The Nature and Purpose of Salvation: Living Transformed by the Word (2)

15 min read

Introduction

How can a Christian practically live as a priest of the King, once he has understood that he is called to offer himself as a living sacrifice? Having meditated on Romans 12:1, the preacher now returns to verse 2 to open the second part of his message. There he finds two commands, short but decisive, that shape the whole of the Christian life: "do not be conformed to this present age" and "be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12:2).

These two commands are not optional. They are how someone who has been redeemed offers God a reasonable worship, a worship pleasing to the One who rescued him from the world. This sermon invites you to explore what is at stake, what the pitfalls are, and what the remedy is.

Outline of the message

1. Reminder: you are a priest of the King

From Romans 1 to Romans 11, Paul has unfolded the salvation God has given us: his mercy, his grace, his compassion. Starting in chapter 12, he moves into commands. The very first is spiritual worship. Under the old covenant, Israel's priests offered animals; you, instead, offer yourself as a living, holy sacrifice, pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). This offering is your gratitude: the one sacrifice for sin has already been accomplished in Christ, all that remains for you to bring is a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

"Holy" means "set apart." You have been set apart from the world and united to Christ. What is holy is received by God; what God receives is holy. The question of chapter 12 verse 2 then becomes very practical: how do you walk so that God actually receives your offering?

2. First command: do not conform to this age

The word Paul uses here is not "kosmos." It is a word meaning "age" or "the present era," the current of the world dominated by evil. 1 John 5:19 says it plainly: "we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." You belong to God; this age belongs to someone else.

"To conform" means to let yourself be pressed into an outward mold, like a pressed garment. On the inside, you are saved and transformed; but if you let the world shape your words, your appearance, your reactions, you are wearing a mask. The preacher puts it this way: "Do not let yourself be locked into the mold and pattern of this age. Do not live in the world as though you were of the world." What is at stake is the gap between what you are on the inside (united to Christ) and what you show on the outside.

3. The world's patterns are its values

Concretely, the world has its own values, its opinions, its definitions of happiness, of a respectable job, of what is beautiful, right, or normal. The preacher lists several: what makes people happy, what they decide for their children's future, which career is admired, what clothes to wear, what to spend money on, how to use free time, what is called good or evil, where you go, with whom, in what language. In people's eyes, all of this can seem acceptable. In the eyes of the word, anything that does not seek the glory of God is marked by rebellion against God.

Paul writes to Christians ("I appeal to you therefore, brothers") because there are Christians who, saved on the inside, still conform to the world on the outside. To you, he says: you have been set apart, united to Christ, made God's own possession, an object of his mercy. Like a servant of the Master, your first thought should be: "What does my Lord want?"

4. An illuminating parallel: 1 Peter 1:14-16

The verb "to conform" appears only twice in the New Testament. The second occurrence is in 1 Peter 1:14-16: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"

The logic is the same. Romans 12: do not conform to this age. 1 Peter 1: do not conform to your former desires. The reason is the same: God is holy, so you must offer yourself to him as a holy being.

5. Two kingdoms that do not mix

In Acts 26:17-18, the Lord sends Paul "to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." Two kingdoms are at war: Satan's, and God's. You now belong to Christ, you are an heir of his Kingdom. The world, on the other hand, is under the authority of the enemy.

With unbelievers, you share a great deal: work, neighborhood, sometimes a hobby, often family according to the flesh. But spiritually, you belong to a different camp. James 4:4 is blunt: "Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." This does not mean fleeing all human contact, the Lord Jesus himself ate with tax collectors and sinners, because he had come for the sick (Mark 2:17). But the world that refuses to acknowledge its sin hated Jesus: "The world hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil" (John 7:7).

6. Placed in the world, not conformed to the world

The Lord Jesus's high priestly prayer, in John 17:14-16, sheds light on your situation: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." God could have taken you out of the world the day of your conversion. He did not. He left you in place, because his will is to display his glory through you.

You are therefore in interaction with the world, but not in agreement with it. You need to be aware of one thing: you yourself once belonged to this world. Your flesh remains sensitive to its calls. As Ephesians 2:1-3 shows, Satan, the world, and the flesh form an alliance that poses a real spiritual battle for you.

7. Christian vigilance in the face of the currents of this age

Paul opens with this warning, ahead of all the practical commands, because the danger is constant. Television, the press, social media, advertising, series, news: an entire stream is constantly feeding you the world's outlook. Even what seems like "just some news" often carries a way of thinking that denies God, that presents rebellion as a "cool" lifestyle, that promotes satisfaction apart from God.

The preacher borrows an expression from the Old Testament: "opening your door" means opening your heart. Do not sit back relaxed in front of the screen as though you were flinging the door of your heart wide open. Do not settle in defenseless in front of the internet. This is not legalism; it is spiritual realism. Psalm 19:7 reminds you that "the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." What makes wise the one who has carelessly opened his door is the word.

The Lord Jesus himself asks this of his Father: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17). The word purifies you of what the world has deposited in you.

8. A simple example: your niece worn out by the world

The preacher tells of a day at his in-laws' house when a young student (his adult daughter) came and sat next to him, looking exhausted. Her university days revolved around fashion, food, concerts, trendy social media apps (like "BeReal," where young people take photos together at random times). In the evening, at home, the television stayed on with a constant stream of news. He simply suggested that they listen to a hymn together. They sang, looked up the meaning of a verse, shared what the word was teaching them. Little by little, the young woman's eyes brightened, praise rose up, and they spent an hour celebrating God together.

A very simple picture that says the essential: the word washes the heart, revives it, brings joy. If you spend one or two hours every day in front of the currents of this age and barely thirty minutes in the word, the balance is clearly broken. You do not want to become legalistic; you want to be clear-eyed about what you listen to and what you let into your heart.

9. Second command: let yourself be transformed

The second command of verse 2 is "be transformed by the renewal of your mind." The Greek form is a passive imperative, with a sense of continuity: "let yourself be transformed, continually." It is God who transforms you; your responsibility is to stay under his work.

Here, the question is no longer the gap between the inside and the outside (the world's mold). It is the reverse: consistency between the inside and the outside. You have been transformed within by the new birth; let your outward walk adjust itself to that inner newness.

The verb "to be transformed" appears only four times in the New Testament: here, twice in the account of the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-3 and Mark 9:2), and in 2 Corinthians 3:18. At the transfiguration, Jesus's inner glory became visible on the outside: inside and outside came into agreement. That is the model. Your transformation consists of bringing your visible life into alignment with what Christ has already accomplished in you.

10. "The renewal of the mind": how does it work?

The word "renewal" appears only twice in the New Testament: here and in Titus 3:5: "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." Regeneration is the one-time new birth; renewal is the daily renewing. Two occurrences, one immense concept.

Galatians 6:14-15 uses a closely related word: "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." The world no longer has any hold on you; what matters is that you are a new creation.

This renewal is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who lives in you will never be taken away from you. The question is how he works. The answer is clear: through the word.

11. Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3: two passages, the same equation

Ephesians 5:18-20 commands: "Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Colossians 3:16-17 commands, in a parallel context: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

Compare the two opening commands: "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5) and "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3). What follows is nearly identical in both: singing, thanksgiving, wives, husbands, children, servants... You then understand what it concretely means to "be filled with the Spirit": it is letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The word "dwell" evokes a house. Let the word live in your life. The word "richly" is unmeasured; it means "in abundance, without limit." This is not about accumulating theoretical knowledge; it is about applying the word to your whole way of thinking, speaking, acting, spending, relaxing, serving.

12. Prayer and obedience in the same motion

Prayer is not set aside, quite the opposite. When you open your Bible, you ask the Lord to help you understand. When you want to apply what you read, you ask him for strength and guidance. This is how the Holy Spirit brings the word from the page into your life. The Christian who thinks he can sanctify himself "alone, by his own effort" and who neglects the word ends up dry; the Christian who thinks he can sanctify himself through emotional fervor alone, without the word, becomes inconsistent. The word, prayed and lived out, that is the mechanism of transformation.

13. 2 Corinthians 3:18: beholding glory to be transformed

2 Corinthians 3:18: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." In context, Paul recalls that Israel read the Old Testament without seeing Christ, because a veil was over their hearts (2 Corinthians 3:14-16). That veil is only removed "when one turns to the Lord."

The Holy Spirit removes that veil for you. Then, as you read the word with prayer, you truly behold the glory of the Lord. And by beholding that glory, you are transformed "into the same image." Not by your own strength, but by the Spirit who gradually conforms you to Christ.

14. The trap of legalism: trying to transform yourself by your own strength

Many Christians try to lift themselves up by their own willpower toward God's demands. They want to reach holiness by sheer effort. But this approach is itself a form of conformity to this age: it is the method of the world's religions, which try to satisfy God through effort, almsgiving, and asceticism. It resembles the Pharisees of Matthew 23:27: "whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones."

In people's eyes, this approach looks like piety. Before God, it is an idolatry that ignores grace. What you need is to confess your sin, repent, surrender yourself entirely to the Lord, and let yourself be transformed by his word with the help of his Spirit.

15. Your only task: look at the Lord, through the word

You do not have the strength to overcome sin. Your effort alone produces nothing but one defeat piled on another. Your responsibility is not to change yourself; it is to keep looking at the Lord, through the word. Hebrews 12:2 says it: "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith." 2 Timothy 2:8 says it again: "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead."

Through the word, you learn the holiness of God, you become aware of your sin, you receive forgiveness, you taste the Lord's faithfulness, you discover his love, you see his beauty. Then you offer him your spiritual worship, not because you "have to," but because knowing him turns obligation into thanksgiving. That is how your offering becomes holy, pleasing to God.

Key takeaways

  • The Christian's spiritual worship (Rom 12:1) requires two concrete attitudes: not conforming to this age, and letting yourself be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
  • "Conforming" means letting the world press your outward life into its mold, while your inside remains Christian. It is a mask.
  • The whole world is under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19); friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). You are placed in the world, not removed from it, but in order to display the glory of God (John 17:14-16).
  • "Being filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18) and "letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Col 3:16) are two ways of expressing the same reality: the word, applied to your life, is the channel through which the Spirit transforms you.
  • You do not transform yourself by your own strength; you behold the glory of the Lord in the word, and the Spirit transforms you from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18).

Personal application

  1. On a typical day, how much time do you spend in front of the currents of this world (screens, social media, series, news), and how much time in the word? What does that balance reveal?
  2. Is there an area (clothing, career, finances, relationships, language) where you notice this age's mold pressing your outward life despite your Christian inside?
  3. When you open the Bible this week, will you dare to begin by asking the Holy Spirit to remove the veil so you can behold the glory of the Lord?
  4. Where do you stand regarding the trap of "I'll manage it through my own willpower"? Can you name a recent defeat that brings you back to grace?
  5. What specific word, heard or read recently, do you want to concretely let dwell in you "richly" this week, in obedience?

Verses cited

FAQ

Does "not conforming to this age" mean cutting yourself off from the world?

No. The Lord Jesus did not ask his Father to take us out of the world, but to keep us from the evil one (John 17:15). You remain in the world, with your family, your work, your neighbors, your friends, in order to display the glory of God and share his word. What you refuse is to adopt the values, priorities, and patterns of this age.

How can I know if I am letting myself be "pressed" by the world's mold?

Look at the gap between your inside (what you know you are in Christ) and your outside (your language, your choices, how you spend your time and money, what you watch). If your visible life looks like that of an unbeliever while Christ lives inside you, you are wearing a mask. The mold is pressing.

Concretely, how do I let myself be transformed?

Transformation comes from God, not from your willpower. Your responsibility comes down to one thing: behold the glory of the Lord in his word, asking the Spirit to remove the veil and help you understand and apply it. Let the word of Christ dwell in you "richly" (Col 3:16): read, meditate, obey, pray. It is the Holy Spirit who, through this practice, gradually transforms you into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18).

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