Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 4: Put Off, Renew, Put On • 85

only a temporary measure of relief from the boredom, pain, and rejection of our lives.

However, now that we have come to Christ, we need not embrace the same old lies, lifestyles, and perspectives that led to so much misery and heartache. We have repented and come to the Savior. Now, as believers, God has called us to live out a new identity in Christ that is completely different from our former manner of life (our pre-Christian past), with its worldly and empty assumptions, understandings, beliefs, and convictions. What does this mean, practically? Well, it means that we need no longer be afraid or ashamed of admitting our errors and mistakes in our past. Now, in Christ we have been forgiven of our sins, cleansed from regret and pain, and can confess that God has forgiven us fully of all the things we have said or done to hurt ourselves or others (1 John 1.6-2.2). In connection to our lives right now, today, we can affirm that we belong to Christ, as members of his Church, and agents and ambassadors of his Kingdom, called to live out the life Christ won for us in love and grace. We have been called to freedom, set free from guilt, condemnation, blame shifting, and self-hatred, and called to be free to love God and others, from the heart. Freedom From Galatians 5.1 – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Freedom to 1 Peter 2.16 – Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Learning to live in this freedom is one of the primary privileges and responsibilities of every follower of Christ. Jesus came to