“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:4-5) 

As a young Christian, I had a very basic understanding of the 10 commandments. This was one of the commandments I thought I had covered. I was not making idols out of wood or metal like ancient people used to do (and some weird folks still do). I was good to go. 

It is clear from Scripture God does not forbid making all images. God commands the crafting of two cherubim just a few chapters later (Ex. 25:18-20) 

So what is this commandment getting at? One commentator explains: “The second commandment prohibits the making of images intended to represent in some physical way God himself. In other words, it is not images of other gods that are prohibited – that possibility has already been excluded in the first commandment, in which other gods were forbidden outright.” (Peter C Craigie)

Here is another way to think of it. “If the first commandment is against worshipping the wrong God, the second commandment is against worshipping God in the wrong way” (Kevin DeYoung). How we worship God matters. 

Throughout biblical and church history, attempting to worship God through graven or carved images has been a great temptation and snare to many. In Isaiah 40, the prophet asks the Israelites why they fashion something with their own hands, then bow before that man-made image as if it were God? That is insane! Yet all too common, even today. 

God reveals himself primarily through words. Think of Moses. One day he was tending his flocks when the living God appeared to him in the midst of a burning bush. And God spoke, revealing himself through human language. Moses saw no form; there was only a voice (Deut. 4:12). 

In another verse it says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”(Deut. 29:29). What God has revealed to us comes by way of written words, language, speech. But not images. 

“Because God is pure Spirit, without bodily form, and any picture or representation which man can make can only give a false idea of the nature of God.” (Johannes Vos) Whether it’s a physical image or something that we conjure up in our mind, it’s sin. It will distort the revelation of God given through Scripture. 

The most famous example of this is the golden calf episode. After Moses received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, he didn’t rush back down the mountain. The people became impatient and told Aaron “make us gods who will go before us” (Ex. 32:1). Rather than rebuking the people for their sinful demand, Aaron agreed, fashioning the peoples’ jewelry into a golden calf. He said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 

About this, my friend Dan Kheil observed, “While the people wanted the idol to represent other gods, Aaron wanted them to see it as an image of Yahweh. Both were condemned and sinful.”

God is perfectly pure and holy. There is no corruption or defilement in Him. How can imperfect man-made images capture his glory? God is jealous for his glory and honor. It must be so. God is jealous for pure and exclusive worship.  

Romans 1:22-23 speaks to this: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” The people worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator. The created, however, can never share the transcendent glory of the Creator.  

Most of you understand this, I’m sure. You agree that images of God are prohibited. But what about images of Jesus? We know from Scripture that Jesus became a man and we naturally wonder what Jesus looked like. What’s wrong with depicting Jesus? 

For most of my life and ministry, I had no problem with that. I have probably watched more Jesus films over the years than most of my readers. My wife and I read to our kids plenty of children’s books with images of Christ. We never gave much thought to it. But a few years ago, my wife and I began to question our understanding of this commandment. Here are some reasons why:    

The apostles did not leave behind any images of Christ or descriptions of what his physical appearance was like. 

They would have left some description behind if they had wanted to. After spending 3 years of their lives with Jesus, they had a vivid picture of him in their minds. Any depiction of Christ is guesswork. Images of Christ tell us more about the artist than they do about Jesus. 

Images of Jesus can only capture his human nature.

Jesus is truly human and truly God. Christ’s divine nature is impossible to reproduce. Thus, it is deceitful at best to say – “this is what Jesus is like”. Thomas Watson explains it this way:  “It is Christ’s Godhead, united to his manhood that makes him to be Christ; therefore to picture his manhood, when we cannot picture his Godhead, is a sin, because we make him to be but a half Christ,—we separate what God hath joined,—we leave out that which is the chief thing, which makes him to be Christ.”

Christianity is a religion of faith. 

Pastor Joe Vusich says this: Christianity is a religion of faith.  It focuses on “things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).  Christians worship the unseen God and His unseen Son seated in the unseen Heaven, mediated by the unseen Spirit.  Unauthorized images of Christ add nothing beneficial to this religion of faith, and serve only to tempt the faithful to take their minds off “things above” (Col. 3:2) and focus on the creations of human hands. 

As I have said, Christianity is a religion of words, not images. Believing sight comes by sound. Rom. 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” John 20:29: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  

We don’t need to create images of Christ because God has already created them. Lots of them! 

We are 8 billion strong at the moment. Every human being was created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). Though we live in a fallen world, God populates the earth with his image-bearers.  

For these 4 reasons, I believe that the 2^nd commandment forbids all images of God, including images of Christ. This is not an essential of the Christian faith, but this is not a trivial, secondary matter either. God has not given us the liberty to create an image of Him, including God the Son. 

We live in an “image-based” culture. There is a reason why Youtube has over 5 billion videos on it. Hearing is nice, but we would rather see it. This sentiment affects us in countless ways. We can’t help but comment on appearances. In our flesh, we care about what people look like. 

This is nothing new. Paul said, We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 

And: From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.   (2 Cor. 5:12, 16)

It is unnatural to look at the heart, but God does. And, by the grace of God, we must do that too. “We walk by faith, not by sight.” If you can grasp that, then the 2^nd commandment makes perfect sense. One day we will see God as He is, in all his glory. Until then we walk by faith. 

If you are watching the popular series “The Chosen” for example, ask yourself – am I really watching it so that I can learn, or just because I find it entertaining? I might be stepping on some toes here, but I don’t apologize for that. God’s word is meant to convict us. You probably don’t realize how much your view of God is being influenced by the directors and producers, as opposed to Scripture itself. 

We are the most visual, image driven culture in history, easily making idols out of the digital devices and media that surround us. We love the images that they give to us. But that can be a real snare. May God convict us and the Holy Spirit reveal to us the various ways that we are law-breakers. But at the same time, we remember that we have hope. 

We celebrate that we can go to our Great high Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is merciful beyond measure. You are loved by God, and called to belong to Him. Jesus took all our sins upon himself, at the foot of the cross. So take all your sins to Jesus, our wonderful Savior. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8)

As a final word, remember that Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) To see Jesus, is to see the Father. Make it a prayer that this week and month you would see Jesus more clearly than ever before. And as you look with the eyes of faith, know that you will be transformed. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).