To attempt to capture the essence of the immortal, divine Christ in a mere physical image is to engage in the most extreme folly. Jesus was not like other men. He is the God-man! In Him, all of the fullness of God dwells in human form. To make an image of Him is to create an image of God! Paul says that He existed in the very form of God before taking on a servant’s form. In human form, He remained truly God and truly man.

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. – Exodus 20:4-6

The Gravity of Image- Making

After the Lord gave us the most foundational commandment to have no other gods before Him, He forbade us from the abominable practice of lessening and cheapening His matchless glory by trying to cast it in a limited frame. This is clearly a consequence of God being the one and only God, maximal in all attributes, infinite in all His knowledge, power, being, glory, existence, and attributes. If God is limitless in all these things, and He is, then these flimsy, shallow, and hollow images cannot constrain him. Trying to cast an infinite god in any finite frame is not only an offense to Him but infuriates His holy and righteous wrath. It is to lie about who He is. It is to say to Him that you have commanded me not to do this, but because I am a visual learner, I do not care about your commandments and will make you into whatever image and likeness I want. At the core of it, it is to say that I am God. I choose how God will be revealed to me instead of allowing God to make that choice for you!

And this kind of behavior manifests itself in a variety of ways. In ancient Israel, they did the unthinkable by trying to limit the infinite God, casting Him in the image of a golden calf. They took the one who has no end to His power, majesty, and glory, and they cast Him as an animal that stands in its own feces, which is a disgusting, deplorable, and abominable action. God was gracious not to smite them all where they stood and instead made them drink their idol once it was crushed into powder and added to their water supply. As it ripped open their bowels, they were to learn that idolatry is not only an offense to God but tears us apart as well.

You think about the golden calf on Wall Street, the image of the American God of wealth and gluttony. You think about the morbidly obese Buddha with that silly smile on his face as a picture of what men and women in the Orient believe about God. You think about the depictions of Jesus as a white European with long flowing hair, which is a statement about what men and women in the Renaissance believed about God. You think about the campaigns to depict Jesus as a woman, as a black or oriental man. You think about shows like The Chosen, who cast the most holy face of Jesus Christ, the one who said if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, the one who who now sits upon the throne of heaven, with the face of a human sinner, I believe the Lord is righteously indignant about that.

And maybe you are saying, Kendall, do not be a killjoy… I like The Chosen. I like the Passion of the Christ. I like my Jesus picture on my wall.

What Do You Love More?

But, I would ask you, do you love your images more than the commands of God?

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