Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 4: Put Off, Renew, Put On • 101

This is why putting on the new self takes both courage and work. We need to know that we are not acting hypocritically when we act and conduct ourselves in ways that correspond to the truth, even if it doesn’t align with our feelings. We walk by these truths, not by what we see or sense (2 Cor. 5.7). We are walking by faith, or, to use C. S. Lewis’ phrase, by “good pretense.” To act on the truth of God’s word certainly may seem to be hypocritical, that we are pretending to be something that we are not. Shouldn’t we always lean into what we are feeling, express it fully, and never seek to speak or act differently than what our feelings and hearts are saying to us? Let me remind you again of C. S. Lewis’ reflection on this point: Why? What is the good of pretending to be what you are not? Well, even on the human level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There is a bad kind, where the pretense is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really helping you. But there is also a good kind, where the pretense leads up to the real thing [italics mine]. 16 We must act like God is true, more true than how we feel or how things appear. This is the testimony of every person in Hebrews’ amazing faith chapter, Hebrews chapter 11. All of the heroes and heroines of the faith essentially chose to act on God’s Word, even though it might have appeared that his promise had become null and void. They pretended with the good kind, “where the pretense leads up to the real thing.” This is the key to spiritual formation and discipleship. We must relearn how to think and to speak and to live consistent with the Word. We must put on the new self, walk by faith, and get our pretense on, acting as if God’s word is true – about me and my situation.

Being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, we are never alone (Rom. 8.14-17; Gal. 5.16-24; John 7.37-39). God has created (rebirthed