11-1-15 Reformation vs. Transformation

Scripture:  Romans 12:1-2

SUMMARIZE Paul’s theology:

(Romans 11) Jews disobedient meant Gentile mercy – Gentile disobedience means Jews mercy – Gentiles were grafted in and can be cut off – Jews can certainly be grafted back in.

Romans 11:30-36

Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  (Can’t make a God’s Ven diagram or master flow chart) 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? (No one!)  Or who has been his counselor?" (No one!)  35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" (No one!) 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.    NIV

It is not about you or even US – it is about JESUS! – His mercy!

          We need to Lament our disobedience and rejoice in His mercy.

Lamentations 3:19-23

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all — oh, how well I remember — the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. 23 They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!        THE MESSAGE

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing, I will sing.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.

With my voice will I make known

Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness.

With my voice will I make known

Thy faithfulness to all generations.

Romans 12:1-2

I urge (parakalew = to admonish, to encourage, to exhort. Used to exhort troops who were about to go into battle.) you therefore (as a result of the whole previous argument Romans 11:30-36), brethren, by the mercies (oiktirmos = 1) compassion, pity, mercy 1a) bowels in which compassion resides, a heart of compassion) of God, to present your bodies (1 Cor 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.) a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed (to mold or form after something – imitation of a received mode of conduct.) to this world, but be transformed (change in form) by the renewing of your mind (by the reasonable quality of your thinking power causing action – hence, not involuntary), that you may prove what the will of God is (God’s will is proved to you based on your transformed life), that which is good and acceptable and perfect.   NASB

Transformed by the: RENEWING OF YOUR MIND  2 Corinthians 10:3-6

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Transformed = Things that mattered no longer matter. Things that did not matter now matter.

Jeff Cooper = Potty mouth. TRANSFORMED Reading the bible.

Saul of Tarsus - hated the people stealing his religion – throwing them in prison and approving of their murder. TRANSFORMED Apostle Paul – loved the person who transformed his religion into a personal relationship with the Living God.

Martin Luther = A man who was struck by lightning and gave himself to the will of God and became a monk who was spiritually good for no one but himself  TRANSFORMED to a man who stood against the holy Roman Catholic Church no matter what the cost.  Who transformed the idea of salvation by works // to salvation by faith alone.

reformation vs transformation
Reformation = The act of reforming; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of anything corrupt.

Transformation = The act or operation of changing the form or external appearance.
1. Metamorphosis; change of form in insects; as from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
2. Transmutation; the change of one metal into another, as of copper or tin into gold.
3. In theology, a change of heart in man, by which his disposition and temper are conformed to the divine image; a change from enmity to holiness and love.

Reformation When one reforms he, by his own power, decides to live a better life with the Bible as his guide. He has determination to live a better life in order to be a good Christian. If all the person did was get under conviction or was tired of living the life he was living and decided to make reform of his ways then salvation most likely never took place.

Transformation though not a Bible word, the principle according to the definition is. (2 Cor 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! NIV  --- The Message:  Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!

Reformation a person decides to quit drinking, joins AA and cleans up his act. Is this a good and commendable thing? Yes, but there is no real transformation only reformation.

Transformation a sinner becomes a new creature in Christ. The sinner who was once dead is made alive.  Colossians 3:5-11  Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.   You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Reformation is man making himself better by following scripture’s teachings. Transformation is God doing a supernatural act in a person, made possible by Jesus Christ.

THE PROTESTENT REFORMATION = THE CHURCH TRANSFORMATION

October 31, 1517 (498 years ago) Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany against the Catholic church’s practice of indulgences = purchasing forgiveness to reduce the time that departed loved ones would live in purgatory before going to heaven.  Many of Luther’s ideas were based on others who had come before - like

John Wycliffe who taught at Oxford University in the 14^th century and translated the Latin bible into common English. He had a certain understanding about this idea of transformation as we look at his theology about communion – also a position against the catholic church of his day.

He believed in the “invisible” church of the elect – those who were transformed by Jesus, rather than in the “visible” church of Rome—that is, in the organized, institutional church of his day. But his chief target was the doctrine of transubstantiation—that the substance of the bread and wine used in the Communion is changed into the body and blood of Christ. He condemned the doctrine as idolatrous and unscriptural. He sought to replace it with a doctrine of remanence (remaining)—“This is very bread after the consecration”—combined with an assertion of the Real Presence of Christ = Consubstantiation. Meaning that the bread and wine do not become Christ but Christ’s real presence is in them as they are taken.

Here is the problem when looking at Reformation vs Transformation. Both of those theological perspectives mean the bread has been transformed but offers only an act of reformation for the person taking it. We look at the bread and wine only as symbols to remind us of the work that Christ did and the transformation that may take place is not in the elements but in the person taking them. The real presence of Christ is in the person – not the bread. The bread and wine may be reformed into wafers, crackers and even leavened bread - cabernet, zinfandel, or simple Welches grape juice. BUT the person who, during communion receives the real mercy offered by Jesus Christ, can have their life completely transformed:

Life as a reprobate transformed into life someone virtuous

Living without cause transformed into living for the sake of the king.

Ticket to hell is transformed into a ticket to heaven.