When we were unbelievers, we lived in sins and “according to the age of this world” (Ephesians 2:1-2). At first glance, it may not seem like a bad thing to live according to the present age. After all, isn’t it normal to live as everyone else lives and do what everyone else does?
However, God has called His believers to bear the image not of the present age but of His Son: “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). As children of God, we should have the same expression as our older brother, the Lord Jesus!
Concerning the age we live in, 1 John 5:19 says, “The whole world lies in the evil one.” If we as believers walk according to this age, we will be indistinguishable from the unbelievers. Rather than bearing a testimony of light, we will simply be one more factor of darkness.
The words of this song are from Romans 12:2, where the apostle Paul appeals to us to stand apart from this age: “And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.”
Rather than being fashioned, conformed, to this age, we should be transformed by the renewing of the mind. We are old, of the old creation; Christ is new, the factor that makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
By contacting Christ as the life-giving Spirit, our mind is renewed from the old thoughts that inundate us day by day. This produces a gradual change, or transformation, within us as our old element is carried away and the new element of God is added to our being.
Ultimately, this process of transformation will lead to there being many sons of God conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son of God, living together in the Body of Christ to express Him. This is the good, well pleasing, and perfect will of God!
The text of Romans 12:2 is quoted from the Recovery Version of the Bible, published by Living Stream Ministry (used by permission). You can listen to the song here or on our YouTube channel.