From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We're still considering the first two verses in the 12th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 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." Now, we've reached the stage at which we are considering this important phrase in the second verse: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Having told us the negative—that we are not to be conformed to this world—the Apostle is urging us positively to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, we're still dealing with the general theme of the Christian teaching, the teaching of the New Testament with regard to conduct and behavior, as to how we shall live in this world. And last Friday night we spent our time chiefly in stating this great teaching here in the form of principles, in a more theological form.

The great thing we tried to emphasize was this: that the Christian, unlike everybody else, never starts with a particular problem. At least, he never should. The Christian must always start with himself as he is a new man in Christ Jesus. Now, all moral systems know nothing about that because they can't. They're not new men, and they don't believe in the new birth. So they start and end with the problems. The Christian doesn't. His whole approach is different. He starts with himself, the new man in Christ Jesus, then he comes to the particular problem in the light of that. If we don't do that, we are under some kind of law, and we are to that extent denying the Gospel.

Everything in the Christian life must be considered in the light of our new position. I'm so concerned about this because to me it's one of the most glorious aspects of the Christian faith, and it is certainly the key to successful Christian living. The Christian's attitude to conduct and behavior is never negative. It's never small, and it is never fearful. We do a very great disservice to our Lord and Master and to His way of life if we give the impression that it's something small and that it's something negative. Of course, that's often been done.

The man of the world will tell you today that that's why he's not a Christian. At least, there was a time when he did that. He said, "But you know, you people are so small, and your life is such a little one, it's such a narrow one." I'm afraid we've often given that impression, and we've been fearful. The Christian approach is never fearful either. It's only as we give that impression that we misrepresent the Gospel and we are a hindrance to people coming into the Christian life. The Christian approach is always positive, and it's always big, and it's always glorious.

If we don't give the impression that it's a glorious thing to be a Christian and to live the Christian life, we've never understood this statement: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." What a possibility. What a glorious way of looking at everything. There is no fear here because we are reminded at once of the great and glorious resources which are ours. I hope we've got a glimpse of this whole approach to behavior and conduct such as you have it here and elsewhere in the New Testament.

The object of the New Testament is not to produce a reformation of behavior but a transformation of character. All the appeals of the New Testament when it teaches holiness and sanctification, all its appeals are simply this: be what you are. Realize what you are and proceed to show that you are what you are. No man can live this Christian life unless he's regenerate. You've got to become a Christian before you can live the Christian life. Indeed, to expect anybody to live the Christian life in any part or form who is not a Christian is to be teaching heresy.

That is what is called the Pelagian heresy. Pelagius thought that you simply had to teach people the principles of Christian living and that they could do it. That is sheer Pelagianism, and it is false. It is heresy, which has been condemned and always should be condemned by the Christian church. This idea that all you've got to do is to go to the world and go to the statesmen and tell them, "Now, this is what Christianity teaches, put it into practice," it's a denial of the whole teaching.

When your popes and others address the United Nations, they don't appeal to them to put into practice Christian principles. They should tell them that they must be born again, because they'll never do it until they are, and you're wasting your breath in trying to get them to do so. These great principles are being denied before our very eyes, and it is mainly the cause of the terrible confused state of the world this evening. Men have long since shed the Christian doctrines but foolishly believe that they can still hold on to the Christian ethic. It cannot be done.

It is a sheer impossibility. That's what the Apostle's saying. You need this transformation, which was comparable to the Transfiguration of our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. We must not be found conforming to the fashion of this world. We must rather be transformed, transfigured, changed, and show the new nature that is in us in our life and practice and conduct. How do we do this? This demands positive effort on our part. It is by the renewing of our mind, and especially by the spirit of our mind.

The Holy Spirit is in us as Christians, and He's always working in us. What the Apostle is telling us to do here is to listen to Him, to be guided by Him, and to put into practice what He tells us. It's again this two-sided teaching: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." You have been born again, therefore, renew your mind. What's it mean in practice?

The first thing it means is this: that we must acquaint ourselves with the truth. Why were these epistles ever written? It was to help us to renew our minds. That's exactly their purpose. We are not merely left with our experience and the activity of the Holy Spirit within us. He is the Spirit of truth, and He has caused these men to write these letters in order that we may be helped and taught how to renew our minds. You can't do that unless you're acquainted with this word.

It means acquaintance with the truth as it is presented to us with all its argumentation in the New Testament. And the second thing it involves is that we must understand the truth that we read. You've got to read it, you've got to spend time in reading it, but you've got to struggle with it until you understand it. That's why we meet like this from Friday to Friday. We are trying together to understand this teaching as the Spirit leads and guides us and as we use our minds and brains and understanding.

Having known what it is and having grasped it and understood it, we then constantly apply it. This demands an effort on our part because, unfortunately, as the result of the fall and sin, we all become creatures of habit. We've been so accustomed to thinking in a certain way that we tend to go on doing that even after we are converted and after we've been born again. You don't automatically begin to think in the new way. You do in a fundamental sense, and yet it involves a lot of training.

You'll find your mind slipping back into the old grooves, and you've got to pull it out and direct it in the other way. That's what he means by "by the renewing of your mind." I ask myself: What, after all, is the object of salvation? As Christians, we are converted people. We're regenerate. We have believed the truth. We rejoice in the doctrine of salvation. We rejoice to come to the Lord's table and to partake of the bread and the wine. We declare the Lord's death till He come. We believe that that's what makes us Christians.

But you don't stop at that. The danger is to stop at that to say, "Right, I'm saved now," and then you just go on living a kind of life without really relating your life to that. But the Christian doesn't do that. He mustn't do that. He's got to renew his mind. He says, "Now, I must start asking questions. Why has all that happened? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ ever come into this world? Why did He die upon the cross and be buried and rise again? What's the object of it all?"

As you study these epistles, you discover there's only one answer to that. You know the real ultimate objective in the incarnation and all that followed was the production of a new humanity, a new race of people. We were all in Adam; we are now to be in Christ. He's the head of a new race of people, and He came in order to form this new humanity, this new race of people. He's the second man; He's the last Adam. The object of salvation is not merely that we may be forgiven and not go to hell.

The danger is to stop at that and just say, "I've been saved from this, that, and the other." We've got to learn to look at this positively. He's the firstborn amongst many brethren. He's bringing many sons unto glory. That's the kind of way in which the Christian becomes renewed in his mind and makes himself think. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. What for? The answer is teaching us. Salvation teaches. It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

We look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a separate, peculiar people for His own possession, zealous of good works. This is what it means: that we start and ask ourselves what is the ultimate object of salvation, and then you begin to see that it's this great and glorious positive thing. Your whole attitude towards individual problems is already a new one and a changed one.

If the whole object and the ultimate object of our Lord's coming and all that He did is the formation of this new humanity, well then this of necessity involves essentially the fact that we should be transferred from one condition to another, or if you like, be translated from one condition to another. "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

That's what he means by renewing the mind. That you take a statement like that and you take trouble to understand it, and then you proceed to work it out. You say, "I am ultimately to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, but I can never be that without something happening to me, and not merely that I am forgiven. That doesn't do it. I've got to be translated out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of His dear Son."

My friends, that's precisely what's happened to us. That is what it means to be a Christian. And it is because we don't have things like this in the forefront of our minds that we fail and fall and we are grappling with little problems individually as if we were still unconverted people. This is how we approach the whole matter. We have been taken out of that and we have been transferred into this. Peter in his way puts the thing quite as plainly and as clearly.

"But ye," he says, "are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth his praises, his excellencies, his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness, brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Here it is, exactly the same thing. This is how the Christian faces his living in this world.

He doesn't say "problem number one, problem number two" and then see what can I do and struggle against this in some negative way and fearful manner. No, he goes back and just reminds himself of all this. We have to remind ourselves of where we are and what has happened to us. We have to remind ourselves that we have been delivered from this present evil world. To be renewed in your mind means this: that you will not allow yourself to forget that. You go on reminding yourself of it.

Your troubles are due to the fact that you've forgotten what you know. Peter says, "He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." He's forgotten. He knew, but he's forgotten it. Now, the renewing of your mind means that you think so positively about these things that you'll never be able to forget them again. "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: add to your faith virtue, brotherly kindness and so on. You've got to be active and positive, and in doing so you're renewing your mind. For if you do these things you shall never fail, never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom."

"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them." I'm just doing what the Apostle Peter did. Our greatest trouble all of us is that we forget. "I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance."

I think this is the call that comes to ministers today more than ever before. Christian people are forgetting things they've known, and that's why we're in the present muddle and confusion. "I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance." You were told these, you believed them when you became Christians, but you're in trouble now, you're unhappy and you're failing. Why? Because you've forgotten.

But you mustn't allow yourselves to forget. You must take yourselves in hand. I'm stirring you up. I'm going to make you do it. I'm going to remind you of the things you know but which you've forgotten. That's renewing the mind. Becoming what you are and realizing what you are. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." You've got out of that, well, don't conform to it then.

Because you're out of it, don't look as if you were still in it and don't behave as if you were still in it. Realize that you're out of it. Listen to Paul again in the second chapter of the epistle to the Colossians. Having worked out his great argument about the cross, he says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of sabbath days." Silly people. They were going back under the law. They'd been emancipated and translated; they were going back to those things which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances?" He says, "What's the matter with you? You're muddled. Renew your mind." They were born again, but Paul says, "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" They were born again, but he says you're living as if you are not. You are thinking as if you are not. You are desiring as if you are not. You're contradicting yourselves.

The first thing we have to realize is that we have been translated from, and then positively we have to remind ourselves constantly of what we've been translated to. Out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Our conversation, our citizenship, is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working whereby He is able to subdue even all things unto Himself.

The Apostle is contrasting that with certain false teachers. Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who mind, think about, earthly things. For our conversation, our citizenship, the realm to which we belong, is not there. It's in Him. We belong to the kingdom of God.

These men while in this world were looking for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. That was their whole secret. They realized that they were just passing through this, that they belonged to that. That was the way in which they thought. That's the secret of the lives they lived. They were minding these things; they were renewed in their minds in their thinking.

The result of doing that is that we see everything in a different light. We are truly renewed now in the whole of our thinking. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. What does that mean? Here's the new way of thinking. He says because I'm a new creature, a new creation, in a sense there is nothing now as it was before. I see everything differently.

"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him so no more." Paul says my mind's been renewed and I see nothing now like I used to see it. He doesn't see himself as he used to see himself. He saw himself once as a very fine man, very godly, good man, pleasing God—a Pharisee—better than most other people. He doesn't see himself like that now. He knows that it's a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.

That's a new way of thinking. He's been renewed in his mind. He not only sees himself in a different way, he sees others in a different way. No man after the flesh any longer. When Saul of Tarsus used to look at other men, the one thing he asked was: is he a Jew or isn't he? That was the way he thought. That was the controlling principle: Jews, non-Jews. People of God, dogs. No good at all in them; everything right about these. He doesn't think like that any longer. He's been renewed.

We are no longer to be governed by likes and dislikes and prejudices and things like that. We were entirely governed by things like that. We mustn't now. We are renewed in our minds because of what has happened to us. As the Apostle now delights in the fact that he is the Apostle to the Gentiles, so you and I must see everybody else in a new way, and it'll solve many of the problems of our daily life and living. But the trouble is that often as Christians, though we are born again, we react as we used to react to different people and to what they do and think and say.

We mustn't do that. We must now look at them. We must see them not so much as difficult people if they are difficult people. We must see them as slaves of Satan. We must be sorry for them. Our Lord looked out upon the masses and He saw them as sheep without a shepherd and His heart was filled with compassion. We must do that. When we've got this new way of thinking, we'll do that. But we must make a positive effort. We don't just instinctively react. We say: Wait a minute now. How do I look at all this? And you remember that they're just the slaves of the devil. They still belong to the kingdom of darkness. They're not a people. No man, I therefore know no man henceforth after the flesh.

It not only changes our view of ourselves and other people, it changes our entire view of life in this world. And there's nothing more important than this. We are in a unique relationship to this world. Our citizenship being there, we're only strangers and pilgrims here. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. You and I have got to make ourselves think like that.

We are in this world, we are no longer of it. We are journeymen, we are sojourners, strangers, and pilgrims. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. It's inevitable. This is the constant appeal of the New Testament. "This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind."

You can't do that. You haven't so learned Christ. Don't go on living as if you were unchanged. You are changed. Be ye not partakers with them therefore. For you were sometimes, you were at one time, once upon a time, you were darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Well, walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

The world isn't ashamed to speak of them in public any longer, is it? But you and I should be ashamed of that and we mustn't do that. We must have nothing to do with them. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

The New Testament is full of this very argumentation which I've summed up so often to you in working through this epistle like this: you were, you are. You were, but you're no longer, thank God. But you are. That's exactly what he's saying here. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. You've got to realize that you do belong to this chosen generation, this royal priesthood, this holy nation, this people who are to be a peculiar possession for the Lord, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light that we may show forth that He's done so and thus minister to His glory and to His praise.

To forget all this will simply lead to conformity to the world. If we do conform to the world, it just means that we've forgotten all this. It is a matter for the mind, my dear friends. This is the problem. The problem is one of thinking correctly. Renewing of the mind. Peter says, "I'm amazed at you. You've forgotten. You're foolish, you're blind, you can't see afar off. You've forgotten what's happened to you."

So to conform to the world is not only to forget all these glorious things which we claim to believe, but it is also at the same time to contradict them. And we must never be guilty of that. Here I am, I've been called out of the darkness and its kingdom. I've been translated into God's kingdom. And here I've been looking at myself now functioning in this kingdom. But wait a minute. Let's look ahead for a moment. Let's consider what's awaiting us. Let's consider why God has done this to us.

What's it for? Why has He given us the Spirit? Oh, it is in order to prepare us for that which is our destiny. "Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called: and whom he called them he also justified: and whom he justified them he also glorified." Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate what for? To be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn amongst many brethren.

This is the way we must think. We must say to ourselves day by day: I no longer belong to the darkness. I no longer belong to the no-people. I am of the people of God. I am in His kingdom. But what for? Well, it is that I may be prepared for this glory which is coming, and I must walk in the light of this. In other words, I don't live just from day to day and hand to mouth, allowing the world to influence me and I reacting. No, no, I've got this total view.

I realize that I'm a pilgrim on the way to eternity. One of God's children going in the direction of home. And I must keep my eye on that. Why did Moses account suffering affliction with the people of God greater riches than the prospects in Egypt and the pleasures of sin for a moment? The answer is this: he had his eye on the recompense of the reward. That's how the man of God lives. He doesn't merely face this particular problem "shall I do it or shan't I?" and try and bring in psychological methods to help me not—not at all.

That's the world's approach. He says: Who am I? What am I doing? Where am I going? Ah, and he sees it. He has his eye on the recompense of the reward. And if you've got your eye on that, you'll soon deal with these problems. But that's how we're to deal with them: by the renewing of your mind. Our Lord Himself, according to that author, did that. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame." His eye was there, the joy that was set before Him.

"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." That's it. He says, even we ourselves which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. That's the thing. We keep our eye on that. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness and sin not. Why? Well, because you're going to rise and you're going to be like Him.

Ethics and the doctrine of the resurrection are inextricably mixed up together, and they belong together. We are looking for the Savior who shall come from heaven and who when He comes will change this the body of my humiliation and fashion it like unto His glorious body. That's my destiny. That's where I'm going. If I'm a Christian, that's the truth about me. And the moment I keep these things in my mind and they govern my thinking, it changes my attitude to every particular problem. But that's the way you do it, you see. You do it with the mind and you get these things clear, and these are guiding principles, these are controlling principles, and all these other matters fall into position.

As long as you see these things, and as long as you are governed by this kind of thinking, well then, of course, you will realize in a very acute manner that you've got no time to waste, you've got no time to spare. The time is short. Eternity is coming. You say you want to get there. You say that you rejoice that Christ came into the world and even died on the cross and was buried in a grave and rose again in order to bring you there. You say all that, very well, well it means then that you're going to see Him as He is and stand before Him.

Well, if you believe that, says John in his first epistle, you haven't got much time to waste and to spare, you better start preparing yourself for it. "And now, little children, abide in him." Why? Well, "that in order that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming." What a terrible thing it would be if when we see Him as He is, the predominating feeling will be one of shame, that though we said we believed in Him and were grateful to Him for coming, we lived according to this world.

We'll see then what we've missed, how we'd misunderstood it all, how unworthy we've been. We'll be ashamed before Him at His coming. No, no, let it not be that. Let us rather prepare for it. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." If the world criticizes you, thank them for doing so. They're telling you in other words that you belong to Him. They didn't know Him, and they don't know His people.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is." Right, "and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." It's inevitable logic. So you don't just start with the question of purification. You see yourself meeting Him and looking into His eyes and you say I must get on with this, I must purify myself even as He is pure.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. That's it. At the end of chapter 13: "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

The days are passing and every day that passes means that we're a day nearer to His coming, the ultimate completion of the salvation. "Knowing that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night," and it is night at this present time, isn't it? "The night, the night of sin and evil, the night of the darkness of this world, thank God, we know this: the night is far spent, the day is at hand." And it is as you see that you apply this logic. "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof."

Well, it means something like that, you see. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You think in this way, you struggle, strive, to do everything you can to make yourself do that, and you never allow yourself to slip back into the old way of thinking. You are renewed in your mind, in the spirit of your mind, in the controlling principle of all your thinking and your entire outlook. That is the way in which the Christian faces the problem of conduct and behavior, of living in a world such as this tonight.

O Lord our God, we again thank Thee. Oh, how can we thank Thee for such glorious truth, for lifting us into the realm of light and of the eternities. Oh, forgive us for our slowness, for our dullness, for our lethargy. Lord, may we be given grace to heed the great exhortations of Thy word that we have just read together. Help us all to feel tonight that it is high time for us to awake out of sleep, for the night is far spent and the day is at hand. Oh, may it come. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And grant that none of us who know these things shall be ashamed at Thy glorious appearing. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us, now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage until we shall see Him as He is and be like Him. Amen.