Chapter # 12 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
September 15, 2019
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: There is continual need for a workable "follow-through" to the initial "presentation".
Introduction: I have been listening to an online course titled "Understanding God's Covenants" put out by Dallas Theological Seminary that has been interesting for what it contains as a correlation between the covenants that God has established with men through the ages and the dispensations in which those covenants are "worked out in history" and for what it does not contain as a correlation between The Fall, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Land Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant (but, I have not completed the entire course, so there may be some things come down the pike as I go through the rest of the course). What is missing is what is at the core of our study this evening: the imperative Paul insists upon in respect to "being conformed" (NASB choice of words) and "being transformed" (again, NASB choice of words).
What do these words mean, and how do they apply to us?
- I. A Larger Context and Construct.
- A. It should be without dispute that "The Fall" revealed the elements of the Satanic method of keeping men from properly relating to God.
- 1. Those elements consist of three particulars that operate under an all-inclusive umbrella.
- a. The "umbrella" is the accusation that God is not "good".
- 1) He is a liar -- so you cannot "believe" anything He says (challenging the indisputable focus of all of revelation from God: "faith").
- 2) He does not have the interests of His creation at heart because He is only ultimately interested in His own interests.
- b. The "particulars" are the appeal to the body's appetites, the soul's longing for security, and the spirit's intention to be recognized for its accomplishments as "foundations" for true "life".
- 1) The declaration of God was that "dying ye shall die".
- 2) The declaration of Satan was "ye shall not die".
- 3) Together these make the focus "Life" and "Death"; and well it should be for creatures, because there is no greater "conclusion" to "unending experience" than these issues.
- 2. That this is indisputable is argued because of the unchanged methodology over millennia.
- a. What Satan introduced as his "methodology" in Genesis 3 is used once again 4,000 years later in the "temptation" of the Second Adam (Matthew 4/Luke 4).
- b. 1 John 2:16 declares that this is the methodology because there is no other.
- c. Satan used his best (and only) approach to fostering rebellion against God in the beginning and he has never varied it in all of recorded time.
- B. The translators' choice to render Paul's words as "conformity to the world" is unfortunate.
- 1. It is misleading in terms of "conformity".
- a. The meaning of the word translated "conformed" is not easily grasped because of the paucity of use in the Bible, but in the culture it meant "configured in the same way" (Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon).
- 1) In this text, it is translated "conform", but in the only other use (1 Peter 1:14) it is translated "fashion".
- 2) Its "root" is also only used twice in the New Testament and in those uses (1 Corinthians 7:31 and Philippians 2:8), the translators of the Authorized Version opt for "fashion" while the NASB uses "form" in the former, and "appearance" in the latter.
- b. However, in all four texts, "configure", or "put together in the same way", fits well.
- 2. It is misleading in terms of "the world".
- a. The typical term for "world" is kosmos and it is used to refer to a way a thing is constructed with some basic organizing principle(s).
- b. Paul's word, however, is "age" (aion) and that word typically refers to a segment of time that has a particular focus inherent in it (such as "the season of figs", where the focus is that period of time when figs are ripe for use).
- c. Paul's claim is that "the age" has been "configured" in such a way as to press men into disbelief.
- 3. Paul's consistent dogma throughout Romans has been the exaltation of "Grace" over "Justice" so that we may assume that "the configuration of the age" has much to do with a focus upon "demand" so that "grace" with its "promise" is lost and Paul's constant return to the problem of boasting indicates which of the elements of the Satanic method is being emphasized: the spirit's determination to be recognized for its accomplishments.
- II. Paul's Call For Continual Follow-Through.
- A. The imperative is significant for two main reasons.
- 1. It is an "imperative" under "grace".
- a. Divine provision in action is always accompanied by some form of accountability: 1 Peter 4:10 and 1 Corinthians 4:2 under the thesis of The Judgment-Seat of Christ.
- b. The "imperative" is, however, issued under the thesis of "the mercies of God", not "the wrath of God".
- 2. It is in the present tense so that it is not something that can be done once and be done.
- B. There are two parts to the "follow-through".
- 1. The imperative to reject the "configuration of the world".
- 2. The imperative to embrace a "transformation".
- a. The concept is described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:18 as a process of change from one stage of "glorious configuration" to another and then to another.
- b. At issue is not the transfiguration (Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2) of the body, nor, so much, the spirit as Paul rests the change upon God's Spirit, not our own.
- c. At issue is the transformation of the soul's focus; not the actual focus itself (security), but the means of achievement.
- C. And there is the "method": the "renewal of the mind".
- 1. An alteration of the inner "links" between "data bits".
- 2. There is a need for more "data bits" but they are useless if "linked" improperly.
