Making Christ Counterfeit

It is easy to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the man who pointed to the complicity and the compromises of the German Church during the Nazi era.

While Bonhoeffer railed against a church that said nothing as Jewish people were denied their basic human rights and even enforced rules of pure Aryanism for their own clergy, Bonhoeffer’s criticism did not end there.

He was critical of the church in its better forms. He was critical of the Confessing Church which he founded.

Bonhoeffer’s fear was that church, even his church, had already become an institution of religiosity, instead of a gathering of people who dedicated themselves to living in the way of Christ. This is what he thought was missing from people’s lives—the daily living out of the faith, dying to self, living to Christ, in every moment and in every area of life. Metaxas summarizes by saying that “one’s faith must be shining and bright and pure and robust.” Anything short of this not only resulted in little more than institutional religion, but fell short of who Christ is. A compromised life turned Christ into “a tawdry man-made counterfeit.” (248)

It doesn’t take a prophetic voice to say that so much of our Christian lives today are filled with compromise and counterfeit. Polls indicate that over 90 or even 95 percent of Americans claim a belief in God. And yet, the society around us bears little fruit of those statistics. Among Western nations, the United States has one of the highest percentages of people in jail. By watching our actions and reading our advertising, our temple seems to be consumerism and achieving possessions, positions, and power more than humbling ourselves before God.

While the complicity of our faith and culture are not new, what Bonhoeffer points to is that not only do we compromise ourselves and the church, but our actions compromise Christ. Many times, our actions are the only Christ that others see. People see Christ through us.

What do they see? A life dedicated to doing good, avoiding harm, and loving God? Or do they see a life that looks like everything else in the world around them? Do they only see the counterfeit and not the Christ?