RENEWED AND TRANSFORMED

"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16).

"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).

It is not an easy thing to be a mature, strong Christian. It cost the Son of God His life. It is God's part to create a new man and to maintain that life with the unceasing daily care of the Holy Spirit.

When the new man is put on, it is our responsibility to see that the old man is put off. All the attitudes, habits, and pleasures of our own nature, that make up the life in which we have lived, are to be put away. All we have acquired by our natural birth from Adam is to be sold, if we are to possess the pearl of great price. If a man is to come after Christ, he must deny himself and take up his cross. He must forsake all and follow Christ in the path in which He walked. The Christian must cast away not only all sin, but everything, however legitimate and precious, that may cause him to sin. He is to hate his own life, to lose it, if he is to live in the power of eternal life. It is a serious thing, far more serious than most people think, to be a true Christian.

Renewing Your Mind

Paul speaks of the renewing of the inward man as being accompanied by the perishing of the outward man. The whole epistle of 2 Corinthians shows us how the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, even in conformity to His death, was the secret of Paul's life of power and blessing to the churches. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:10-12). The full experience of the life of Christ in our person, our body, and our work for others depends upon our fellowship in His suffering and death.

There can be no large measure of the renewal of the inward man without the sacrifice, the perishing of the outward man. To be filled with heaven, the life must be emptied of earth. We have the same truth in our second text, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." An old house may be renewed and yet keep very much of its old appearance. Or the renewal may be so complete that people exclaim,

"That's a transformation!" The renewing of the mind by the Holy Spirit means an entire transformation, an entirely different way of thinking, judging, and deciding. The fleshly mind gives place to a "spiritual understanding" (see Colossians 1:9 and 1 John 5:20). This transformation is obtained only at the cost of giving up all that is of the old nature. "Be not conformed according to this world: but be ye transformed."

By nature, we are of this world. When renewed by grace, we are still in the world, subject to the subtle influence from which we cannot escape. The world is still in us, as the leaven of the nature which nothing can purge out except the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, who fills us with the life of heaven.

Being Transformed

Let us allow these truths to take hold and master us. The divine transformation, by the daily renewing of our mind into His image, can proceed in us only as we seek to be freed from every conformity to this world. The negative, "Be not conformed to this world," needs to be emphasized as strongly as the positive, "be ye transformed." The spirit of this world and the Spirit of God contend for the possession of our being.

Only as the spirit of this world is recognized, renounced, and cast out can the heavenly Spirit enter in. Then the Holy Spirit can do His blessed work of renewing and transforming. The world and whatever is of the worldly spirit must be given up. Our life and whatever is of the self must be lost.

This daily renewal of the inward man is very costly if we are trying to do it in our own strength. When we really learn that the Holy Spirit does every. thing, and by faith give up the struggle, the renewing becomes the simple, natural, healthy, joyful growth of the heavenly life in us.

The inner chamber then becomes the place we long for every day to praise God for what He has done, is doing, and what we know He will do. Day by day, we yield ourselves afresh to the blessed Lord who has said, "He that believeth on Me...out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). "The renewing of the Holy Ghost" becomes one of the most blessed truths of our daily Christian life.