THE REAL THING (part one)
Coca-Cola had an advertizing campaign where its slogan introduced the beverage as the real thing. It's understood that by describing itself as "the real thing" it implied that its competitors are merely impostors and of a lower quality. So, you have the real thing and then you have the pretenders, the counterfeits, the wannabes. The real thing is better.
1) The real God.
In Deut. 4, Moses warned the people to not engage in idol worship. Duet. 4:15-19, "You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven."
It's hard for people to worship something intangible. We can't see God, we can't see Jesus so we come up with what we consider the next best thing. We create an image that represents God so we can have something tangible to look to. At various times in scripture God is given an element of a physical description but there is no description of his face. Jesus isn't given a physical description of what he looks like either.
But that hasn't stopped artists from creating images of him. Many people grew up seeing the pictures of Jesus on someone's wall. Unfortunately, many have come to believe that's what Jesus really looks like. This white, blond haired blue eyed Jesus. So, to try to get away from that typical image, people started depicting Jesus differently. Black artists began painting a black Jesus, some created an image closer to what someone who came from Jewish or middle eastern decent looked like.
But all we have accomplished is a fulfillment of the original problem-a focus on, and in some cases an obsession with, what Jesus looked like. There's a reason why we're not told the physical characteristics of Jesus-we're not meant to focus on that. We're to focus on what he said and did, not what he may have looked like.
But we are visual people who depend on being able to see something in order to better relate to it; we feel better if we can put a face to the name. Therefore, in some cases, a person doesn't just have a picture of Jesus on the wall, they find themselves talking to it; maybe even praying to it. Remember when you were about to do something wrong you would turn the picture around so Jesus wasn't 'looking'.
This goes beyond pictures to statues. Think of any of the churches you've been in where there were statues of Jesus. You may have looked at it as if it were almost alive. Think of any of the other statues or figurines depicting Mary or some other church figure. What do some people do with them? They pray to them or they look to them for guidance. You need to put a saint Christopher figurine in your car to protect you from an accident.
Think beyond these things into the practices of religious people. Religions from all over have objects of worship. There are Greek gods, Roman gods, and many other gods and goddesses in our world today. So it wasn't just in biblical times that people worshiped foreign gods. We too, right here in America, are guilty of idol worship. We place a value on created things as if they held a power of their own.
And it all points to the same problem-we are shifting our attention and focus from God to something else. We look to something or someone else to help us with our problems instead of relying on God. There are people who worship creation itself. There are different gods over the wind and rain and meanwhile they neglect the worship of the God over all creation. People look to and settle for false gods and with that come a dependence and trust in something that has no real power.
Later in Deut. 4, God gave them a proclamation if they were to turn from his covenant. Duet. 4:27-29, "The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul."
God told them they would bow down to worthless idols of wood and stone. Man-made items that had no ability to think; no power. What could they possibly offer but false hope? And such is the case if we trust in anything or anyone other than God to do what only God can do. Where can true peace and joy be found but in God? Who can provide for us or protect us or guide us better than God?
Later in Deut., when again God warned them what would happen if they didn't obey him, he not only told them they would start to worship false gods, but he also revealed how little these false gods would help them. Deut. 28:64-66, "Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life."
It's like God is saying to them, "so, you want to look to other gods. Ok, let me tell you how that's going to play out. You'll have no rest; no peace. You'll be dealing with anxiety. You'll long to be fulfilled but will find no satisfaction. Your hearts will be in despair. You'll live in fear, dread and uncertainty. If this will be your state of being then what will those other gods have done for you?"
Romans 1 talks about people who exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve created things rather than the Creator. God is the one and only God and you shall have no other gods but him. The lie is it's okay to have images of God. The lie is false gods or idols are sufficient and can protect and fulfill you. The truth is Jesus is the one who gives us the fullness of life. We can serve false gods or the real God.
2) The real gospel.
Gal. 1:6-10, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
Paul was preaching the real gospel vs. what the false apostles were preaching. There were some Jews that were trying to say that besides trusting in Christ you also needed to follow the law and be circumcised in order to truly be right with God. This would be what Paul described as a perversion of the gospel; an intermingling of beliefs.
That kind of thing goes on today. You have certain beliefs that claim to follow Christ but add things and pervert the true gospel. The JWs will say follow the bible (their own version of it) but you also need to follow the instructions that come from the Watchtower Society. The Mormons will say follow the bible but you also need to follow the book of Mormon in order to have the complete truth.
Satan is okay with people introducing the bible and talking about Jesus as long as it's the twisted version. He's fine with teachings that have elements of truth to them as long as they are wrong in the most important areas. Like how they view Jesus. If other groups just see Jesus as a prophet and not the Son of God then they are teaching a false gospel; even if they see Jesus as a savior. Certain groups may call themselves Christians, but when they introduce concepts and traditions that are anti-biblical they are false teachers.
And Paul said that they will be condemned. He basically said, "I don't care who it is; even if an angel were to come down and preach a gospel other than the one you heard from me and accepted, let him be condemned. Paul even goes so far as to say if he himself starts teaching a different gospel, let him be condemned.
To Paul, the agent didn't matter, no matter how well respected or liked they were. The right gospel is Christ alone-not works, not the law but simply faith in Christ. Paul would've preached what Jesus and the other Apostles preached along with what he accepted-faith, repentance, baptism and confessing Jesus as Lord. Any other way is not the way.
Paul finished by asking if they thought he was trying to win men's approval or God's. If you're going to introduce a false gospel, one of the things that will make it more acceptable is to incorporate things that people will want to hear. There are those who water down the gospel and teach all love and no judgment; no mention of sin and its consequences. Just believe with no commitment to change.
It's not right to give people only the joyful verses; you have to teach the uncomfortable ones too. There are those who are just out to please people; they're not willing to offend anyone. If we are going to serve God then we will have to resist the temptation to make people feel good. Along with the warm fuzzies we need to introduce the cold prickleys.
We see that Paul started out by going after the Galatians for being easily captivated by false teachings. Jesus said in John 8 that we need to hold to his teachings if we are truly going to be his disciples. He said then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. If we really want to know the truth Jesus will reveal it to us. But we need to be willing to let go of whatever it was we thought was true along with making a commitment to hold to the truth once we've been convinced of it. We still need to be teachable as we won't understand everything thoroughly and there are certain subjects where people can have different opinions. So we need to stay open so we can learn.
We need to test the spirits. 1st John 4:1, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." John wanted them to understand that not everyone who says they're from God are from God. They need to be put to the test. We test their words, we test their actions; do they line up with the word of God?
John went on to say you can recognize them by how they see Jesus. We can do the same thing. Who do they say Jesus is? Just a man, a prophet, a teacher? Do they acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God? Do they see Jesus as God in the flesh? Do they see Jesus as the only way?
John said those who are not from God speak from a worldly viewpoint. So we can measure by the same standard. Do they speak from a viewpoint of the world? Do they teach that you just need to be a good person or all roads lead to God? Are they promoting scientific theories or new age philosophies? Are their views a mixture of biblical thinking and worldly thinking?
These elements are in our world today and a lot of it sounds good but it's deceptive and misleading and we need to recognize it as such. It can be easy to recognize falsehood when it's blatant, but when something is almost true, it makes the falsehood more difficult to spot. We need to test the spirits and cling to the real thing.
Counterfeit bills are never made in odd denominations because they need to imitate the real thing. At first glance they seem real, you may have even passed one along without knowing it. But there is always something bogus about them, some blur or omission, something that doesn’t exactly correspond to real money.
It's important that a bank teller, treasury agent, FBI agent, etc., be trained to detect counterfeit money. Some are trained to be experts in this. They study how to test papers and inks. They study to use a micrometer to measure how many 10,000ths of an inch apart the cross hatch lines are on the portraits. Every time a counterfeit is found, they receive updates on the printing errors (scratches, dots, breaks in lines, inconsistent spacing, and so on). It's a long, tedious, never ending process, but necessary to establish that a bill is a counterfeit in a court of law.
Before those studies, each trainee is placed in a room with stacks of money. He spends hours counting stacks of mixed denominations. The next day he does the same thing; hour after hour. This continues on for days. Then one day, a counterfeit bill is slipped in. When he reaches the counterfeit, if he's well trained he stops counting. He knows something is wrong. He may not know what exactly, but he knows something is not right.
Intimate familiarity is the key. He is so familiar with the real thing, that he identifies the counterfeit rather easily. That’s the way we need to be. We should be so familiar with the truth that when we encounter something that's counterfeit we quickly recognize it. If we were offered counterfeit money or real money I think the choice would be a no-brainer. There's nothing like the real thing.
