diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 0336e11f0..c074f0de2 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/depgraph"
-	"github.com/mitchellh/reflectwalk"
 )
 
 // ResourceGraphRoot is the name of the resource graph root that should be
@@ -77,6 +76,20 @@ type UserVariable struct {
 	key string
 }
 
+// ReplaceVariables replaces the variables in the configuration
+// with the given values.
+//
+// This replacement is not in place. Instead, this function will
+// return a new resource with the variables replaced.
+func (r *ProviderConfig) ReplaceVariables(
+	vs map[string]string) *ProviderConfig {
+	result := *r
+	if err := replaceVariables(result.Config, vs); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	return &result
+}
+
 // A unique identifier for this resource.
 func (r *Resource) Id() string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", r.Type, r.Name)
@@ -103,20 +116,18 @@ func (r *Resource) ProviderConfigName(pcs map[string]*ProviderConfig) string {
 // return a new resource with the variables replaced.
 func (r *Resource) ReplaceVariables(vs map[string]string) *Resource {
 	result := *r
-
-	w := &variableReplaceWalker{
-		Values: vs,
-	}
-
-	if err := reflectwalk.Walk(result.Config, w); err != nil {
+	if err := replaceVariables(result.Config, vs); err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
-
 	return &result
 }
 
 // ResourceGraph returns a dependency graph of the resources from this
 // Terraform configuration.
+//
+// The graph can contain both *Resource and *ProviderConfig. When consuming
+// the graph, you'll have to use type inference to determine what it is
+// and the proper behavior.
 func (c *Config) ResourceGraph() *depgraph.Graph {
 	// This tracks all the resource nouns
 	nouns := make(map[string]*depgraph.Noun)
diff --git a/config/config_test.go b/config/config_test.go
index 27162838f..8e93cd43d 100644
--- a/config/config_test.go
+++ b/config/config_test.go
@@ -64,6 +64,45 @@ func TestNewUserVariable(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestProviderConfigReplaceVariables(t *testing.T) {
+	r := &ProviderConfig{
+		Config: map[string]interface{}{
+			"foo": "${var.bar}",
+		},
+	}
+
+	values := map[string]string{
+		"var.bar": "value",
+	}
+
+	r2 := r.ReplaceVariables(values)
+
+	expected := &ProviderConfig{
+		Config: map[string]interface{}{
+			"foo": "value",
+		},
+	}
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(r2, expected) {
+		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", r2)
+	}
+
+	/*
+		TODO(mitchellh): Eventually, preserve original config...
+
+		expectedOriginal := &Resource{
+			Name: "foo",
+			Type: "bar",
+			Config: map[string]interface{}{
+				"foo": "${var.bar}",
+			},
+		}
+
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(r, expectedOriginal) {
+			t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", r)
+		}
+	*/
+}
+
 func TestResourceProviderConfigName(t *testing.T) {
 	r := &Resource{
 		Name: "foo",
diff --git a/config/variable.go b/config/variable.go
index cf7a9cbe2..e1933e599 100644
--- a/config/variable.go
+++ b/config/variable.go
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ func init() {
 	varRegexp = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)(\$+)\{([-.a-z0-9_]+)\}`)
 }
 
+// replaceVariables takes a configuration and a mapping of variables
+// and performs the structure walking necessary to properly replace
+// all the variables.
+func replaceVariables(
+	c map[string]interface{},
+	vs map[string]string) error {
+	w := &variableReplaceWalker{Values: vs}
+	return reflectwalk.Walk(c, w)
+}
+
 // variableDetectWalker implements interfaces for the reflectwalk package
 // (github.com/mitchellh/reflectwalk) that can be used to automatically
 // pull out the variables that need replacing.