By Dalton Key
God seeks rule over more than just our bodies; He desires our hearts and minds as well. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
We offer to God our bodies as living sacrifices, conjoined with, or perhaps more accurately, resulting from, the renewing of our minds. This inward affection for God is referred to by Christ as “the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:38). Heaven’s message has ever sought to operate on the heart of man. Peter’s inspired message on Pentecost “cut to the heart” of those who heard it (Acts 2:37). The word of God, “sharper than any two-edged sword,” pierces “even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). Without a sincere change of heart, outward expressions of obedience are both hollow and ineffective. We are “set free from sin” and become “servants of righteousness” after obeying God’s teaching “from the heart” (Romans 6:17-18).
A new birth results in a new life, but the new birth itself concerns the spirit. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). We “have purified our souls in obeying the truth” (1 Peter 1:22). Conversion, to be genuine, must include the whole man. While our behavior must manifest fruits of repentance, while we must live right and do right, we must first freely offer to the Lord our hearts, souls, and minds. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Ours is more than merely a regimented religion of doing; it is one of being and becoming. “These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone” (Matthew 23:23). The only way God makes a Christian is from the inside out.
Groveland, FL