Food
for Thought:
A Renewed Mind
A Summer
Sermon Series: The Jesus I Want to Know
August 5 , 2007
Dr. Mark Ruppert
Romans 12:1-3
Several years ago there was an advertisement
for higher education that had as the punch line something that went
like this- the mind, a precious thing to waste. I read the other
day that 31% of American students are dropping out or failing to
graduate in the nation’s largest 100 public schools and that 2,500
students drop out of U. S. high schools every day. And when they
drop out, where do they go? To a job that is paying them $20 an
hour or more? Not on your life. A mind is a precious thing to
waste. And yet, on Tuesday, July 1 I was watching the Today Show
and they had a piece on about fewer students in the summer work
force because more and more of them are taking summer classes.
Interesting. A mind is a precious thing to waste and yet there are
those who are renewing their minds, who are stretching their minds
and learning and expanding their horizons.
Our minds can be filled with such wonderful, life-learning things
or our minds can be filled with, well, garbage. And, let’s be
honest, each and every one of us have filled our minds with both.
The question is, which will win out?
The Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter to the Romans, spends the
remaining chapters of Romans, chapters 12-16, focuses on the story
of God’s relationship to His rebellious creation and the way
Christians are to conduct their daily lives. Paul shares about the
victory of God’s grace over human rebellion but also makes it very
clear that God’s grace is not another form of total permissiveness,
whereby we can do whatever we please and that “anything goes.”
God’s grace is the opposite of permissiveness and this grace carries
with it specific structures. It is the grace of God that “brings …
the power to reshape and restructure our lives in a way appropriate
for life under the lordship of God rather than under the lordship of
sin.” And it is Paul’s ethical challenges that show forth the power
of the grace of God, which move us to make the appropriate response
to God to whom we owe our reconciliation.
And this reconciliation came about when God gave up His only Son,
Jesus Christ, to die for our sins thereby reconciling the world to
God. And so in chapters 12-16 Paul shares ethical admonitions that
are signs of God’s grace and show us how we should respond to God’s
grace as we seek to follow God and not, let me repeat, not the
world.
Let’s look at verses 1-2 of chapter 12. You will notice that
Paul begins by saying, “I appeal to you therefore,….” Let me stop
right there. The word therefore is a very important word in
this passage and is one of the most underrated words in the English
language. “How could it be,” you might be thinking. Well,
“therefore” is believed to be “like a hinge on a door that acts as
the link between the wall and the door and enables one to relate to
the other. In Scripture, ‘therefore’ holds together doctrinal
principles and practical application. It is… vitally important when
we consider the dangers of theory unrelated to practice and practice
unrelated to theory.
Paul’s use of the word is pivotal in the Roman epistle:….” (The
Communicator’s Commentary, Romans, D. Stuart Briscoe, p. 214)
Let me share a few reflections on these 3 verses. First,
grace affects the entire human life. What Paul begins to
say here can remind us what he has said in Romans 6:12-13. Please
turn with me to that scripture and you will see what I mean. Paul
says in Romans 6:12-13, “Therefore, [there is that word “therefore”
so he is going to share truth that we need to practice] do not let
sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their
passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of
wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been
brought from death to life, and present your members to God as
instruments of righteousness.” So in our passage from Romans 12 he
again is telling us that our response to our God is the shaping of
our very lives by His gracious will. Just like the burnt offerings
the Jews would make to God, so were the lives of the Christian to be
like those burnt offerings, our bodies were to be offered wholly to
God. In other words we are to be a total sacrifice to God, and the
sacrifice is to consist of our entire lives. Paul would say that
this should be our logical response because of God’s grace to us. I
know, this is easier said than done but this should be the goal we
strive for and when we fail we need to pick ourselves back up again
and start over. What Paul is telling us to do is to “take your
body; take all the things that you have to do every day; take the
ordinary things that you do at your job; take the ordinary things
you do in your home; take the ordinary things you do, every day, and
offer all of it as an act of worship to God.” You will notice that
in verse 1 Paul tells us to offer to God as a “Living” sacrifice as
opposed to a dead sacrifice. What Paul wants the believer to
understand is that the person who is committed to Christ is to show
in the lives they live in the body the genuineness of their
commitment.
Second, you’ll notice in verse 1 that this body is also “holy
and acceptable to God.”
In previous chapters Paul speaks of the body as being an agent of
sin. But now he says that it is an instrument of holiness that is
acceptable and pleasing to God.
Let me just go back to the Old Testament story of Cain and Abel.
You remember that both brothers brought sacrifices to God and that
God accepted Abel sacrifice and not Cain’s. Both brought sacrifices
and one was received and the other not. You see it can happen that
we participate in great sacrificial acts but they can be
unacceptable to God all because of the attitude with which we
present them. But when our bodies are intelligently yielded to God
to be the means of showing a living, beautiful holy experience, the
Lord will be pleased as He was with Abel’s sacrifice.
Third, Paul tells us to shape our lives to the structures of
grace and not the structures of the world. Is this world
that Paul speaks of a physical or geographical location where we
currently live? No. It is “the age” that we are a part of
over-and-against the age that is yet to come. We live between the
times when Christ first came and when He will come again. These
days are evil, in case you hadn’t heard and so we have the unique
situation of living in these tension-filled times as aliens looking
forward to the age that is yet to come.
As I see it we really have 3 choices as we live out our days.
One, we can flee the society and avoid any contact with
the evil world. We can emulate the desert fathers who fled the
world for the desert and protect our spirituality by developing a
greenhouse environment and disengage with the day-to-day living in
this world. A second choice is to become indistinguishable
from the pagan, secular world in which we live. Let me say it
very bluntly- many people tend to be conformists. We don’t want to
stand out and be different and so we blend in with the masses and we
fade into the scenery rather than be seen as “old fashion” and “not
with it” and “prudish.” Everyone else is doing it so why shouldn’t
we? But there is a third way, we can live the committed
life and follow Christ. This is where the believer stays in the
world and does not flee it, but in staying is not trapped by all the
trappings; in staying doesn’t blend in so much that someone looking
on could not see that they are, well, somewhat different, not that
different is bad, because, heaven knows, there are plenty of
“different” people in this world of ours that are different but OK.
And by not getting trapped and sucked in they are a witness to this
thing called God’s grace; they are a witness to this one called
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world; they are witness to a better
life, easier, no, better, yes, because we live for Christ and not
for ourselves or the world or what the world wants us to buy into.
We really could translate verse 2 of our passage to say this, “Do
not let yourselves be shaped by what everyone else does, but rather
let yourselves be transformed by a whole new way of thinking, so you
can discern what conforms to God’s will, namely, what is good, and
pleasing, and perfect.”
And that, my friends, is grace at work: to be able to hear and to
obey such admonitions. That, my friends, is a renewed mind, and the
mind of Christ is within us. Amen.
Key Points
Introduction: Several years ago there was an advertisement for
higher education- the mind, a precious thing to waste
2,500 students drop out of U.S. high schools every day
The mind- it can be filled with wonderful things…it can be filled
with garbage
Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore” an important word
Reflections on these 3 verses
First, _______ reflects the entire human life
Romans 6:12-13
Our bodies are to be offered wholly to God
Verse 1- a “living” sacrifice
Second, notice in verse 1 that this body is also “holy and
acceptable to God"
The story of Cain and Abel
Third, Paul tells us to shape our lives to the structures of
_________ and not the structures of the world
Three choices as we live out our days
One, we can _____ the society and avoid any contact with the
evil world
A second choice is become __________ from the pagan, secular
world in which we live
A third way- we can live the________ life and follow Christ
Conclusion: Grace
at work: to be able to hear and to obey such admonitions. That is a
renewed mind.
Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)
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