Have You Transformed?

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” - Romans 12:1-2

These are two of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. Verse one tells us why we should turn away from our old self and verse two questions wether we have actually turned away from our sin, or as Paul say “Transformed the way we live our life.” Both verses can apply to Christianity today. I believe we live in a generation of vulnerable Christians. Vulnerable in the fact that there is no true knowledge of what sin is. Sin is anything that goes against God.

That includes sexual relationships before marriage, homosexuality, drunkeness, etc… There are many other sins such as anger, lust, greed, and pride that we don't see as sin but the Bible clearly states that all these sins mentioned above are sins. If you are a Christian that means you are a believer in Jesus Christ, which also means you believe God’s word is absolute, infallible truth. That means that if the Bible calls it a sin, then it’s a sin. T

here’s no beating around the bush, sin is sin.

Understand that I am a sinner, you are a sinner, everyone to ever step on this earth except for Jesus Christ is a sinner, so nobody is better than anybody. What we must understand is seen in these two verses though.

Verse one lets us know that because of our sin we are destined for Hell, but by God’s mercy and grace we are saved. Because of God’s salvation in our life we are to do something for Him. It says to live our lives in a holy and acceptable way that pleases God. See thats where the issue is, we all want to please ourselves, but our number one priority should be pleasing God. After all, He did sacrifice His only son so that we might have eternal life with Him. When we give ourselves to Christ in pure and devoted worship that is when we know it is true.

Verse two ties in greatly with verse one. Because God saves we are to live for Him. When we become a genuine follower of Christ we should no longer desire the things we desired before, yet we should desire God’s will for our lives. We turn from our willingness to sin and turn that into a willingness to fight sin. Paul is basically saying, don't be like the world, be transformed into a follower of God because of your new mindset. We should have a new mind when we become a Christian. It should be focused on the will of God and not the ways of the world.

I love what Paul previously stated in the stated in Romans 6:6 where he says “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

Have you been transformed, or have you conformed to the world, Paul has a clear word from God here that we should all be transformed by a new mind, and the only way we can have that new mind is if we totally commit and devote ourselves to Christ. Are you ready to transform? Stand out and stand up for Christ!

Additional Scripture:

Colossians 3:9-10

Ephesians 4:22-24

Galatians 5:16-18

Galatians 5:25

1 Peter 1:14