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The Deadly Consequence of Idolatry: Running from Salvation by Running for salvation

Idols are as tricky as they are misunderstood. We think of them as distant from us and our culture. Too often we think of idols as the little figurines of the portly eastern man. But as Tim Keller writes in his very helpful book Counterfeit Gods, this is not typically the case. He shows that idols are often misunderstood and unidentified in our lives:

We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life. (p.xvii)

I have written quite a bit about this in the past, but here I want to zero in on something that Keller said that is so helpful.

He makes the point that we expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. This is dangerous.

THE DANGER of a CRAVING
What is dangerous? It is the lack of satisfaction. The craving of the soul for ultimate fulfillment. We want, we desire true joy, happiness, satisfaction and delight in a world that is not able to deliver. We live amid a world full of shiny objects that make promises that they can deliver, but the sad truth is they can’t.

The bottom line is that created things are never meant to bring about ultimate satisfaction, meaning and purpose to humanity. We were created for so much more.

THE DANGER of FREE WILL
The danger intensifies further. Not only do we crave ultimate fulfillment and live in a world that ostensibly offers it, but we have the free will to pursue it.

What I mean by this is that you and I can act upon our desires. We have the ability to pursue what we want, what we desire. Why is this dangerous? It is because our ability to appraise things is skewed. We don’t know what truly satisfies us. Our hearts are deceitful and our taste-buds are warped. We wouldn’t know salvation if it stared us in the face.

Don’t you see the heart’s deceitfulness? We run from salvation in Christ by running to salvation in created stuff. This is deadly. And we don’t even realize it.

This is why we, as Keller observes, elevate these good things to an idolatrous level. We commission our spouses, families, friends, careers, bodies, finances, food, etc as our functional saviors. But, they cannot deliver. All they do is leave us hungry and hurting. It is like a school kid getting jumped for his lunch. But we just keep walking into the fray.

THE RESCUE of CHRIST
This is where Christ is so valuable. He interprets reality for us. He shows us the bottom of the cistern. He shows us it is leaking. He bids us to come to him for true and lasting satisfaction and delight.

(Isa 55.1-2) “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

It is the gospel of Christ that truly frees hungry, hurting people to be healed and satisfied in Christ (Matt. 11.27-29).

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