Get Your Pretense On!

86 • Get Your Pretense On!

destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3.8), to set us free from our futile effort to please God on our own, to work out our own meaning of life, and to accomplish things that might lead to our own love of ourselves. We can give up the futile attempts to “be somebody” on our own, knowing that God almighty has accepted us in Christ. We need not loathe ourselves, or regret what we’ve done, or be perpetually dissatisfied in how we look, what we are, and how our “life turned out.” God has granted us freedom, a freedom that no one can take away from us, and a freedom that will lead to a new level of love, accomplishment, and proper self-respect. What is the condition of this freedom and love? Simply to continue in the word of Jesus, to put off the old lies which are filled with deceit, and learn a new way of living based on the truth of God’s word. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8.31-32). Jacques Ellul sums up this reality of Christian freedom, describing its place in this rejection of the bondage of the old life before we met Christ: Freedom is not one element in the Christian life. It is not one of its forms. It does not express itself accidentally, or according to circumstances, or through encounters. In some circumstances temperance is the work of faith, in others faithfulness, in others strict justice, in others extreme clemency. Freedom, however, is not like this. It is not a part or a fragmentary expression of the Christian life. It is the Christian life. Freedom lies outside the list of virtues. It is not one of the fruits of the Spirit. It is the pedestal on which all the rest can be set. It is the climate in which all things develop and grow. It is the