Romans 12:2

“ And be not fashioned after this age, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may discern what is the will of God, that good, acceptable, and perfect will. ”

We have already said that we are not to seek in this verse, as Meyer does, the idea of the sanctification of the soul, as completing the consecration of the body. This idea would have been placed first, and the term soul or spirit would certainly have been used instead of νοῦς, the mind, which denotes only one of the faculties of the soul, and that the faculty of simple perception. The relation between the two verses is quite different. Paul has just pointed to the believer's body as a consecrated instrument. What remains to him to indicate, except the rule according to which the believer ought to make use of it? The καί, and, therefore signifies here: and in order to that. The T. R., with several ancient documents and the two oldest versions, reads the two verbs in the imperative: conform ye, transform ye, while the Greco-Latin MSS. read them in the infinitive. It is probable that the copyists by this latter reading meant to continue the construction of Romans 12:1, and to make these two verbs dependent on παρακαλῶ, I exhort you. The authorities speak in favor of the imperative. But even if the other reading were adopted, we should have to give to the infinitive the meaning of the imperative, as is so often the case in Greek; comp. in this very chapter, Romans 12:15. For the relation of dependence on παρακαλῶ is in any case forced.

In the use of his consecrated body, the believer has first an everywhere present model to be rejected, then a new type to be discerned and realized. The model to be rejected is that presented to him by the present world, or, as we should say, the reigning fashion, taking this word in its widest sense. The term σχῆμα denotes the manner of holding oneself, attitude, pose; and the verb σχηματίζεσθαι, derived from it, the adoption or imitation of this pose or received mode of conduct. The term (this) present world is used in the Rabbins to denote the whole state of things which precedes the epoch of the Messiah; in the N. T. it describes the course of life followed by those who have not yet undergone the renewing wrought by Christ in human life. It is this mode of living anterior to regeneration which the believer is not to imitate in the use which he makes of his body. And what is he to do? To seek a new model, a superior type, to be realized by means of a power acting within him. He is to be transformed, literally, metamorphosed. The term μορφή, form, strictly denotes, not an external pose suitable for imitation, like σχῆμα, attitude, but an organic form, the natural product of a principle of life which manifests itself thus. It is not by looking around him, to the right and left, that the believer is to learn to use his body, but by putting himself under the dominion of a new power which will by an inward necessity transform this use. It is true that Meyer, Hofmann, and others refuse to acknowledge this difference of meaning between the substantives σχῆμα and μορφή, and between the two verbs derived from them, alleging that it is not confirmed by usage. But if Php 2:5 et seq. be adduced, the example proves precisely the contrary. Etymology leads naturally to the distinction indicated, and Paul evidently contrasts the two terms of set purpose.

It should be remarked, also, that the two imperatives are in the present. The subject in question is two continuous incessant acts which take place on the basis of our consecration performed once for all (the aorist παραστῆσαι, Romans 12:1).

And what will be the internal principle of this metamorphosis of the believer in the use of his body? The renewing of his mind, answers St. Paul. The νοῦς, the mind, is the faculty by which the soul perceives and discerns the good and the true. But in our natural state this faculty is impaired; the reigning love of self darkens the mind, and makes it see things in a purely personal light. The natural mind, thus misled, is what Paul calls νοῦς τῆς σαρκός, the carnal mind (under the dominion of the flesh), Colossians 2:18. This is why the apostle speaks of the renewing of the mind as a condition of the organic transformation which he requires. This faculty, freed from the power of the flesh, and replaced under the power of the Spirit, must recover the capacity for discerning the new model to be realized, the most excellent and sublime type, the will of God: to appreciate (discern exactly) the will of God. The verb δοκιμάζειν does not signify here, as it has often been translated (Osterv., Seg.): to prove, to make experience of. For the experience of the excellence of the divine will would not be an affair of the mind only; the whole man would take part in it. The meaning of the word here, as usually, is to appreciate, discern. By means of his renewed mind the believer studies and recognizes in every given position the divine will toward him in the circumstances, the duty of the situation. He lifts his eyes, and, like Christ Himself (John 5:19-20), “he sees what his Father shows him” to be done. This perception evidently requires a renewed mind. In order to it we require to be raised to the viewpoint of God Himself.

It is against the rules of grammar to translate the following words, either in the sense of: “ that the will of God is good” (Osterv., Seg.), or in the sense: “ how good it is” (Oltram.). The only possible meaning is: “ what is the good, acceptable...will of God.” It is not always easy for the Christian who lives in the world, even with a heart sincerely consecrated, to discern clearly what is the will of God concerning him, especially in regard to the externals of life. This delicate appreciation demands a continual perfecting, even of the transformed mind.

And why is the model to be studied and reproduced in the life not the present world's mode of acting, but the will of God? The apostle explains by the three epithets with which he qualifies this will; literally: the good, the acceptable, the perfect. Such, then, is the normal type to which, in all circumstances, we must seek to rise with the mind first, then with the conduct. Good: in that its directions are free from all connivance with evil, in any form whatever. Acceptable: this adjective is not accompanied here with the words to God, as in Romans 12:1; it refers, consequently, to the impression produced on men when they contemplate this will realized in the believer's life. They cannot help paying it a tribute of admiration, and finding it beautiful as well as good. Have not devotion, disinterestedness, self-forgetfulness, and self-sacrifice, a charm which subdues every human heart? Perfect: this characteristic follows from the combination of the two preceding. For perfection is goodness united to beauty. The meaning would not be very different if, with some commentators, we regarded these three adjectives as three substantives forming an apposition to the term: the will of God. “The will of God, to wit, the good, the acceptable, the perfect.” But the article τό would require to be repeated before each of the terms if they were used substantively.

The following, then, is the résumé of the apostle's thought: To the false model, presented in every age by the mundane kind of life, there is opposed a perfect type, that of the will of God, which is discerned by the renewed mind of the believer, and which he strives to realize by means of his God-consecrated body, at every moment and in all the relations of his life; thus is laid down the principle of life in salvation. This life he now proceeds to show as manifesting itself simultaneously in two spheres, that of the church, chap. 12, and that of the state, chap. 13.