“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.” Romans 12:2
Once we come to faith in Christ and begin walking in the Light, we often start to see more clearly how sinful and flawed we are in our flesh. And if we are not careful, we might become confused and distracted and get caught up in trying to renew ourselves through self-effort. We might (perhaps unconsciously) begin a campaign to clean up our act so that we might live free from habitual sin and represent Christ better.
But this is not God’s way of renewal for us. Self-effort is the world’s way. “Pull yourself up! Do hard things! No pain, no glory!” are the mantras of this world, but Jesus speaks a better word.
When His disciples asked, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:28-29). The work we do, friend, is to believe in Jesus.
As believers, we must not conform to the world’s methods of renewal through self-effort as these are confusing, distracting, and doomed to fail. Instead, we must seek the renewal of our mind through God’s Word.
We do not face our problems or sin struggles by tackling them ourselves, turning to laws and rules to change our behavior. Instead, we want to seek transformation by reminding ourselves of what Jesus accomplished for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. By meditating on this heart cleansing and mind-renewing message continually and by putting faith in it, a transformation of heart and life is sure.
And this remembering of Jesus’ death, and what He accomplished on the cross for us, is not a one-time event nor merely remembering during communion at a church service. No, we must always remind ourselves of the One “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age…” (Galatians 1:4; 2 Peter 1:12).