I believe we would all benefit from a greater emphasis on the other side of the coin: That it is God’s mercy in Christ that enables us to renew our minds and experience transformation. May we never lose sight of the grace that underlies our growth.
And as we behold the mercy of God in Christ, we find ourselves empowered to respond – not just with an obligation to obey, but with a newfound ‘response-ability.’ The same grace that saves us also enables us to live out the transformation God calls us to.
Let the rest of the world fawn over ChatGPT, while I go ahead and enjoy the more precise, more accurate ClaudeAI. It/He helped me out with wrapping up my initial thoughts for Romans 12.
I wasn’t really expecting to go so deep with my thoughts and opinions that popped up after just two verses – but I felt it really needed to get out.
I mean, yes, we talked about being transformed by the renewing of our mind, about presenting ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.
But at the very end, we also revealed something that’s been at the tip of my tongue for the longest time – a very subtle observation that didn’t sit right with me, that I’ve seen my own church struggling with, as I’ve seen many other speakers and brethren project: Our propensity to place the focus on ourselves, and on our work, when it’s Christ and His finished work that matters most.
It’s also Christ and His finished work that comes first. We love to say stuff like this, but our actions and systems still seem to project that we work to be blessed, we work for God’s favor, and if we aren’t working for God’s love, we’re stressing each other out to work to MAINTAIN God’s love.
But it’s Claude who helped me out – It’s God’s grace that underlies our growth. The grace that saved us is what transforms us. The mercy freely given to us is what renews our minds. And it’s all thanks to Jesus, that we have God’s grace and mercy.
Let’s keep on going.
Wait, actually, I do want to touch base on something else in Romans 12:2 before we do keep going:
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.
I’ve noticed how a whole bunch of us are still so paralyzed by analyzing ‘what is the will of God’: We hold off on making decisions because we want to be sure we’re ‘in the will of God’. We’re fearful about the past choices we’ve made because we’re afraid of the consequences we impose on ourselves, thinking they were done ‘outside the will of God’.
We pressure each other, even condemn each other because in our minds we think that some of our brethren are ‘living in sin’ and in our own minds decide that they are ‘outside the will of God’. When we see other people with circumstances not going their way, we’re the first ones to say that they aren’t ‘in the will of God’.
I think Paul was very good to us by ending and elaborating that God’s will is, or I’ll say God wants ‘what is good and acceptable and perfect’.
That may be a good guideline for us to keep in mind when we compare our own past actions, present movements and future plans to God’s will; as in, we’d ask ourselves, ‘what is good and acceptable and perfect?’
But take note that I don’t think we have what it takes. New creations as we may be, while we are in this fallen world, we may not always be so precise and accurate in determining what is truly good, what is truly acceptable, and what is truly perfect in each and every situation.
We can never truly contain God’s will, much less have it completely figured out, far less for each and every circumstance and situation we’re in (not even considering those we’re unaware of). Good luck with that.
But, see, it’s really good that we’ve gone through Romans 10 and 11, because there we see that just as our God HIMSELF is so trustworthy, so we can also place our trust in what He wills – or, in the choice of terminologies we’ve used earlier: We are ALWAYS ‘in’ God’s will.
The same God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart that the Egyptians would see that He is the God above all gods, is the same God who provoked the Israelites into jealousy, using their rejection of Christ for the reconciliation and salvation of the Gentiles, and then the same God who saved the Gentiles saved them to SAVE the Jews.
We can certainly question what’s going on, and where God is in the most twisted of circumstances or the most challenging of situations… But, see – Not by who we are or what we’ve done, but through no other than Christ and His finished work can we have the trust – no, not merely the trust but the CONFIDENCE that it God is with us.
Why does this matter? Because, again, we will NEVER know what is truly good, acceptable, and perfect in all that goes on in our existence in this reality – but what’s better is that we have the only One who IS good, acceptable and perfect, for us and not against us, and NOTHING can ever separate us from His love.
I feel like I’ve been going around in circles here but I just wanted to recap and emphasize, from the top:
God’s Grace unto growth, God’s Mercy unto metanoia.
Because of Jesus Christ, God’s Grace and Mercy is freely given to us .
Through Christ, God is always with us, and we are always in God’s will.
Because God is always with us, and we are always in God’s will, we are able to discern the will of God,
God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is good, and acceptable, and perfect.
Here I was thinking I would keep going with Romans 12, continuing with verse 3… but, see, that second half of verse 2 was a doozy. It was challenging and exciting to take on it though, and I pray I made some sense here.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”Matthew 11:28-30
Claude helped me out in closing all this:
Paul writes in Colossians 1:15-20: Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and in Him all things hold together. God’s purpose is to reconcile all things to Himself through Christ, making peace by the blood of His cross.
Paul also speaks, in Ephesians 1:9-10, of the mystery of God’s will being set forth in Christ, to unite all things in Him.
Rather than being primarily about our circumstances or decisions, God’s will is ultimately about conforming us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29) and summing up all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10).
Ultimately, we can rest in the assurance that Christ Himself is God’s will for us. More than any specific circumstance or decision, God’s purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son, in whom all things hold together. As we fix our eyes on Jesus, we can trust that God is working all things according to His good and perfect will, which finds its ultimate expression in Christ.
I apologize but I will end again, here. Until the next post, God bless you!
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#Romans #GraceBehindWorks #DivineMercy #Repentance #Metanoia #Bible #BibleStudy #Encouragement #HolySpirit #JesusChrist #Truth #Reflections #Revelations #PracticalChristianity #BenefitsOfSalvation
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