Romans 12 :1-3: Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
There is something innate and deeply seated in the hearts of humans that seeks to be free. Throughout history, people have fought and died for the dream of freedom from various bondages. When people are in spiritual darkness (bondage), they will endeavor to be free apart from divine instruction. Satan can use their passion for freedom to drive them away from God, thus placing them deeper into bondage.
If you truly want to experience total liberation, you will have to undergo a transformation as well. A person can’t fully experience liberation apart from first encountering a spiritual transformation. In other words, we can’t do the same things the same way and expect different results. In John 8, Jesus saved a woman who was taken in the very act of adultery from her accusers who sought to stone her. After all the men left, and Jesus and the woman were alone, He told the woman that He didn’t condemn her. However, that wasn’t the last thing He told her. He said, “Go and sin no more.” She had to have a change in her heart before she could be totally free from the very thing that brought her into bondage.
As a pastor who teaches the principles of God’s Word, I have taught from Romans 12:1-2 many times. Today, the Lord opened my eyes to see deeper into these verses. We all need our minds renewed through the Word of God so that we might have a spiritual perspective on things that we face, instead of a worldly view. It’s one thing to have your mind renewed and to become a true disciple of Christ, but Jesus doesn’t want us to stop there. Jesus tells us in the gospels that if we desire to follow Him, we must deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him. Let’s look at the first condition Jesus requires of us who seek to live completely free.
We must be willing to deny “self” in the way that He denied His will and obeyed God’s will. What does it profit us if we learn the truth of God’s Word, but don’t submit our hearts to obey any of them? It profits nothing!
Paul doesn’t just tell us to have our minds renewed in order to be transformed; in verse 3, he continues by instructing us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Now we’re down to the place of getting real with our walk and taking ownership for our own actions. It is only when we deny self and ask the Lord what He wants to change in us that we will begin to experience true and lasting liberation from the flesh nature. We can have our minds renewed, but still be filled with spiritual pride and fall prey to Satan’s devices.
Are you submitted to God’s plan for your life? Are you a true disciple who denies the selfish nature so that you might experience God’s liberating power in your heart? Let the Lord speak to your heart today as you seek His will and not your desires . . . and see what happens. —submitted by Pastor Asa Dockery, US
jmplamondon on September 1, 2011 at 11:32 am
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, NOR CAN IT DO SO. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8) We have already been crucified with Christ and are one with Christ himself (1 Cor 6:15a) Our body is dead because of sin, yet our Spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through His Spirit, who lives in you.” (Romans 8:10-11) No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. We are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit (Romans 8:9)”We always thank God because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the SANCTIFYING WORK OF THE SPIRIT and through belief in the truth .. So then, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you… May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God the Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” (2 Thess 2:13-17) Amen and Amen