And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2
My little grandson was playing with a rather ugly toy, a vicious looking figure with a savage face and an array of nasty-looking weapons. Seeing my disapproving look at the toy, he began to twist and fold various parts of it. Within a few seconds, the toy that was so sinister and shocking became a beautiful model car. I was amazed at the change. ‘It’s a transformer’, my grandson reminded me. And I thought of today’s text, in which an even more dramatic transformation awaits the Christian who heeds the Word.
To transform means to change from one form into another. When we were in our sins, we were in a pathetic form. We conformed to the way the world walks and talks, to the way the devil’s children defy and deny God and all that is good, and to the way that our own depraved heart led us on our downward spiral to perdition. Now that we are saved, God wants us to shed that form, and take on another. The new form will prove that the will of God is good and acceptable, and leads to spiritual maturity. The new form is actually a change of mind, an opening of our minds to Who God is, what He has done for us, and what He wants us to be for Him.
Wicked works had alienated our minds to God. But salvation has brought our minds back to God’s viewpoint. There is a process involved in the transforming of our minds. We need to get the world’s influences out, and replace them with the Word of God. We need to shed the world’s companions, and replace them with the people of God. We need to abandon the world’s priorities of pleasure, power, and prosperity and replace them with submission to the will of God. And if we do, our minds will be transformed. We will understand what is truly important and good. There is no doubt that a transformed mind will lead to a transformed life… a life in which the will of God is displayed.
The transforming of our minds into all that the will of God will bring us won’t be complete until we reach the Glory. But it began when we were saved, and should continue every day we live. -Jim MacIntosh