Be Transformed

August 17, 2025

Jerrold Wynia

 Romans 11:33 – 12:2

  Rhonda and I have had the blessing and privilege over our lifetimes to be in churches where Biblical  preaching and teaching were taught as an integral part of our lives. God placed us in homes where the  church was the center of our social lives. We both were part of families that attended church twice on  Sundays. We had Sunday School. When we reached our high school years we had Catechism and Youth  Group. We were immersed in a Biblical world-view. Yet, with all of that, we were still in need of being  transformed by the renewing of our minds by the power of Christ.  

Our journey, my journey, is not your journey. Some of you may have had similar experiences, where  others may have grown up with no church and experienced an amazing conversion when you came to  accept God’s incredible gift of salvation. Now you too are on a journey of growth and transformation.  And there may be others that are just not sure if this Bible stuff really is all it claims to be.

 With this we turn to an excerpt in the middle of the book of Romans. This book was written by Paul to  the early church believers Rome, many who were not Jewish. He is presenting to them the basic gospel,  and then how they should live as Christians in the church and in the world where God has placed them.  None of the other letters of Paul state so clearly the gospel and what it means for the believer in Rome  and for all believers through all time and in every nation and city and town on earth. 

 We are zeroing in today on a turn that is happening in Paul’s letter 

 The book of Romans begins with a frank appraisal of our sinful condition, which deserves eternal  death. In Romans 3:23 is the familiar verse “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” but  the following verse 24 provides the hope when we read “and are justified freely by his grace through  the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” It is just as clear in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is  death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

  The first part of Romans has been about understanding the big questions related to how the gospel  works, why the gospel is necessary, how God’s act to redeem sinners through the blood of his Son  Jesus has been realized in the church. 

Then in chapters 9 up to 11:32 Paul speaks of the relationship between the church and Israel and how  we are to live as redeemed children of God. Living by grace. 

 At verse 33 of chapter 11 is a tremendous shift. Now we are going to move to the application of the  gospel to our Christian life. This is how Christians should live. This letter is to Christians in Rome, who  were subject to all the temptations that such a city had to offer. We need this very same message: how  are we to live in a non-Christian world.

 Essentially, Paul is using an If Then argument. If this is the gospel, if we now know what Christ has  done for us, then, therefore, we transform our lives, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice.  

 In Romans 12:1 we have the word Therefore – this means we need to go back to what is written  before. Since we do not have time to cover all of the first 11 chapters, we will focus for the moment on  verses 33-37 of chapter 11. This is a benediction, or a doxology. In the Greek, ‘Doxo’ is ‘glory’. It is a  natural outpouring of Paul’s praise to God.  

Tradition in the church I experienced growing up was to sing the doxology at the end of every service. I  remember that distinctly. At the end of each of the two services that were held every Sunday we sang  the doxology “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow”. (have the words printed in the bulletin and  then used at the end of the service)  

Let’s explore these verses a bit.  

V33 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his  judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out!” –Unsearchable, or as another translation puts it  ‘Unfathomable’. None of us could figure out the gospel in our own human minds. We cannot on our  own come to an understanding of ‘sin’. Without the revelation of God we would not come up with the  doctrine of ‘sin’. Without God’s revelation in scripture we would not know why ‘sin’ is such an offense  to a holy God. We need God’s revelation, else we would have to come up with a solution on our own.  We would create a religion, in our own wisdom, with it own rituals. Scripture is how we come to know  that Christ came, and died, sacrificing himself for our sins, and that we who come to him and call him  Lord can receive His eternal salvation.  

In Job 11:7 we read “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the  Almighty?”  

This is beyond human imagination. No-one but God could have given us this. God not only knows  everything, but He is the source of all truth.  

V34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? – This comes from  Isaiah 40:13 where we read “Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his  counselor?” How audacious are those that claim to know the mind of God, or to claim to have an  answer.  

Kings have advisors. Our president has advisors surrounding him. That company that I retired from  earlier this year had a president that was over all of the world-wide operations of that company. Yet that  president had a board of directors, leaders from other companies and industries that provided guidance.  He also had a bunch of vice presidents that were conferred with and provided him guidance and  executed the agreed upon plans.  

However, God has no advisors, period. He does not need one.  

V35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” – This is taken from the LORD’s  words in Job 41:11 where we read “Who has made a claim against me that I must pay? Everything  under heaven belongs to me.” God never says ‘thank you’. He does not have any needs like we do. No  one has ever done anything for God which would make Him in the person’s debt.  

V36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” –  What does this mean? Everything is headed toward a goal that is God’s sovereign determination. All  things are God’s sovereignty. We are finite, we are frail. We cannot remember what we ate or wore  yesterday.  

This great centering passage helps to put us in our place. And it helps to frame our understanding of  how we are to then live out our live for God. That leads us to chapter 12 and the word ‘Therefore’.  

12:1 – “Therefore, 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.”  

Paul has laid out the evidence in all of the previous 11 chapters. There is no stronger urging or  exhortation found in scripture. ‘I urge you by the mercy of God’  

“Living sacrifice”. That is an oxymoron, when put together two things that do not match logically. That  phrase only makes sense once the great truths have been explained and understood.  

In the Old Testament, when there was an animal sacrifice, the animal did not get up afterwards.  

But on the cross there was one final sacrifice of death.  

So, the living sacrifice that Paul is referring to in 12:1 is to offer of ourselves as living sacrifices.  

What is an acceptable sacrifice?  

• A spiritual act of worship  

• we actually owe him the entirety of our lives, not just bits and pieces here and there.  

How do we do that? For that we continue on to verse 2 in Romans 12...  

V2 “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.”  

What does it mean to conform, or to be a Conformist?  

• Words we say  

• Ways that we think  

• the pressure of conformity is huge in our culture  

                  ◦ the world is one big secular pressure cooker that tends to build in all of us an instinct  towards conformity.  

                         ▪ We honestly do not even realize that we are conforming  

                    ◦ But Paul points out that if we conform to the world we are denying the gospel  

We must “be transformed,” not to conform. This here is a process over your lifetime, not a single event.  It is our life journey.  

• Here I would like to share a little of our journey to help you see that you can always look back  in your life and see God’s plan unfolding.   

              ▪ Think about that for a minute… at this man’s birth God already planned to use his  blindness years, even decades later. Isn’t that amazing?  

              ▪ If I truly grasp and comprehend that, then there is nothing in my life that happens  without God’s purpose and foreknowledge, NOTHING!  

Share story of moves from Worthington to St. Charles to Pipestone – God’s plan.  

Things didn’t just suddenly change, it was a process. But God had changed my heart. And I had to  share that heart change with Rhonda. I had to earn her trust back over time. God used the men in my  small group to guide me on this journey of transformation. Rhonda and I travelled this together, with  our family. We are still on that journey today.  

So where are you in your life’s journey with God. Are you in the process of being transformed? If not,  and you desire to know more about being transformed, please, come and talk to Pastor John or one of  the Elders. I encourage you to take steps to seek out God’s will for you so that the Holy Spirit can be at  work in you transforming your lives. There is nothing more exciting. Whatever circumstances you are  in, know that it is in God’s plan. You can shine forth in your homes and with your families, your  workplace, among your neighbors, and out into the world where God has chosen you to be placed.