REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XV, March 2009, Number 3
Transformation Versus Conformation
A meditation by Rev. H. Hoeksema
From the February 15, 1939 issue of the Standard BearerSee more articles by this author
Also in this issue: The Raging of the Heathen - by Rev. H. Hoeksema
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God - Romans 12:2
Transformation-Conformation!
Either-Or, Not Both-And.
God against Mammon, or Mammon against God! Rowing up against the current, or drifting down the stream. In the world and against the world, or in the world, of the world, for the world and with the world.
The Word of God is the pattern of your life, or the world shapes your walk and conversation.
The renewing of your mind motivates and empowers your life, or the flesh actuates your whole life.
The Antithesis versus The Synthesis!
The way of battle or the way of least resistance, Transformation-Conformation!
Which? ...
* * * * *
Be not conformed! It is indeed the easiest way through the present world, if you allow yourself to be conformed to it.
For to be conformed implies that there is a ready made external pattern, which one simply copies. One accommodates ones self to it. In the outward manifestation of a man's life, in all his walk and conversation he becomes like unto that pattern. It requires no originality. It causes no friction. It involves no battle, no effort, no suffering,
Conformation is well illustrated in the first period of an immigrant's abode in the foreign country of his choice. He is different from his surroundings. He is not like his environment. He speaks a different language; he has a different bearing; his habits of life are different; his very appearance marks him as a stranger. But he soon becomes conformed, especially if he is not yet advanced in years. The external life-pattern of the country of his choice is readily adopted. He lives right in the midst of it. He hears the new language, he perceives the new habits. Daily he is in contact with the new mode of living. The new pattern molds his life. Soon he has adapted himself to it. The conformation is completed without much difficulty.
Be not conformed! ...To what? ...To this world!
The text literally reads, be not conformed to this age - considering this world and all that is in the world from the viewpoint of time and development: the world in which we live, the world of our own day, the present world in distinction from the world to come. This world lives and strives and develops (in time) from its own principle, the principle of sin and darkness, the principle of enmity against God and hatred of one another. From that inner principle this world develops its own pattern of life. That law of sin expresses itself in all the manifestations of the world: in speech and song, in conversation and literature, in habits and dress, in all the different spheres and relationships of life, in the relation of man and wife, of parent and child, of employer and employee, in business and industry, in science and art. This expression of the world from the principle of sin is its form, its fashion, its pattern.
In that world you live. Its existence is your existence. From a purely natural viewpoint you are one with that world.
You cannot and you may not go out of the world. To withdraw yourself from it and recede into some remote corner in order to spend your days in a separatist solitude is impossible. Such an attempt is contrary to the will of Him that called you out of darkness into His marvelous life.
Yet, be not conformed!
Do not let the pattern of the world be the model after which you shape your own walk and conversation. Whether it be in your individual life or in your relationship to others, in the home or in society, in school or in the shop, let your life not be molded by the pattern you behold round about you.
Do not let yourself drift down with the current!
Be not conformed!
* * * * *
Not conformation, but transformation!
For a change is indeed necessary! The apostle does not write, "be not conformed to this world, but rather stay as you are".
This would be quite impossible. In fact, it would imply a contradiction in terms. To remain as you are would be the same as a conformation of your whole life to the fashion of this world.
For, by nature, apart from the inner principle of the new life in Christ that is in our hearts, we are of the world and like the world. The operations of sin that are in the world are also in our members, and according to the operation of sin in our flesh we are inclined to walk even as the world, in the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These operations of sin are still powerful. We have a small beginning of the new obedience in our hearts but all the rest is flesh. We are reborn in principle, born of God, so that we cannot sin according to this new principle of life, but there is much in us of the flesh and its operations are powerful. Besides it is the flesh and not the Spirit that makes contact with the world about us - hence, the conflict! If anyone is in Christ Jesus, He is a new creature. Yet the new creature dwells in a carnal existence and nature, in which the former movements of sin are so powerful that the realization and manifestation of the new life is disputed, opposed, often effectually hampered every moment!
Old things have passed away and all things have become new. Yet, the old things that have passed away assert themselves in the flesh frequently to such an extent that the new things fail to come to expression!
I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But there is another law in my members, warring, always warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin! I would, indeed, practice constantly to do the good, but often I do it not. I hate to do evil, yet often I do it ! ...O wretched man that I am!
Constantly there is the battle. I must always hear and give heed to the Word of God: Be not conformed, but be transformed.
There is a fundamental difference: conformation is to copy, transformation is to be original. Conformation is adaptation, transformation to be different. Conformation is the synthesis, transformation is the antithesis. Conformation is the way of no resistance (to the world), transformation is opposition. Conformation is peace with the world, transformation means battle.
Be ye transformed!
Even as the world creates for itself its own pattern of life from the principle of sin, so do ye also live from your own distinctive principle of righteousness and the love of God! You must undergo a change. But let that change of your walk and conversation not be determined by the fashion of the world, neither let it consist of a mere superficial, external reformation - be transformed!
* * * * *
Is it possible? Is not the flesh too powerful to be overcome? Is not the pattern of the world all about us, imposing itself upon us so that it would be folly even to imagine that resistance had any hope of success?
One who drifts with the mighty current above the Niagara down towards the falls, may hear a warning shout from some well-meaning friend on the shore urging him not to allow himself to float downstream, but to oppose and overcome the tremendous force of the river that must inevitably draw him to destruction would be impossible. Is not the warning foolish because it would require the impossible?
Is not the same impossible task required in this exhortation not to be conformed after the fashion of the world, but to be transformed? Are we not in the world? Must we not live with the world? Must we not eat and drink and be clothed? How shall we live, how shall we be able to maintain our existence in a world in which everything follows one pattern, fashioned according to the principle of sin, unless we are willing to adapt ourselves to the universal exemplar, to conform our lives according to the world? How can we be of any account, how would it be possible to maintain our position, to keep our place in society, to do business, to hold our jobs, to be of influence in any sphere of life, if we stubbornly refuse to be conformed after this world and consistently strive after transformation?
Is not the required task superhuman, impossible, absurd? Would it not require that we leave the world, seclude ourselves, let the boat of our life drift to some quiet quay, where we would be outside of the main current of the river?
Where is the source that can supply us with power to struggle upstream? By the renewal of your mind!
The apostle wrote in the first verse of this same chapter that he exhorted and beseeched the members of the church of Christ to present their bodies a living sacrifice unto God. He addressed this exhortation to them by the mercies of God! He had written of those mercies of God in Christ in the first part of this epistle - mercies innumerable - mercies revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ (Who had come into the flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh; Who had died for the ungodly in due time, satisfying the righteousness of God for sin; Who had been raised for our justification even as He had been delivered for our transgressions; Who had been exalted at the right hand of God and there makes intercession for us with the Father) mercies of redemption and forgiveness of sin; mercies of a righteousness, which is not of works but of faith and of a grace, that sets us free from the dominion of sin; mercies of adoption unto children of God and of the hope of the glorious inheritance that shall be revealed in the day of Christ Jesus our Lord !...
By these mercies, with a view to them, with them as his firm basis, he had beseeched them to present their bodies a living sacrifice unto God... their bodies! That in which they live their life in this world! Their whole life, in all its manifestations, in every department!
But this implied a struggle! The struggle he mentions in this second verse, that they be not conformed after this world, but be transformed. Superhuman though the task may appear (and actually be), it is possible of accomplishment by these mercies of God in Christ. For through these mercies God's people have received a power that is capable of overcoming the world: the renewal of their mind!
The mind is the highest in man's nature. It is that marvelous power in him, that light-faculty, by which he knows that with all his life and being and activities in this world he stands before the face of God, Who judges him and places him always before the irrevocable demand, "Love Me with all thy heart!" It is by the light of the higher understanding that he is able and also impelled to know and determine his relation and attitude to the living God, to say Yes or No to God's law, to love or to hate Him, to serve or to refuse to serve Him, to live in righteousness or unrighteousness.
That mind is darkened by nature! It is foolish! It is so hopelessly entangled in the snares of sin, that it does not and will not and cannot acknowledge that it is good to love the Lord our God. It is carnal. It is not subject to the law of God, neither can be! It always says No to God and Yes to the devil. It deceives the will and all his desires, so that the natural man seeks sin as a good, follows after unrighteousness, strives after his own eternal destruction. Desperately wicked, hopelessly confused, unspeakably foolish is the carnal mind!
But by the mercies of God our mind is renewed!
Through the power of the grace of Christ we received a new life. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead we were begotten again, and the operation of that new life enlightens the mind with a new, spiritual light, by which we discern and love the truth of God, abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is, good...
That renewed mind must have dominion - dominion over our "bodies", over our entire life in the midst of the world.
In that renewal of the mind you have the power in Christ to overcome the motions of sin, the world and its pattern, and be transformed from within!
* * * * *
You may prove the will of God, the will of God as it is revealed unto us in the Scriptures.
You may not be conformed after this world; you cannot find the pattern of your life in the fashion of this world.
Yet, you cannot be without a pattern. The renewal of your mind all by itself cannot determine what the fashion of your walk and conversation in the world shall be. It needs light from without, and that light is supplied by the revelation of the will of God in the Scriptures. Within it is the motive-power of the renewal of your mind that urges, that actuates, that drives, that impels you; without it is the revelation of the will of God that guides you... That will is good! Good absolutely, because it is the will of God. It is salutary for you who keep it.
That will is acceptable! It is well-pleasing to God and keeping it has the great reward of causing you to taste that God's favor is upon you!
That will is perfect! It lacks in nothing. It never fails. It always satisfies the soul of him that keeps it, and from the inner principle of the renewal of your mind, you prove that will, approve it spontaneously, gladly, with great delight!
And you will taste that the Lord is good!
Blessed transformation!
H. H.
The Raging of the Heathen
A meditation by Rev. H. Hoeksema
From the March 15, 1939 issue of the Standard BearerWhy do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. - Psalm 2:1-3.
The heathen furiously rage! Foolish raging!
Shall not He that sitteth in the heavens laugh?
For they who are raging set themselves in battle array and they take counsel together, they plot and conspire against the Lord and His Anointed!
Concretely their fury is directed against the Anointed of Jehovah. Their deepest purpose is to rage against the Lord. But Jehovah is in the heavens. He does whatsoever pleases Him. Their fury cannot reach Him. But to give vent to their fury against the Lord, they rage against His Anointed. Does not the Anointed of Jehovah represent Him in the earth, in the visible creation, in the world of our experience? Is not an anointed one a servant of the Lord, one that is endowed with power and authority from on high to appear officially as of the party of the living - but invisible - God, to speak for Him, to act upon His authority, to rule in His name? Hence, against this Anointed of the Lord they rage and prepare the battle for the very reason that He is the Lord's Anointed!
Who is this Anointed? Against whom are all the powers of the world so furious?
He is David, and David is, first of all, the son of Jesse. He was called from tending his father's sheep to become the king of Israel. To be sure, the second Psalm is strongly prophetic and speaks ultimately of the Messiah and His kingdom. Hardly a Psalm is quoted so comparatively frequently in the New Testament as this little jewel among the songs of Israel. But we would make a mistake, nevertheless, if we would interpret this psalm in the light of its ultimate realization and significance, and not consider first of all that its prophecy has a historical/typical basis. The Anointed of the Lord mentioned in this inspired bit of Hebrew poetry is the one that speaks in verse seven, "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee". The subject of that sentence is the author of this psalm, and the author of this psalm is David, Israel's royal singer. For thus did the Church of the new dispensation refer to this prophecy, when it broke forth in prayer and praise, "Who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?"
David, the son of Jesse, was the Lord's anointed. Was not Israel the kingdom of God? And was not David the man after God's own heart, foreordained, called and empowered to represent Jehovah in this kingdom, and, on the basis of the Mosaic legislation, to rule in God's name? Were not many nations made subject unto him? Did they not hate him, and hate the law of the Lord, His people and His cause? ...
But the Scriptural term David is also David's house, the generations of the son of Jesse!
For with David God had established His covenant, and as always, so also this covenant is made with him and his seed, in the line of his continued generations. It is of this eternal covenant, of these sure mercies of David that the eighty-ninth Psalm sings, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations... I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil, have I anointed him. With whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. And I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth"...
How the heathen are always furious and rage against David and his house in his generations! How often have the kings of the earth set themselves against him and his people and gathered against Jerusalem and the daughters of Zion to destroy them from the earth!
Yet in its deepest sense and in its ultimate realization this Psalm speaks of the Christ, of Whom David and his house were but types and shadows, and in Whom the line of David's generations culminates. The covenant with David is essentially the covenant of the triune God with Him, Whom He had appointed to be heir of all things, both in heaven and on earth. To Him God said before the world was: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee", an eternal Word of God finding its historical realization in the resurrection of our Lord. To Him He made known the decree, which in time the Christ announces and for the realization of which He suffers and battles to the end, "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thine possession". He is the Anointed of Jehovah, Who shall sit on the throne of David, not in its earthly form but in its eternal and heavenly glory; not as ruler over earthly nations, but as king over all things in heaven and on the earth....
This is evident from the Psalm itself. This is plain from all the Scriptural passages, where this prophetic song is quoted.
Thus the Church understood it in Acts 4:25-27, "Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together"...
He is the Lord's Anointed! It is He that is in David, that is the Root of David, and because of Whom the heathen rage against the son of Jesse!
He it is that is always in the loins of David's generations, and upon Whose destruction the powers of darkness are bent, when they are furious against David's house!
It is He that finally appears as the holy child Jesus, against Whom all the powers of hell are let loose!
And why? Does not David rule in righteousness, in the name of the Lord?
Does not Jesus of Nazareth speak the words of eternal life and pass through the land doing good, always good? ...
Why, then do the heathen rage? ...
Foolish raging!
* * * * *
Wicked fury!
O, how they rage!
How wickedly they set themselves against David and his house and his throne and kingdom in the old dispensation! Was ever a royal house hated as was the house of David? Was ever a kingly dynasty the object of so unreasonable, insane, insatiable hatred as was the line of David's generations? Could not they and the people under their dominion with them lament in truth, "Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth; the plowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows"?
Why do the heathen rage? Why are they so furious against the Christ, when, in spite of all the attempts of the powers of darkness to prevent His coming, He finally appears?
Is not their fury insane? How they are all gathered against that one Man, the holy child Jesus! Big men, men of power and authority, kings and rulers of the earth, men, of renown and power in the church, leaders of the people and the people themselves, Jews and Gentiles, Pharisees and Sadducees, Herod and Pilate, Caiaphas and Annas, the Sanhedrin and the Roman soldiers, all are set against Him, and their fury seems to be inexhaustible! Does it not appear insane when Herod, plotting to destroy the child Jesus, determines upon the wholesale slaughter of all of Bethlehem's children? Is there not something irrational in the way they are forever watching Him, Who passes through the land doing good? How they spy upon Him! How they attempt to catch Him and kill Him almost from the very beginning of His public ministry! How they plot and conspire and lay their snares in secret! When they finally find a traitor, who will sell his own soul for thirty pieces of silver and take Him captive in the dark garden of agony, how they rage! They come against Him, Who was defenseless and never carried a sword; armed to the teeth, as against an evildoer, they bring all kinds of insane accusations against Him; they beat Him and buffet Him; they spit upon Him and blindfold Him; they mock at Him and revile Him; they scourge Him till the blood runs down His back; they crown Him with a crown of thorns and clothe Him in a mock-royal robe; they try to satisfy their wrath by inflicting upon Him the most cruel and the most shameful death, the death of the cross. Even then they are not satisfied, still they rave and rage, and mock and revile!
Did ever man suffer as He suffered? Was ever a man the object of hatred as He was hated?
Did all the world ever rage as they raged about Him?
And why?
They cannot find an accusation. They cannot point to any evil deed. Even when the Roman governor asks them the question: why? they can only answer, that they would not have brought Him unto Pilate if He were not an evil-doer. When Pilate in spite of Himself must express the verdict that he can find no evil in the man, all they are able to reply is: Crucify Him! Away with Him! Give us Barabbas and let Him be crucified! ...
Why do, the heathen rage?
There is no rational answer, but there is the reply of sin, "Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords away from us!"
That is their purpose. The desire to realize that purpose motivates them in their fury. Wicked rebellion incites them... insurrection against the Lord and against His Anointed!
Their bands, the bands of Jehovah and His Anointed, they break. Their cords they would cast away from them in their fury. They are bands of righteousness and truth, of holiness and love. They have in mind the cords of the precepts of the Most High, for these are the bands of the Lord, and these are maintained by His Anointed.
There was a time when man's inner life, his heart and soul, his mind and will and all their inclinations and desires were harmoniously united by these bands and cords of the Lord. For in true righteousness, holiness and truth the Creator of heaven and earth had formed him. Then he did not feel them as bands that limited his liberty. Bound from within by the cords of the Lord he was truly free...
But the arch-liar came... And the deadly poison of the lie was instilled into man's heart: Ye shall be like God... so man felt the bands of Jehovah, of the love of God, of truth, righteousness and holiness as cords of oppression!
His liberty he felt as bondage, and ever since he has raised the cry of insurrection: let us break their bands asunder, let us cast their yoke away! ...
And God sent His Anointed. The Anointed approached man with the cords of the Lord, and they became furious! Away with this man! Crucify Him! ...
Why do the heathen rage?
Wicked rebellion!
* * * * *
Vain imagination!
Why do the people imagine a vain thing? For they imagine a vain thing, an empty thing, a thing that is impossible of accomplishment, that must needs end in utter and complete failure!
Do they not see? Have they no understanding? Can they not perceive the utter vanity of setting themselves against the Lord and His Anointed? Do they not understand that He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at their futile raging? Do they not hear the thunder of the decree, announced by the Lord's Anointed: Henceforth shall ye see the Son of man, sitting at the right hand of God, and coming with the clouds of heaven? The Lord hath said unto me!?...
They hear not, neither do they see, nor do they understand with their heart! They rage and rave against the Lord and His Anointed!
And, behold, they seem to succeed!
The Gentiles in conjunction with carnal Israel set themselves against David and his house, and they appear to have the victory! The house of David appears to be destroyed. The throne of Israel is cast into the dust. First Ephraim breaks his bands asunder and casts his cords away. Judah alone is left. Then the powers from without ally themselves with wicked Israel from within, and David's house is robbed of its glory and power! In captivity the glory of the Lord's Anointed is trampled under foot. A plaything of the nations is the royal dynasty that was to have dominion forever. The tree of David is cut down to the ground.
Yet, the Root of David remains! The root of Jesse! A root in a, dry ground, but a root, nevertheless, and it lives! It sprouts! It yields a branch, and it grows! And the heathen recognize Him! This is the Lord's Anointed, indeed! The heir! Again they rage, and again they seem to overcome! They destroy Him from the earth!
But He rises from the dead! He is exalted to glory high in the heavens, far above all principality and power!
And He shall come again, the Lord's Anointed, to establish His Kingdom forever!
Hosanna in the highest!
H. H.
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