False gods and our Saviour

We have a great big God. But we do not always live as if this is true. We replace him with something else in our affections. Those are some of the reminders and challenges we were thrown this past Sunday. As we further reflect on Acts 17:16-34, here are some helpful thoughts from Tim Keller in his book Counterfeit Gods.

Keller defines an idol in this way:
"It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give...A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living."

From the Notes section in his book, he lays out a list of potential idols to which we might fall prey:

• Theological idols: Doctrinal errors that produce such distorted views of God that we end up worshipping a false god.
  
• Sexual idols: Addictions such as pornography and fetishisms that promise but don’t deliver a sense of intimacy and acceptance; ideals of physical beauty in yourself and/or a partner; romantic idealism.
  
• Magic/ritual idols: Witchcraft and the occult.
  
• Political/economic idols: Ideologies of the left, right, and libertarian that absolutize some aspect of political order and make it the solution, eg, deifying or demonizing free markets. [or in our context, elevating a particular political party to the position of national savior]
  
• Racial/national idols: Racism, militarism, nationalism, or ethnic pride that turns bitter or oppressive
  
• Relational idols: codependency, “fatal attractions,” living your life through your children.
  
• Religious idols: Moralism and legalism, idolatry of success and gifts, religion as a pretext for abuse of power.
  
• Philosophical idols: Systems of thought that make some created thing the problem with life (instead of sin) and some human product or enterprise the solution to our problems (instead of God’s grace).
  
• Cultural idols: Radical individualism (typical in the West, making an idol out of individual happiness at the expense of community); shame cultures that make an idol out of family and clan at the expense of individual rights.
  
• Deep idols: Motivational drives and temperaments made into absolutes
  - Power idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I have power and influence over others"
  - Approval idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I am loved and respected by _________"
  - Comfort idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I have this kind of pleasure experience or a particular quality of life"
  - Control idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I am able to get mastery over my life in the area of ___________"

Finally, Keller calls us back to the gospel of grace as the only remedy for our idolatry:

If we are deeply moved by the sight of his love for us, it detaches our hearts from other would-be saviors. We stop trying to redeem ourselves through our pursuits and relationships, because we are already redeemed. We stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior.

...If you only try to uproot [idols], they grow back; but they can be supplanted. By what? By God himself, of course. But by God we do not mean a general belief in His existence. Most people have that, yet their souls are riddled with idols. What we need is a living encounter with God.

...Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol... We want to love Christ so much more that we are not enslaved by our attachments.

What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!