This essay depicts the common problem to be facing the modern student of the New Testament, which is the conformity to the standard of the current world.
To address this problem, the author of Roman 12 is pointing us, to the life of transformation as a specific application. The New Testament being a document, which has been in existence universally, contains this call for transformation in the renewed heart. We realized that the conformity and transformation do not exit together; one has to make a decision to transform in order to remain relevant in the renewed heart. To further maintain within the transformed mind, one has to respond to God by a way of confession, repentance and being baptized. This action will humble one to remain within the transformed life in the renewal of their mind.
Contents
The problem facing the modern students of the New Testament
The Proposed solution in the New Testament Today
Meaning of salvation
Means of Salvation
Conclusion
Reference
The concept of the New Testament, was made available by Prophet Jeremiah when he prophesied concerning a time, when God would establish a new covenant, unlike the old covenant made at Sinai (Jer. 31:31-34). This new covenant would succeed where the old covenant had failed; enabling people to be obedient to God from the heart, so that the divine human relationship would be secured.
Later its collection (the New Testament) could be understood as the respond to pastoral exigencies, out of the kind of concerns and challenges that early Christian faced. Each text was written to serve some specific pastoral needs and answered a specific range of important questions, arising out of the life of the church. The text answered the perennial raised questions well, that they continue to provide the basic point of reference for each successive generation of Christians, as the circle of the Christianity was widening from the text place of origin. When early Christians were faced with the same or new challenges, they turned to find guidance and solace from the Apostolic witness and ultimately from God. To date the New Testament has been in existence for over two thousand years. It value has been preserved and its original intention, should always be understood by the ongoing human history.
The problem facing the modern students of the New Testament
The problem faced by today’s world is the conformity. Every believing Christian, want to conform to the standard and the lifestyle of the world. The New Testament reading in its specific application in Roman 12, instructs the modern students of the New Testament not to conform to the standards of this world, but allow God to transform them inwardly by a complete change of their mind (Roman 12:2). In the modern world which is shaped by conformity, the universal truth as recorded in the New Testament, has been discarded and replaced with what people perceive to be the truth, of one own experience and perspective according to their own set worldview.
This set mind, therefore is no believe that one truth can be applied to all people and every situation, instead there is recognition of diverse contradictory truth, that have been shaped by individuals community and context (Heidebrecht, 1996). Paul in his appeal in Roman 12:2, continues to remind the modern students of the New Testament, to keep transformed in the renewal of their mind, as a reminder of the church for the Christian ethics. This Christian ethics should be build upon the foundation of God’s mercy, revealed through Jesus Christ and the spirits of life which offers, freedom from the power of sin and death.
The challenge faced by the interpretation of the renewed mind in the modern New Testament understanding, is the mind which ignores and misunderstand the call of the transformation in this contemporary interpretation. According to Paul interpretation of the word ‘mind’, he could have meant, “the complete change for the better of believer’s mental process” (Wuest, 1956), “thinking in a Christian way about everything; having a Christian mind” (Montgomery, 1993), “by the whole new way of thinking” (Achtemeir, 1985), “repentance” (Karl, 1993) and “the sanctification” (Alsaushen, 1849). With the above various opinions on the interpretive understanding of the word renewed of the mind, the post modern recognition of the effects of interpretative communities, call us to look again at Paul’s own context and attempts to hear, how this terms may have been understood by the first century church in Rome (Heidebrecht, 1996).
The universal application in this text, I realized that the renewal of mind is the integral part of God’s new creation, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The modern believers in Christ as a new creation, in them, the old one as passed and the new as come (2 Cor, 5:16-17). The result of the transformation universally, should bring with it a new perceptions of reality that reflect the significance of what is unseen, which is walking by faith not by sight (2 Cor. 4:16-18, 5:7). Believers are called not to live in the futility of their mind, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, due to their hardness of the heart (Eph. 4:17-19).
The modern believers instead are to put off their old person, who belongs to their former manners of life, and be renewed in the spirit of their mind and put on new person, created after the likeness of God in the true likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph.4:22: 23). The renewal of the mind should therefore be a call for the community ethical discernment, the way the church as a community perceive God and test His will. It should also shape the value and believes of the church. The New Testament is a called for a shared perception of God’s will. Ethics is function of the church in a community; therefore the individual ethics must always be understood in the context New Testament community and accountability to God according to the book of Romans 14.
The Proposed solution in the New Testament Today
The text above in Romans 12:2 caution us not to conform to the standard of this world instead; we are called to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. The reason why we want change is crucial. People will call for change when they realized that they are unhappy with life and they want to be happy. It is understandable that God gets our attention when we disobey, by allowing the negative consequence of sins in us to make life miserable on us.
The miserable of life we experience out of our conformity to the standard of the worldly/natural life, which is not approved by God. As a proposed solution into the understanding of the original intention behind the New Testament, we are called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord by a way of being transformed, respond to the experience the change of salvation and the total commitment of our life to God (Rom.12:1), before we can experience the change of sanctification/ growth in Godliness (Rom.12:2) (Cole, 2012). For us to achieve this, we must understand the world salvation, the means to it.
Meaning of salvation
The meaning of salvation is always used to refer to deliverance and preservation. It can also mean to cure, recovery or remedy. In our common languages, it’s used to mean preservation and deliverance from destruction, difficulties and evil. It also means a state of being preserved from harm; which is saving someone from unpleasant situation (Verbrugge, 2000). It’s the liberation from the conferment, contrition and limitation. This healing can be from diseases, deliverance from famine, bondage and enemies. For instance, the day the Lord saved the Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and the Israel saw Egyptian lying dead from the shore (Exodus 14: 30).
Salvation is liberation which should be for here and now, and has to take place in any human situation, which is characterized by fundamental corruption of the social political context of man (Schonherr, 1983). In approach to salvation, besides the liberation of the human soul, man should also be saved from the perversion of his social and political structures, which enslave him, such as deprive of his dignity, and the violation of his rights. Such structural perversion reveals the evidence of sin and course fundamental alienation from man. To the human being, the course of salvation can be the state of depression, which can be out of spiritual or physical. Spiritually, people stacked in addiction will certainly find themselves in the bondage of sin. They will be depressed until they find peace with God. Physically, people may be depressed because of their distressful situation they find themselves into like hunger. This will depressed them until they find help somewhere. Salvation therefore brings assistance, relief or victory to any stressful person or nation (Ogunkunle, 1995).
Means of Salvation
This is the man response to God. Men make some moves towards the direction of God seeking to be redeemed. The idea of redemption adheres to the concept of sin and alienation. Everyone on earth has a right and capacity to respond to God (John 1:12), therefore, man has a role in the redemptive process. This process demand a personal decision followed by an action, and this action is not to be constructed as the means through which salvation is earned. The means is the sacrifice to Christ, not obedience to the law. Responding to God as means of salvation, requires faith and confession, a clear demonstration of the renewal of the mind.
When the spirituality of a man demands proper response to God, man will hear God’s offer of salvation and spiritual life. Man will be called to believe not only in God, but in Jesus Christ as the son of God. That believer will embrace the incantation of Jesus, His ministry, His atoning death, His resurrection, and His accession to heaven. When man believes in his heart, he make faith a rational acts (Roman 10:10). Faith is now what man will hold in his heart. The confession of that faith in the presence of others, enables oral witness as assign that one is unashamed to call Jesus Lord (Roman 10:10). Faith in the man heart will be diluted through the absence of repentance. This absence of repentance makes one to become unholy through sin, which alienates man from God. The holiness can only be attained through the communion with God. Repentance here would therefore means to turn; changing from unspiritual person into spiritual person. It is brought about Godly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10).
After repentance, one will be baptized. The baptism will mark the point of entry into death with Jesus Christ (Roman 6). It follows repentance and the confession of faith. It symbolizes the death of the person to the old self to the old sinful way. Through baptism, one leaves the old life and enters a new spiritual existence. When one is baptized, God grant him or her the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). The Holy Spirit living within the new Christians controls the influence in one’s life is the spirit of God, not sinful nature. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. They share in the glory of Christ (Roman 8:9-17).
The solution is the action which is required by the New Testament student, is the inward transformation, when one knows the will of God, what is good and pleasing to Him and is perfect. The baptism as a concept of spiritual estrangement, for one who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who has a repentant heart and who has confessed the sonship of Jesus publicly. A transform heart of a person is the one who is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for the remission of sin and that one might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So rather than being conform to this evil age, we should be transformed by the renewal of mind, so that we prove in practice God’s good acceptable and perfect will.
Conclusion
The common problem depicted to be facing the modern student of the New Testament is the conformity to the standard of the current world. To address this problem, the author of Roman 12 is pointing us, to the life of transformation as a specific application. The New Testament being a document, which has been in existence universally, contains this call for transformation in the renewed heart. We realized that the conformity and transformation do not exit together; one has to make a decision to the transform in order to remain relevant in the renewed of the heart. To further maintain within the transformed mind, one has to respond to God by a way of confession, repentance and them be baptized. This action will humble one to remain within the transformed life in the renewal of their mind.
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- Kevin Omondi (Autor), 2020, The New Testament and Contemporary Life. A Critical Introduction, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1133021
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