Dr. Alan DunnDr. Alan J. Dunn

You might be thinking about John Lennon’s popular song. I’m not. The 2nd commandment says, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image… you shall not worship or serve them.” This commandment forbids us to think about God except as He has revealed Himself. When we make an “image”, we must first imagine what we are imaging. We are made in God’s image. But in our sin, we are prone to make God in our image. In Psalm 50:21 God warns, “You thought that I was just like you.”

God is not known by man’s imagination. God must reveal Himself. God is known by His self-disclosure, not man’s creative ingenuity. “We ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man” (Acts 17:29). Statues, pictures and icons are utterly unable to communicate the truth of the living God who fills the heavens and the earth. Habakkuk 2:18 informs us that such idols are “teachers of falsehood.”

But the 2nd commandment is broken without the use of statues. If our thoughts of God are not informed by Scripture, then we fashion a false image of God in our minds. For example, if you view God as all sentimental love without holy wrath, you have a false image of God. Or if you think of God only as a vengeful tyrant without mercy, you too have a false image of God. To the extent that you deny God’s revelation of Himself, you break the 2nd commandment.

Man is forbidden from making an image of God. Only God can image God. God has imaged Himself to men by His Word. We are to think of God only as He is revealed in Scripture. God has fully imaged Himself by His Son, His Incarnate Word. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). Jesus “is the image of the invisible God… For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col 1:15; 2:9). If we deny the Son and ignore the Scriptures, we break the 2nd commandment. We’re then left with our own imagination when it comes to knowing the God before whom we will stand in judgment.

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