A Counterfeit God

Fundamental to idolatry in biblical terms is the idea of an exchange – swaping the true God for something else…

…[T]he exchange may amount to modifying God’s character, airbrushing out attributes we deem problematic to make a more convenient God in our image. This last kind of idolatry is hardest to spot, because we can indulge in it while retaining Christian vocabulary. We continue to speak enthusiastically of ‘God’, and even about ‘Christ’ and ‘the gospel’, while all along we are operating with an imitation forged by our own sinful imaginations. When we suppress certain truths about God (e.g. his holy wrath against sin) or distort others (e.g. his love) to produce our own designer deity, then we are guilty of false faith, and are left with a ‘counterfeit God’.

Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, Andrew Sach – Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution