to discern. Leave space in your lives and your minds to meditate on the things of God: leave opportunity for discerning and testing.
When we first study the great Christian theology of the church we are not always aware of its purpose – what’s the point? One is tempted to ask. We may not discover the significance and relevance of some doctrines for years, in spite of the promptings of some assessments here at Eastwest.
In 1970’s R. C. Sproul the American theologian set up Ligonier Ministries to teach Christian fundamentals to lay-Christians. But when he started he could only get funding to teach on the perceived felt needs, but not for what he considered to be the fundamentals. He wanted to teach on the holiness of God, but the first one he get funding for was on “Christians and sexual purity”. Only if people would meditate on and learn about the holiness of God their sexual purity would come into place and uncover even deeper needs elsewhere as well. Everyone thinks they can do it better than God, make it more palatable.
Not that there is anything wrong about a seminar on “Christians and sexual purity” but it is a symptom of cultural narcissism – you are the most important person. The question in the Bible study should not be: “What does this means to me?” but, “What is God saying?”
Some say this is all about the head – all intellectual? I just want to glorify God! But this is a parody of Christian thought. In reality glorifying God is honouring God, obeying God and serving God. You can’t do these things if you don’t know who he is first. God gives us a mind and holds us accountable for an understanding of his word. God has not given us a bill-board or a bumper sticker but a book and quite a big book at that.
Jesus said that God’s people’s worship is to be both in spirit and in truth. Jesus, the holy Son of God has died for you on the cross in your places and was raised from the dead on the 3rd day having borne your sins. As Paul writes at the end of ch11 in response to this great fact:
Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”
So we need to know the mind of the Lord as we live out our general calling as Christians and our particular calling as missionaries. Part of the process of discerning this is using our own minds. So my friends there is still a lot to learn ... “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.”