Should the Church Create and Embrace Images of Jesus?

There is a common and accepted practice to depict images of Jesus as a cultural norm found in households, churches and bibles, as well as, schools, and throughout social media. How has this become so acceptable when the best attested scholarship and historians collectively agree that there are no known images of the Son of God from His lifetime?

Research into these origins over the centuries reveal that differing portraits and sculptures of Christ have come from people who have made these images in their own likeness as a representation of themselves. The Bible does not provide us with any details as to how Jesus actually looked in the days of his childhood until His death on the cross, but this has not prevented people from creating false depictions of Him anyway. We do know that Jesus (Yeshua) was of Middle Eastern, Jewish descent, who was taken away as a boy to blend in among the Egyptians for a period of time to secure His safety from an evil King. Notwithstanding, what does Scripture tell us and how should professing followers of Christ approach this matter?

The second of the Ten Commandments tells us:

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (Ex 20:4)

Throughout Israel’s history, their greatest sin as revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) was the practice of idolatry. The creation of things that they called their god. Notice that the commandment says that you are not to make for yourself “anything in heaven above or on the earth…” So, I ask the question, “Is Jesus in heaven?” Well, we’ve been told not to make an image of anything in heaven or on earth and to identify it as being our god. Thus, I submit that the creation of (false) images and portrayals of Jesus is modern day idolatry, and is something that should be totally shunned.

To take this a step further, we have been given a clear apostolic directive on how to approach the person of Jesus who is no longer physically with us. Please observe the words of Paul.

“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 5:16)

Did you catch that? Paul understood the purpose of Christ’s physical appearance culminating in his death on the cross and His resurrection. However, he understood that the representation of Christ by the people of God would not be by way of a physical depiction, which he knew would result in missing the mark. In fact, we have been instructed by our Lord regarding our approach God, in declaring “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). To repeat, worship to God comes by way of the Spirit, and no human image created by man should find a place with God’s people by teaching or implying that it is what the Son of God looked like. This is the grand reason as to why no images of Jesus have been left for us to observe. Surely, if God could preserve His word, then He could have created and preserved for us an image of His Son, if this were the way to draw closer to Him. However, this was intentionally not the case simply because we would worship the created image, resulting in idolatry, while believing that we have been delivered to do so.

Recall the occasion when the children of Israel were in the wilderness waiting for Moses to return from the mountain. We read,
[Aaron] received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” (Ex 32:4-5)
Did you notice that in sincerity of heart, they created a false image of what they believed to be the god who delivered them from Egypt? When reading such, it is easy to describe such actions as delusional and misguided. Yet today, we have created false images of some individual and have been equally deluded into embracing it as a depiction of the one who died for our sins. How have we become so blind in seeing the sins of Israel embracing a golden calf, while we, in turn, have created a deceptive portrait and embrace it being the image of God’s son?

If we are really going to honor God, we must hold to the authority of Scripture and stop embracing portraits of individuals fashioned by man, and calling them the Son of God. They are deceptive, misleading and offensive, to those who are jealous for the truth, being reminded “That the Church of the living God, [is] the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15). If we can’t get it right as the professing Church, being willing to stand for the truth and to know the difference, then this world and the next generation are to be pitied.

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

BDR