Did you know that Romans 12:2 is regularly one of the most shared Bible verses across the entire internet?
If you have been familiar with Dr. R.C. Sproul’s ministry for some time, it wouldn’t surprise you to learn that Romans 12:2 is a frequently discussed verse at Ligonier as we think through new ways to serve Christians who are pursuing renewed minds. When he named Ligonier’s daily radio broadcast in 1994, Dr. Sproul turned to Romans 12:2 to describe the broadcast’s purpose: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” From this verse, our farthest-reaching ministry initiative, Renewing Your Mind, was launched. Dr. Sproul explains:
God gives us the revelation of sacred Scripture in order for us to have our minds changed so we begin to think like Jesus. Sanctification and spiritual growth [are] all about this. If you just have it in your mind and you don’t have it in your heart, you don’t have it. But you can’t have it in your heart without first having it in your mind. We want to have a mind informed by the Word of God.
In another exhortation from his classic book, The Holiness of God, Dr. Sproul wrote:
The key method Paul underscores as the means to the transformed life is by the “renewal of the mind.” This means nothing more and nothing less than education. Serious education. In-depth education. Disciplined education in the things of God. It calls for a mastery of the Word of God. We need to be people whose lives have changed because our minds have changed.
There can be a temptation for some Christians to take a verse like Romans 12:2 and turn it into a “Just Do It” Nike-style battle cry of transformational sanctification divorced from the previous eleven chapters penned by the Apostle Paul. Yet the imperative of Romans 12:2 flows from the “mercies of God” outlined in Romans 3:21–12:1. This undeserved favor for redeemed sinners, given through the grace of God in Christ, provokes an outpouring of gratitude and a life of joyful duty.