The Daily Renewal — Its Cost

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4: 16.

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12: 2.

It is not a little or an easy thing to be a full-grown, strong Christian. On God's side, it means that it cost the Son of God His life, that it needs the mighty power of God to new create a man, and that nothing less than the unceasing daily care of the Holy Spirit can maintain that life.

From man's side, it demands that when the new man is put on, the old man be put off. All the dispositions, habits, and pleasures, of our own nature, that make up the life in which we have lived, are to be put away. All we have by our birth from Adam, is to be sold, if we are to possess the pearl of great price.

If a man is to come after Christ, he is to deny himself, take up his cross, forsake all and follow Christ in the path in which He walked. He is to cast away not only all sin, but everything, however needful and legitimate and precious, that may become the occasion of sin; to pluck out the eye, or cut off the hand. He is to hate his own life, to lose it if he is to live in "the power of an endless life." It is a solemn thing, far more solemn than most people think, to be a true Christian.

This is especially true of the daily renewing of the inward man. Paul speaks of it as being accompanied and conditioned by the decaying of the outward man. The whole epistle (2 Cor.) shows us how the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, even to conformity to His death, was the secret of his life in power and blessing to the Churches. Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you.

The full experience of the life in Christ in our person, our body, and our work for others depend upon our fellowship in His suffering and death. There can be no large measure of the renewal of the inward man, without the sacrifice, the decaying of the outward.

To be filled with heaven, life must be emptied of earth. We have the same truth in our second text, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind." An old house may be renewed, and yet keep very much of its old appearance, or the renewal may be so entire that men exclaim what a transformation! The renewing of the mind by the Holy Spirit means an entire transformation, an entirely different way of thinking, judging, and deciding. The fleshly mind gives place to a "spiritual understanding'' (Colossians 1: 9, 1 John 5: 20). This transformation is not obtained but at the cost of giving up all that is of nature. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed."

By nature, we are of this world. When renewed by grace we are still in the world, subject to the subtle all-pervading influence from which we cannot withdraw ourselves. And what is more, the world is still in us, as the leaven of nature which nothing can purge out but the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, filling us with the life of heaven.

Let us allow these truths to take deep hold and master us. The Divine transformation, by the daily renewing of our mind into the image of Him who is far above, can proceed in us no faster and no farther than our seeking to be freed from every vestige of conformity to this world. The negative, "Do not be conformed to this world” needs to be emphasized as strongly as the positive, "be transformed." The spirit of this world and the Spirit of God contend for the possession of our being. Only as the former is known and renounced and cast out, can the heavenly Spirit enter in, and do His blessed work of renewing and transforming.

The whole world and whatever is of the worldly spirit must be given up. The whole life and whatever is of self must be lost. This daily renewal of the inward man costs much, that is, as long as we are hesitating, or trying to do it in our own strength. When once we really learn that the Holy Spirit does all, and in the faith of the strength of the Lord Jesus has given up all, the renewing becomes the simple, natural, healthy, joyous growth of the heavenly life in us.

The inner chamber then becomes the place for which we long daily, to praise God for what He has done, and is doing, and what we know He will do. Day by day, we yield ourselves afresh to the blessed Lord who has said, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." The renewing of the Holy Ghost becomes one of the most blessed verities of our daily Christian life.