Pretending into Reality - Martin Wiles

Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Romans 5:13 NLT

What I had put on prepared me for what I’d become.

For a number of years before she died, my paternal great-grandmother stayed in the home with her daughter and son-in-law, my paternal grandparents. She had her own room, but nothing more. There was no studio apartment or mother-in-law room, but she was content.

She often sat on her bed, propped up with pillows behind her back, crocheting or reading her Bible. And I often sat in the room with her. My little soldier bed was in her room. When I spent the night, I slept there. A wooden chair was at the foot of her bed. Here I sat to watch her, talk with her, and do my pretending.

In front of the chair, I placed a small table. On the table, I placed a Bible. And from that position, I pretended to preach. I doubt at that age I could read well. I surely didn’t understand everything the Bible taught. Yet, I had heard my father preach every Sunday, and, like most boys, I wanted to be like my father.

I’m sure my antics amused my parents and grandparents. In reality, I don’t remember doing this. The act is stuck in my memory because they told me I did. But eventually, I pretended into reality.

Paul told his readers to put on Christ and to make no provision for sinful behavior. In other words, pretend into reality.

When we put on Christ through faith, He forgives, accepts us into His family, and makes us saints. From God’s perspective, we’re perfect because we’ve put on Christ. And Christ was sinless . . . perfect. God sees us in Him and sees our perfection, even though it hasn’t happened in reality.

As the betrayed pretends to still love the betrayer until those original feelings return, so I must pretend to be perfect until my thoughts, actions, and words become closer to reality—which won’t happen until I’m perfected in heaven.

I can be a little Christ when I begin to realize I can’t live the Christian life. Only Christ in me can. And the sooner I realize this, the sooner I will pretend into reality the person He wants me to be.

Don’t live like the person you were before Christ. Pretend into reality the person Christ has made you.

Tweetable: What do you want to become reality?

Prayer: Father, help us realize who we are in Christ so we can live out in practice the people we are in position. 

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