BP160
Most of us are familiar with people who have made millions of dollars (even hundreds of millions like Frank Bourassa) creating counterfeit currency, art forgeries, or false documents. But are there things that can be forged or counterfeited that are not material, not tangible?
Back in the beginning, God created a universe that was true and genuine. There was nothing false, nothing deceptive. Trust was unspoiled. It had not yet been ruined. There were no masks, no masquerading, no frauds, not even any wolves wearing sheep’s clothing. The world was real, authentic, bona fide, trustworthy and holy.
But then the universe fell, and everything was corrupted to its core. Suddenly and tragically, truth and honesty were opposed by deceptions and lies.
God created the universe, and it was very good. But Satan and the spirit of rebellion and disobedience marred the beauty of all that God created beginning with the perfect soul inside of Adam and Eve and then gleefully watched it spread throughout the universe.
Always remember this truth: Satan cannot create. Only God can do that. But Satan can take what God created for good and corrupt it, twist and squeeze distorted counterfeits out of God’s created order.
So, what is the problem with counterfeits and forgeries? They appear to be an exact imitation of the real, true, good thing God created when, in fact, they are false. They are not what they appear to be. The counterfeit may look real and true, but it is deceptive and valueless. Let’s look at some examples of the good thing God created and Satan’s counterfeit of that good creation.
Love becomes distorted to lust
Kindness is replaced by niceness (something that is often not true but false)
Humility never develops but gives way to people-pleasing
Being righteous and good in Christ is exchanged for performance and relationless morality
Truly loving God gives way to dogmatically clutching theology and potentially even bibliolatry
Intellectual godliness replaces a heart connection with Jesus
Setting healthy boundaries is replaced by detached distance that does not risk love
Desire is usurped by duty
The true self is throttled by the false self that may still appear healthy
Healthy expression of anger is swallowed and replaced by smiling bitterness or hidden rage
True repentance gives way to subtle blaming and projecting of one’s badness onto others
And the list could go on . . .
So, what is the main point of this post on counterfeits and forgeries?
The main thought here is that the concept of counterfeits is not reserved only for deceptive material objects or even for human behaviors that are misleading or false. What is true is that most people are living counterfeit lives. They are counterfeits because all humans are born counterfeits. Our innate, inborn personhood runs opposite to how God created us to be. The “good” self God designed has been corrupted by sin and now we are more animal than image bearers (some more than others).
Thankfully, Jesus came to transfer us from the kingdom of false selves to the kingdom of His beloved Son where we are transformed back into our original design.
Are you true or are you counterfeit? And if you have been delivered from the counterfeit nature, are you daily being transformed degree by degree into your genuine self?
2 Corinthians says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
The Bible is clear: if we want to become the true self God created, we must be “in Christ.” When we are “in Christ,” only then does the new creation come which actually is the original person (possibly even better because we know grace) God made us to be before the Fall.
In John 3:3ff we read, “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’”
Everyone who does not know Jesus as Savior, everyone who is not a new creation but living in the old counterfeit self, everyone who has not been born again by the Spirit, is fraudulent. Are these strong words? Yes, but they are true words. “Fraudulent” is defined according to the Oxford Languages Dictionary as “unjustifiably claiming or being credited with particular accomplishments or qualities.”
Some people cling to a righteousness by works that is credited to their moral account while God tells us that the true righteousness is the one that comes through Jesus and is credited to our account.
Forgive me for this brief tangent . . .
There are many today who claim, as a way to support late term abortion, or even out of the womb infanticide, that babies are not persons until they attain a certain developmental ability at the caprice of the definer. Joseph Fletcher is one of those “definers.” He asserts that to be considered a person whose life is to be spared, the newborn must fulfill fifteen standards among them being self-awareness and memory! Before those standards are attained in some subjective evaluator’s estimation, the baby is considered not human and vulnerable to death.
The website Choices, quotes, “Abortion supporters have lost the argument on the scientific level. They can no longer deny that an embryo is biologically human. As a result, they have switched tactics to an argument based on personhood defined ultimately by their own personal views and values.”
In a way, abortionists are saying that a newborn is not a genuine person but a counterfeit. A newborn has not attained the status of a true and real human until they reach the milestones assigned subjectively and non-scientifically by people who seem to believe they are God and can make that random assignment of personhood.
Folks, we are living in scary times. Incomprehensible times. You would think the light has been completely extinguished in the hearts of many.
Sorry for the detour. My main point here is that to me it is objectively a no brainer that babies in the womb and outside the womb are persons, humans, miracles that God created. The more important point, however, is that if a human like Fletcher became a new creation in Christ and was born again by the Spirit, his attitude toward abortion (and other moral choices) would be transformed. He would not be operating out of a counterfeit self (the flesh that does not know Jesus), but out of a true, genuine, God-created self that is not blind but sees even beyond material reality.
Romans 8:5 says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Humans are counterfeits as long as they are walking in the flesh, but if their minds are set on the Spirit due to having become a new creation, they will have life. It is not simply behaviors that are counterfeit, but hearts and souls.
Scripture tells us there are a lot of walking dead people in this world: “For to set the mind on the flesh is death . . .” Maybe that’s why zombie movies are so appealing. They actually do kind of capture the deadness of the natural man and woman who have fallen from the original created being who God declared good.
The final questions in today’s post is, then, do you want to be a counterfeit person who is rebelling against God? Is it the will of your soul to defy the Creator who made you to be fully alive as a child of God? Or do you wish to be transformed into His image?
Do you think being a Christian is a boring, uneventful, alternative compared to being of the world and enjoying the fleeting pleasures of this fallen reality? Not at all. Being born again and being “in Christ” is where the greatest of all benefits and adventures lies.
To realize these eternal benefits, remember two things.
First, come to Jesus and be born again by His Spirit. You will then experience the greatest miracle that can happen to a human, namely, you will be changed from a counterfeit to a true person. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 the word is metamorphosize. You will be changed from a caterpillar to a butterfly—a whole different creature. I personally believe that the transformation that happens to the caterpillar in the cocoon or chrysalis was planted in nature by the Creator to give us a glimpse of what occurs to humans at the new birth in the spiritual world.
Secondly, be in a daily walk with Jesus so you will increasingly become the bona fide human not just by status in Christ but in your actual nature that is daily becoming the true self.
In conclusion, we are all born counterfeits. We are fallen from what we were intended to be. Some intervention must occur for us to become real persons who are alive instead of dead and false. Only a divine intervention will suffice.
Are you already a new creation in Jesus? What a miracle!
Are you practicing that new nature every day by seeking the One who transforms your mind and soul into trueness as you spend time in His presence every day?
Don’t settle for being a zombie, a caterpillar, a fallen creation, a false person. Cry out to Jesus to transform you by the renewal of your mind. This is the miraculous birth in this world: becoming a new creation on the unseen spiritual level and then daily living out that new existence by being with Jesus. As you begin to shine more brightly with the glory of Christ within you, others will begin to recognize that you have been with Him.
Here is the miracle of this world, then. God takes the counterfeit and redeems it. He restores it to what He created it to be: true, good, real, genuine, godly.
To be counterfeit, don’t do anything. Keep doing what you’re doing. To be bona fide, cry out to Jesus for a miraculous intervention that will change you into a new creation. Then walk as children of light with other genuine people in the presence of the true God.
What is dead will be transformed into life.
What is false will become true.
What was once a zombie of the darkness will become a son or daughter of the Light.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind . . .” Romans 12:2a
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them” ~ Proverbs 11:3
“Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” ~ Ephesians 5:7ff