I few years ago the U.S. mint came out with a new 20 dollar bill. It was hailed as a great invention for it uniqueness. It was say to be revolutionary for it could not be counterfeited. Yet the first the day it was released publicly there were already many counterfeits out in the public. They said it could not be counterfeited, but we know there will always be counterfeits. Part of Life is about discerning the real from the unreal.
A curse of today is the curse of the counterfeit. We have imitation cheese, imitation coffee, even imitation Christians. When all around us there is so much that is fake, fluff and filler, how can we understand what the Christian life is?
We can begin by understanding what the Christian life is not! Many live in such a way as to give the wrong impression of what the Christian life is. There are three ways people counterfeit the Christian life.
3 counterfeits of the Christian life.
1. Mechanical Matt - The guy that’s just going thought the motions. If he lives for God it’s out of fear not love.
2. Holy Joe - acts perfect but no love. Looks down on others to make self feel good. They put others down to make self look good.
3. Hypocritical Hal - Their real concern are for personal glory. They pretend to be what they are not. They act the super Christians.
The exchanged life
The Christian life is living an exchanged life. We exchange death for life. We exchange weakness for strength, rejection for acceptance, and our sinful rages for his glorious righteousness. In Turkey the exchange rate for money is odd. You get 100,000 Turkish leers for every one dollar. That is similar to the exchange rate we get from Jesus.
Paul gave us probable the best definition of the Christian life in Gal 2:20. “For I am crucified with Christ it is not I that live but Christ that lives in me, the life that I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave his life for me.” It is the exchange of my life For His life! The Christian life is Christ living in me, with me. It is Life with Him, a life of knowing him, loving him, and serving him.
