Get Your Pretense On!

102 • Get Your Pretense On!

us) with a new identity, made in his own image and likeness. Now, through the power of his indwelling Spirit, he empowers us to be new and different if we simply choose to accept his word and act with good pretense into it. The more we actually act consistent with the Word, the more we become like our good pretense. This is not being phony; this is the pretense that leads up to the real thing . Putting on the New Self and Its Connection to Life andMinistry Forging identity is an issue of clothing your soul: putting off the old clothing of the former manner of living, renewing the mind, and replacing that old style with the new clothing (cf. Col. 3.8-14). All renewal in this identity formation is in the present tense. In other words, we must every day (all day and evening) be engaged in this putting off-renewing the mind-putting on cycle of faith. Listen to what one commentary said about this putting off and on: Between the putting off of verse Ephesians 4.22 and the putting on of verse Ephesians 4.24 stands the other content of the teaching the readers had received, mental renewal (v. Ephesians 4.23). This is necessary because prior to conversion most of them had experienced the mental futility and darkness that characterized the unbelieving Gentiles (vv. Ephesians 4.17-18). This renewal is apparently continual , since in contrast to the verbs of putting on and off, which are in the aorist tense, which represents simple action, this is in the present tense [italics mine]. 17 We must engage everyday in this forging identity cycle: putting off, being renewed, putting on. This discipline, this habit-formation discipline is God’s plan for our transformation. God created the new nature, and has provided the resources for us to forge our new identities in Christ.