Therefore, Don't Conform. Be Transformed.

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New Advent devotional books

I’ve written a simple Advent devotional book that we’ll be handing out at Asbury starting this weekend.

Readings start on December 1 and continue through each weekday of the Advent season, and as we work our way to Christmas, we’ll look at the overall story of the Bible and see God’s plan of salvation from the very beginning.

Take a stack of books and hand them out at Thanksgiving!

Live out of town? Email Sandie.

 
 

Romans 12:1-8

12 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.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

 
 

“Therefore” means that Paul is following up from his beautiful doxology in the last chapter. In light of the long, complicated discussion of God’s relationship with Jews and Gentiles and His saving purposes, Paul says the only proper response is worship. “In light of what I just said, therefore….”

Because God is so good, worship is the proper response.

1 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 [Romans 12:1].

Romans 12:2 is the theme verse for our entire Romans study:

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.

What’s fascinating to me about this verse is that Paul says we can know God’s will after we are committed to transformation. Our worship will result in renewed minds so that we will be able to discern God’s will for our lives.

This passage comes after Paul’s long discussion about Israel and his remarks to Jewish and Gentile Christians in the previous 11 chapters. Now, he says, “You are all important, and no one is more important or necessary than anyone else.” 

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness [Romans 12:3-8].

We each have a role to play, and each role is important in its own way.

  1. You are not more important than anyone else.

  2. But much depends on your role, and only you can play the part assigned to you, so play your part with zeal and cheerfulness.

 

The Immediacy of Paul's Words

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Romans 1:8-15

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

 
 

Paul tells the Roman church (the majority of whose members he has never met) how much he prays and praises God for them. He has wanted for a long time to come visit them but was unable to do so, and he feels that he has something to offer them, though of course he knows that he would also be blessed just by spending time with them. He reminds them that he has a special mission to non-Jews—both the civilized “Greeks” and the uncivilized “barbarians”—to tell them about Jesus and invite them into the church.

Do Not Conform. Be Transformed.

What strikes me on reading this section is the immediacy of the words; it’s as if Paul is writing the letter to us, today, and not to ancient Romans 2,000 years ago.

But this is the power of Scripture—it is evergreen for God’s people.

Be committed to really studying these words, and they will change your life.

 

The World's Greatest Letter Begins With The World's Longest Introduction

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We begin a new book today—Romans! Normally, our readings are assigned Monday-Friday, but since today is the first day of a new month, it seemed appropriate to kick off our Romans study today. Each day’s post will go live at 3:30 AM and—for those of you on my email list—will be emailed out at 4:00 AM.

The opening letter below appears in the print version of this reading guide.  We include it here. (Today’s scripture reading can be found after the SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 header below.)

AROUND THE YEAR AD 57…

Around the year AD 57, a Christian missionary pastor and leader named Paul wrote a long letter to a network of house churches that had formed in Rome. Paul had never been to Rome (though he had met some of the Roman Christians previously), so he wrote his letter to introduce himself and his message to the Roman church.

Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans during one of his missionary journeys around the eastern Mediterranean. (He was probably in the city of Ephesus—which is in modern-day Turkey—when he wrote Romans.) At the period in which he wrote, Paul had been a missionary church planter for about twenty-five years, and he was planning to return to Jerusalem with a major financial gift he had collected from among his Gentile churches to give to the poor and persecuted Jewish church in Jerusalem. Paul intended that gift to be a sign of the unity of the church, since Paul understood that the church of Jesus was open to both Jews and Gentiles—“to all who believe.” [Romans 1:1] After delivering the gift, Paul’s plan was to stop off in Rome on his way to Spain, where he wanted to continue his church-planting ministry. By sending his letter, Paul hoped to make himself more familiar to the Roman Christians before visiting them in person.

WHAT IS PAUL’S LETTER TO THE ROMANS ABOUT?

Romans is a long, complex letter that is the result of Paul’s decades-long thought about Jesus and his missionary work for Jesus. In it, Paul explains what the Gospel means and how it should affect the everyday lives of the Roman Christians. In his letter, Paul is answering the question, “What does it mean that a Jewish man named Jesus was crucified and raised again?”

WHAT IS THE “GOSPEL”?

“Gospel” is the Old English translation of a Greek word that we transliterate as euangelion—pronounced “you-ahng-GELL-lee-on”—which means “good news” or “good tidings.” You know the story of the Battle of Marathon, how the messenger ran 26 miles to Athens to bring the breathless news of the great Greek victory over the Persians? The message he was bringing was euangelion—it is good news about something that has happened in the world, and it wasn’t originally a religious word, but a political word. In fact, the early Christians adopted it for their purposes because they understood that what had happened with Jesus was news about something amazing that had taken place, that it was (to quote the angel in Luke’s Gospel),

“Good news of great joy that will be for all the people!” [Luke 2:10]

This good news was carried from Jerusalem by followers of Jesus all over the world. When it came to the Anglo-Saxon people in what we now call England, the martyrs and missionaries translated it into the tongue of that place. They called their message “gospel.”

The early Christians called the Jesus news “gospel,” and they also came to call the documents that contained that news “Gospels.”

For Paul, the Gospel is the news that God has been faithful to His promises to Israel and that Jesus has carried those plans to fulfillment. Now, because of Jesus, the blessings of God are available to everyone who trusts God, both Jew and Gentile.

WHAT IS “ISRAEL”?

When Paul uses the term “Israel” he is not referring to the modern nation-state of Israel. Rather, when Paul uses the term, he is referring to the covenant people of God, descended from Abraham. Israel is God’s special people, and the story of Israel is told in what we call the Old Testament. The story of the Old Testament is that God chose one man—Abraham—and his family—Israel—to be His special representatives to the world. In shorthand, when Paul used the term “Israel,” he means “people of God.”

WHY IS THE OLD TESTAMENT KEY TO UNDERSTANDING ROMANS?

You cannot understand Romans if you don’t understand the story of Israel in the Old Testament. This is because Paul—who knows the Old Testament backwards and forwards—believes that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament was about, even and including undoing the effects of Adam’s sinful choice in Genesis chapter 3.

IF GOD KNEW THAT ISRAEL WOULD SIN, WHY DID HE CHOOSE THEM?

Paul wants the Romans to understand that the Lord did not make a mistake when He made Israel the chosen nation. Yes, Israel sinned, but Paul will explain in his letter how God was using Israel the entire time to prepare for Jesus and to bring blessing to the entire world.

SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT GOING TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE

In his letter, Paul will explain that God’s ultimate plan is to fix everything that’s wrong with the world. Yes, the sacrificial death of Jesus means people can be forgiven of their sins and escape the consequence of their sins, but forgiveness is the means to the end God has in mind, not the end in itself. In fact, the end God is working towards is to restore humanity to its original, God-given position: to rule over Creation in God’s name. This is deep stuff, and Paul won’t get there until chapter 8. In this commentary, which I am calling Romans Part 1, we will cover chapters 1-7. (Chapter 8 will have to wait until Part 2.) Here, Paul is going to explain how all of humanity—including God’s people, Israel—was actually enslaved to sin, and that Jesus came to save everyone who would believe, both Jews and Gentiles. By doing what no one else was able to do, Jesus permanently defeated the power of sin and death and has inaugurated the New Creation that God is working towards.

Romans Part 1 will not be an easy read, but it will be worth it.

WHY READ ROMANS?

Because Reading Romans Will Help You Know God’s Will for Your Life

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul says that if we want to know God’s will for our lives, we need to have our minds transformed:

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. [12:2]

We are all affected by ideas, and the way to transform your mindset—your thought-patterns—is to focus the right ideas.

Romans, in all its depth and complexity, is exactly the kind of thing that can transform your mindset, if you are willing to put in the work and seek to first understand and then to think about what Paul is saying. We are going to take the next several months and work through this life-changing letter bit by bit.

Be consistent.
Be curious.

If you do those things:

1. You will understand both what Paul is saying and why the early church was unstoppable;
2. You will be different because you’ll see the world and your place in it according to God’s point of view.

Let’s GO.
Andrew Forrest

 

Sunday, September 1

Romans 1:1-7

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 
 

Paul begins his letter with a long “From” section. He has never been to Rome and didn’t found the Roman church, so he lays out his credentials and summarizes the Gospel while he’s at it.

The Gospel:

• Was predicted and promised in the Old Testament;
• Was about God’s Son, Jesus, who was an Israelite, descended from King David;
• Jesus was proved to be God’s Son by the Resurrection, when the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead.

Paul is an apostle of Messiah Jesus. (“Messiah” is a Hebrew title; “Christ” is a Greek title—both words mean the same thing: “Anointed One.”) This Jesus was the one to whom the entire Old Testament was pointing; He was born to a Jewish family and then raised from the dead. Paul’s whole mission is to tell people about this Jesus so that they will trust Jesus with their lives, because what God has done in Jesus is going to fix everything that’s wrong with the world.

Paul is writing to the Roman Christians, who, though they come from different backgrounds, are now the “holy ones” (that’s what the word “saints” means).

Do Not Conform. Be Transformed.

Paul begins his great letter by explaining that God’s plan to save the whole world has been at work for centuries, leading up to the Resurrection of Jesus. Think of all that happened in those long centuries—wars and emperors and pyramids and exile—and all the while God was at work.

It’s very easy to believe that the headlines tell the whole story, but they don’t.

Be encouraged: God is at work today!