The Power of "Renewal"

“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.” Romans 12:2 NIV (underline added)

In the early nineties, television gave birth to a marketing phenomenon known as the “infomercial.” These product sales-pitches, wrapped in the form of thirty-minute entertainment specials, offered inventors the opportunity to display the wonder of their wares through real-time, real-world situations. One such infomercial opened with the host and the inventive creator visiting a local auto junkyard. The purpose of the trip was to find a vehicle coated in weather oxidation and rust. The chosen vehicle was an eyesore. It had been left to rot the junkyard: abandoned, discarded and devalued. The harsh treatment of the weather and the elements had left seemingly irreparable damage on every portion of the vehicle’s surface. But once the creator applied his special wax-like compound to the damaged paint surface, the original brilliance and color of the vehicle shone through once again. What had been destined for scrap and removed from remembrance was soon just as pristine at it had been on the showroom floor. The creator has simply used his revolutionary product to renew the vehicle back to its original and intended beauty…

It is interesting to note that scriptural passage above calls us to “renew” our minds. We are not called to “make our minds new.” So just what’s the difference? Making something “new” means that we are stepping above its current state to a level never experienced. But to “renew” something, requires that at some point it was new, or operating in its intended usage. So just like vehicle in the infomercial, we as born-again humanity, are not struggling to accomplish something foreign to our nature; we are actually bringing our minds into the alignment of its intended operation.

In other words, through this “renewal,” we are bringing our minds back to its original state.

If you search the scriptures, you will find “re” words peppered throughout the text: reconcile, restore, etc. The born-again Christian is meant to display a “re”humanity, both living in, and redeveloping, the world back to its intended original state. And because it is part and parcel to our very physiologic composition, as we step further and further into this “renewal,” it is now longer second-nature, but first-nature. (_“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”_ Proverbs 4:18 NIV)

But if this is true, then why does this renewal process appear so foreign to us?

Because at birth, we are not showroom quality. We are not born in our intended state. We are born into a world of “sin and death.” Put simply, we are already exposed to the elements from our first breaths. But that’s not the way the Creator intended it. So God sent His Son, so that we could be “born again,” and opened to the possibility of our intended purpose. But it is through the renewal of our minds that possibility turns into reality. We also all enter our “new birth” heavily oxidized, badly worn down by the harsh elements. Much of this oxidization has occurred through what we have let into our eyes and ears. Our unquestioned devotion to entertainment and media has left layer upon layer of spiritual rust on our minds. We can’t see it, but we know its there – leaving us with a hard-coated apathy toward our true potential. Much of the world – Christian or not – feels like the oxidized car in the junkyard; abandoned, discarded and devalued.

But through the renewal of our minds, we can, for the very first time, align ourselves with our intended purpose. In the beginning, the renewal effort appears agonizing, if not impossible. Like applying compound to oxidation, the oxidized surface has grown so accustomed to the damage it doesn’t give up easily. But as the encrusted layers begun to break apart, the process becomes steadily easier as more of the renewed surface is exposed. And as this renewing progresses, the Holy Spirit will often give strategies to bring more renewal to other aspects of His creation. And those renewed solutions will garner heavy societal if not even national and international interest. Remember that the creator’s product was only praised and purchased after the product accomplished its result on the oxidized automobile. The powerful evidence of your renewal will be an inspiring example to others and your renewed illumination will help point the oxidized masses to the Creator’s product, His Word, and ultimately, to the Creator Himself.