“Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind . . .” —Romans 12:2a
In my desk, I have an embossing stamp that I use to mark my books and identify them as belonging to my library. It is a simple tool that has two matching plates, one is raised and the other is recessed, both having the identical inscription. To use it, you simply slide a page between the two plates and squeeze them together using the plyer-like handles. The paper is pressed into the mold of the plates, and the result is a page clearly embossed with the words, “from the library of R. Guy Shields”. With this tool I mark my books as mine. They bear my mark and are clearly identified as belong to me.
This simple and common practice illustrates the Biblical truth expressed in our text; the truth that, as Christ’s, we are not to be marked with the stamp of the world, but, by implication, be marked with the mark of Christ.
J. B. Phillips captured this truth in the memorable worlds—“Don’t let the world press you into its mold . . .” The world wants to press us into its mold.It wants us to bear its mark. The world wants to stamp us as belonging distinctly to it so brings all kinds of pressures upon us from the surrounding culture—through the media, the internet, through books, magazines, movies etc. There are many and varied instruments the world uses to sound its message and impress us.
But those who are Christ’s, those who belong to Him, those that He has purchased with His own blood, are not to be so impressed. Rather we are to be impressed by Christ. We are to be pressed into the mold of Christ-likeness.
This happens, as Romans 12:2 says, “through the renewal of our minds.” Through our minds renewed by the truth of Christ, the Word of God. It is through the Spirit-worked ministry of the Word that our thinking, and thereby our acting, is transformed to be Christ-like. We are pressed into the mold of Christ, our lives take on the mark of Christ through the word of Christ worked into us by the Spirit of Christ.
So, are you being marked by Christ? Are you being pressed into the mold of Christ by the Spirit of Christ through the Word of Christ? Are you in the Word? Are you being regularly instructed in the truth through personal Bible reading, study, participation in the teaching and preaching ministry of the Word in the corporate worship of the church? Are you praying God to inform you with the word and reform you through the Word? These things are the equivalent of a piece of paper being slid between the plates of an embossing stamp and mark with the imprint of the stamp.
May God encourage you in the pursuit of the mark of Christ in and on your life through the Word of God.
Pursuing the imprint of Christ with you,
Pastor Guy