Tag: Image of God

WHY DOES GOD LOVE US?

As Christians we’re very acquainted with the gospel message that God loves us, and that God loves us so much that he gave to the world his Divine Son, our Lord Jesus the Messiah (Mashiach), to atone for our sinfulness and to redeem us from sin, death and the devil. But have you ever wondered why God loves us?

So, why is it that God loves us in the first place?

Thankfully, we find the beautiful and powerful answer to this question from the Word of God within the Holy Scriptures. In many passages throughout the Holy Bible, the twofold biblical reason why God loves us so much is simply because we are [1] his cherished creations and [2] his beloved children. As God’s cherished creations, we are his artwork, his building, his craftsmanship. We are God’s painting, God’s musical composition, God’s architectural design, God’s masterwork. And, of course, as we are Almighty God’s offspring (children of our Heavenly Father), we are loved with a fully parental, self-giving and self-sacrificing kind of love.

(Psalm 139:13-14a) – “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works…”

(Isaiah 64:8) – “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

(Matthew 6:9) – “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’…”

We are indeed cherished creations and beloved children of God, first and foremost. Humankind is created in the image of God (imago Dei) as a complementary balance of female and male (yin/yang), and, although women and men are very different, we are equal in our God-given value and dignity. In addition, humanity is a beautiful kaleidoscope of ethnicities and cultures, but we are one human race that is endowed with inalienable human rights and responsibilities.

(Genesis 1:27) – “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

(Acts 17:26-29) – “From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals…”

Consequently, our core identity is not centered on any sociological ideology or theory of conflict that’s obsessed with group identities, differences and partialities. Rather, as beloved children of God, our core identity is purely based upon the universal truth of the Word of God and upon the all-encompassing love and grace of God revealed in Jesus the Christ (Christos).

(John 17:17) – “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.”

(Ephesians 5:1-2) – “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Knowing why God loves us, we can live our daily lives in this wonderful awareness “as beloved children.” Although our human condition is fallen and sinful, our human nature is divine as offspring of Almighty God. So, we must always uplift and rejoice in our true identity and heavenly heritage as human beings.

Therefore, we praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God created us and the countless worlds of our universe (see John 1:1-4 and Colossians 1:15-17 and Hebrews 1:1-2). With deep gratitude and thanksgiving, we can live every single day in the awareness that we are cherished creations and beloved children of our Heavenly Father, and that God loves us so much that he gave us his Holy Son, Jesus (Yeshua), to be the once-and-for-all sacrificial offering of atonement for the sins of humanity (see John 3:16-17 and Hebrews 10:10-14 and First John 4:9-11). Glory to God in the highest!!!

Happy Thanksgiving & Good Advent! Pastor Tim

VISIBLE IMAGES POINTING TO THE INVISIBLE GOD

I was recently asked by a parishioner about the biblical prohibition against “graven images” in the Ten Commandments. And since it is the heartfelt desire of every Christian believer to love God, I have heard this particular concern many times over the years regarding Christian sculptures, carvings, etchings, icons, paintings and other artwork that depict Jesus, or his family, or his early disciples, or great Church leaders of history (i.e. Martin Luther, John Wesley, and others).

In the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20, it says the following: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself any graven images—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.”

Based on this Bible text, some Protestant Christians (as well as all Muslims and most Jews) assert that sculptures and icons of Jesus Christ, or statues of saints and angels, or paintings of holy images, are all violations of Exodus 20. But is this really the case? Are we breaking the commandment of God by having statuary, icons and other images of either earthly or heavenly subjects in our homes and churches?

To more fully understand Exodus 20, we need to use the principle of interpreting Holy Scripture with Holy Scripture. So let’s look at other Bible passages that can shed light on this commandment of God from Exodus 20…

  • The prohibition against “graven images” in Exodus 20:4 and “molten gods” in Exodus 34:17 are both given in the context of the idolatry of the ancient Near East.
  • God commanded that gold images of cherubim (winged angels of heaven) be made and placed on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. See Exodus 25:18-22.
  • God commanded that cherubim images be fashioned on the curtains of the Tabernacle. See Exodus 26:1.
  • God commanded that cherubim images be on the veil of the Tabernacle that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (“Holy of Holies”) where the Ark was placed. See Exodus 26:31.
  • In First Kings 6:23-28, the Jerusalem Temple had two large gold-overlaid olivewood cherubim on either side of the Ark in the Holy of Holies.
  • Also in First Kings 7:13-51, the Jerusalem Temple had oxen sculptures holding up the bronze laver (large water basin), and the base of the laver had earthly images of lions and oxen, as well as heavenly images of cherubim.
  • The Lord God commanded Moses in Numbers 21:8-9 to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole as a means through which the Israelites would receive grace for healing from wilderness snakebites. See John 3:14-16 for Jesus’ comparison of his New Testament ministry and crucifixion with the healing grace of the Old Testament bronze serpent and pole.

Now, in light of the Bible passages listed above (and their historical contexts), it is clear that an absolute rejection of all manmade images of earthly and heavenly things is not God’s intention. Consequently, those who interpret Exodus 20:3-4 as prohibiting any and all images do not agree with the interpretation of Moses and Solomon (according to God’s intention) — and we clearly see this fact by interpreting Holy Scripture with Holy Scripture, and by interpreting Holy Scripture within its various historical contexts.

Therefore, the main thing in Exodus 20:2-6 is simply to NOT worship lesser gods, and to ONLY worship and serve the One Almighty God of All. Moreover, the Bible is warning us of the error of venerating the manmade thing (the handcrafted image) rather than focusing on the creative Source of all good things (the Eternal God). So while we can conclude that Christian statuary, icons and other artwork are permissible by God for reminding us of (and pointing us toward) his eternal grace and truth, we must never fall into worshiping such images. In other words, the prohibition in Exodus 20 is not the production of graven images per se, but the bowing down and serving of such images (see also Deuteronomy 5:8-10).

Similarly, Lutheran Christians do not bow down to and do not worship/serve images of Christ, or of his Apostles, or of past and present Church leaders. However, we can and do include such sacred images in our homes and churches, and this is all well and good as long as we use these beautiful things appropriately in order to worship and serve only the Lord God Almighty.

Lastly, as Lutheran Christians who believe, trust and profess that Jesus Christ is the Son and Living Icon of God with us, we make and use sacred Christ-centered images as helpful tools in sharing the good news of Jesus within a world constantly flooded by ungodly images of all sorts. After all, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (see Colossians 1:15-20).

Together in Christ’s Mission, Pastor Tim