Metamorphosis
Romans 11:33 – 12:2
A woman was undergoing surgery and died on the operating table. But God told her that He wasn’t going to call her home for twenty more years. When she recovered, she was so glad to know she had so many years that she decided to change everything about her appearance. She had a face life, changed the color and style of her hair and went in for liposuction. Leaving the hospital, she was hit by a speeding ambulance and died. She cried, “God, what happened? You said I had twenty more years!” God replied, “I’m sorry! I didn’t recognize you.”
Perhaps you’ve heard it said, “the one thing constant is change.” Sometimes we want change and try to make it happen. Other times we don’t want change and resist it. We work hard to prevent the transformation of our bodies caused by aging, or to reverse the effects of aging when we haven’t succeeded in preventing them. The structures and systems of organizations are constantly changing – at times by forces beyond our control, and sometimes by designs we hope will increase effectiveness. Our families are always changing as children grow up and we transition from one life-stage to the next.
But this morning let’s talk about the most important kind of transformation. The spiritual metamorphosis we read about in Romans 11:33 – 12:2.
Please look again at verse 2; Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will (NIV).
If you’re looking at your own Bible, circle the words, “conform” and “transformed.”
The words Paul used here will sound familiar to you.
The word we translate “conform” is schema. What does that sound like to you?
We get from it words like scheme or schematic. When I did some work with electronics I worked with schematics. That’s the plan or diagram that shows how each component is connected so the device works properly. If you’re assembling a radio, you’d better be sure it conforms to the schematic. If you want to mess with someone’s mind just for fun, or sabotage their efforts out of meanness, switch their schematic with one designed for a different model than they’re assembling.
The Bible warns us that the devil, the prince of this darkened world, has switched schematics on us. He has a plan for us that will lead us away from God if we conform to its design. We have to follow a different design and conform to God’s schematic.
Peter said it this way. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:14-15)
To conform to God’s schematic, you must transform. The word Paul used for this is metamorfousthe. What does that sound like?
We are familiar with metamorphosis in biology. Physical life forms transform. The larva (caterpillar) enters the pupa (cocoon) stage, then becomes an adult (butterfly). An egg grows into a tadpole that lives only in water, breathes with gills and has a tail. Soon it grows lungs and legs. The gills and tail are absorbed into the body and you have a frog.
Metamorphisis also appears in mythology as humans are said to have become other creatures. For example, Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas were attendants of Artemis the goddess of wildlife and hunting. They were pursued by Orion the hunter and rescued by the gods who transformed them into doves. After death, they were transformed by Zeus into a group of stars in the constellation Taurus. They were said to be forever pursued across sky by the Orion constellation.
But we need to understand metamorphosis in theology. It is the word translated “transfigured” in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2. “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (Matt 17:2, NIV).
The word also appears in 2 Cor 3:18 where it’s translated “transformed”. That verse says, “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (NIV).
Butterflies and frogs have no choice. Metamorphosis is built into their DNA. But spiritual metamorphosis isn’t automatic. It doesn’t just happen to us. It is the result of cooperation and conformity with God’s Spirit working in us.
It might help to think of Romans 12:1 and 2 as describing stages of spiritual metamorphosis.
1. Relinquish your body as an offering to honor God.
“I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1, NIV).
A good paraphrase: “I beg you… as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing to him.”
Such an offering is the most intelligent and logical response to God’s mercy. It is not too much to ask.
How can we make such an offering? Paul is very practical, descriptive to the point that modest people may be embarrassed. He wrote in Romans 6:12-13, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”
Is that clear enough, or do I need to get very specific about how each part of your body can be used as an instrument to sin or used to honor God?
When teaching on this passage, my theology professor in Bible College used to say, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.” This self-surrender must be an ongoing, day-by-day offering. That is critical to real spiritual metamorphosis.
2. Resist the squeeze to conform to the world’s ways.
“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold…” (Rom. 12:2, JB Philips).
Peer pressure isn’t just a teen age problem. Why do we buy the cars we do? Why do we choose homes we do? Why do we wear fashions and hairstyles we do? Doesn’t our desire to conform or to please others factor into these decisions to at least some extent? Most of us would rather not seem like an odd-ball.
That desire to be like everyone else can so gradually lead us down a path from rather innocent and harmless choices into a lifestyle that bears no resemblance to godliness and filled with sin. The Bible is clear that God created us in His image. He wants us to resemble Him. But we fail to recognize how sin distorts that image. The world around us puts on the squeeze so we’ll join in the life that’s so contrary to God’s design for us.
How does the world pressure us into conformity? Largely by reward and punishment. Conformity offers comfort, while non-conformity is painful.
I read of an interesting idea that may show how this works. I can’t confirm that someone actually did this study, but it seems realistic. If it happened, it went something like this.
They started with a group of five monkeys in an enclosure, hung a banana at the top and placed a ladder for easy access to it. Whenever one of the monkeys started up the ladder, all the monkeys were sprayed with cold water until the one at the ladder retreated. This was done consistently until any time one of the monkeys started up the ladder, the rest of the group would attack and punish him. They continued to react this way even when no water was sprayed.
Then they replaced one of the original five with a new monkey. Not knowing the conformity code, he started up the ladder and was promptly punished by the other four. Eventually he stopped trying to reach the banana.
Then another rookie replaced one of the original group and the process repeated. By the time there was an entirely new group of five monkeys, none of whom had endured the cold water treatment, they were all conforming to the same behavior because non-conformity is painful.
That’s peer pressure, and we all face it in various ways.
In our world today we are pressured to condone and approve all kinds of evil because the present age says there are few things more despicable than being intolerant.
But whose blessing do you want? Who do you want to please? The people around you who are mindlessly conforming to things destined to soon go up in smoke, or to God? To cooperate with the Spirit’s metamorphosis, you must resist the squeeze.
3. Renovate your mind to conform to God’s will.
“…be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2, NIV).
This is a good verse for comparing in other translations and paraphrases. For example it reads in the New Living Translation; “…let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”
I also find J.B. Phillips’ paraphrase helpful; “… let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity.”
Paul said the metamorphosis is accomplished “by the renewing of your mind.” The word “renewing” also means renovation. Think of a house. You can make repairs. You know, the cosmetic kind – some paint and carpet – and it looks better, perhaps increases the resale value.
But Paul isn’t talking about repairing our minds. That may cover up some ugly defects for awhile, but it isn’t going to lead to transformation.
You can restore a house to its original historic condition. You take out carpet and refinish the original wood floors. You find windows, doors, woodwork and hardware in good condition from the period the house was built and install those to reverse someone else’s “modernizations”.
But Paul isn’t talking about restoring our minds to their original condition. We were born sinners and did not have the mind of God so what is there to restore?
Paul is talking about a complete renovation. This is not about cosmetic repairs or restoration. It’s like taking a house and completely gutting it. Walls, floors, wiring, plumbing, cabinets, bath and kitchen fixtures, roof – it’s all completely new. Anyone who’d seen the house in its previous condition wouldn’t recognize it now.
That’s what needs to take place in us according to our verse here. Paul said something similar to the Ephesians; “Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through… Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal [renovation] of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness — righteous, holy, and true” (Eph 4:22-24, NLT)
How can that happen? Earlier we included in our Scripture reading Romans 11:33-36. I find help here for the transformation of our minds. To come to my right mind – God’s mind – I must humble myself before God and acknowledge…
A. The riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God are beyond the reach of an unrenewed mind. Without God’s mind I have no wisdom. Look at verse 33; “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” One of Job’s visitors challenged him, "Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything there is to know about the Almighty? Such knowledge is higher than the heavens — but who are you? …what can you know in comparison to him” (Job 11:7)?
B. I have no knowledge God needs. Look at verse 34; “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” If seems funny for a 6-year-old child to think he can counsel the president of the U.S. on the political and economic intricacies of foreign trade policies, how ridiculous is it for me to think I have counsel to offer God. Yet I sometimes pray and act as if I can tell Him things He doesn’t know or guide Him to the right solution for a problem.
C. God is in no way indebted to me. Look at verse 35; “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” Can I really think I’ve been so good that God’s obligated to be good to me? Can I really believe I’ve given so much or done so much for God that He owes me something?
D. It’s all His. Look at verse 36; “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” He is the source, channel and destination of everything I have.
If we will cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in us we will experience a wonderful transformation, conforming us to God’s remarkable design. So let Him…
Renovate your mind.
Resist the squeeze to conform to world’s ways.
Relinquish your body and offer yourself completely as a living sacrifice to God’s will.
