This means
that, the real thing is also going to be very much like all the counterfeits in
one way or another. As real money is very much like the best of the
counterfeits, so the real truth of God is going to be very close to the best counterfeit
versions of God.
As soon as we
start thinking that we need to be as far removed from counterfeits as possible
so that no one associates us with “them”, we have fallen into the very trap the
counterfeiters have set for us. When a fear-response moves us far away from the
counterfeits, it also moves us away from the real thing, the true Lord Jesus Christ,
and the true gospel of salvation.
Our aim is not
to act so different from the pretend Jesus that we are also acting different
from the real Jesus, or to act so different from the counterfeit gospels that
we are also living different from the real gospel. Our aim is to be so much
like Christ that those who know Christ will know us in Christ. Our aim is to be
so tuned to the truth of the gospel that those who are saved to worship God in
spirit and in truth will walk with us in fellowship without regard for all
those who say we look just like those “other” guys (whoever those other guys
are).
Paul gave us
this picture that helps us stay true to the truth of Jesus even when naysayers,
watchdog groups, and religious hypocrites threaten us with branding as cults,
chameleons and counterfeits: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being
saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a
fragrance from life to life.”[1]
There are
always going to be those who are being saved, and those who are perishing.
There will always be sinners repenting and putting faith in Jesus to the same
gospel that causes religious hypocrites to turn their noses up at this Jesus who
is a friend of sinners, calling him a counterfeit. There will always be “sinful”
women weeping over Jesus’ feet in love and thankfulness that these feet carried
such good news of forgiveness to their hearts, while the religious elite sit
across the table with hearts too full of prideful disdain to realize that this
one they think is a blasphemer is actually the real Savior for their world.
Our aim cannot
be to be so different from the counterfeit Jesus that we no longer are like Jesus.
We cannot steer so far away from the counterfeit gospels that we turn away from
the true gospel. We cannot recoil from counterfeit churches to such a degree
that we leave Jesus’ true church just because of what people think we “look
like”.
Instead, we
must seek to be filled up with the Holy Spirit of the Living God in all the
realities described in the living words of God, and let those who are being
saved discern the aroma of Christ in us as the fragrance from life to life. There
are enough counterfeits leading people on the wide path of destruction. Let us
be those who pursue the narrow way of “spirit and truth”, and “truth in love”,
even if we are labeled as counterfeits for doing so. Being “real” in Christ
will reap a real reward when Christ comes in his glory. As his word says, “But God's firm foundation stands, bearing
this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his.’”[2]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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