In the Image of God

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What would it be like to be able to see the universe from God’s perspective?

We are constrained by the laws that govern light, time and gravity. Light is the fastest thing in the universe and travels at 186,282 miles per second. Scientists say that if we could travel faster than light then we would be able to go backwards in time. But matter can’t travel the speed of light, and so we are constrained by our limitations. We can’t even see into the universe except that we see light and calculate its properties. Everything we know about the universe is based on our understanding of gravity and light.

What if we didn’t have those limitations? What if we could see the universe in the way that God sees it? The God that said, “let there be light.”

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Go past our beautiful and complex planet that God says He made in a mere six days. Go beyond our small solar system so that you can see galaxies. Eliminate the laws of time and observe galaxies moving through space, colliding, and entangling. Fly through the web of the universe and observe its structure and complexity. And recognize, as you see things outside of the laws of gravity and light, that God is bigger than all of His creation.

Admit it, you want to confine God. You want him to be understandable. You want Him to fit into your conceptions. You want him to exist on a throne somewhere out beyond Orion’s nebula. You want Him to be definable by our limited vocabulary. You want Him to conform to your ideals of behavior and emotion. There’s really no other way that we can relate to God, except through our limited perceptions, but God cannot be limited by His creation. He is more vast than all of His creation. So vast that nothing He created can contain him. So vast that He can be present throughout all time and in all places.

He is the limitless God who created the universe, and the God who takes personal interest in all his creation—and even you and me.

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And so God says,

Exodus 20:4–6 ESV

“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, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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Here’s how I’d summarize the big idea here: God is saying, “Don’t try to put me in a box. Don’t use one of my creations as a stand-in for me—especially not an idol of your own making.”

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God says He’s a jealous God. That’s not to say God succumbs to the selfish emotions of human jealousy. God is jealous of our love because He knows how wonderful He is, and that nothing else will satisfy us. He also knows that everything else we attempt to worship will harm us. He’s jealous on our behalf, not with selfish emotions or prideful desires. He knows that He is the only one who is worthy of worship. In fact, the word “worship” contains the word “worth”—worthship. It’s the act of recognizing the worth of one as so significant that it requires our sole devotion and highest praise. God alone is worthy.

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In his book, Laws of the Heart, Bill Hybels asserts that,

“It’s so much easier for us to change God than it is for us to conform to His will. … Who wants an accurate image of a sovereign God when they can create a convenient image that never interferes with their selfish desires?” Laws of the Heart, p 28

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In the second of the Ten Commandments, God is forbidding self-willed worship—worshiping God as we choose rather than as He outlines. To the Israelites meant that they were to make a mobile sanctuary where God’s presence would abide, and where they would bring their offerings with confessions of their sin. Christ fulfilled the many symbols in the sanctuary but he left us with new ceremonies and symbols. Instead of the passover we perform the Lord’s supper and wash each other’s feet. Instead of a laver of water we go through the ritual of baptism. Instead of a festival system we meet weekly or even more often to consecrate ourselves to God, celebrate His grace, and launch each other back into the world as witnesses for God.

God Wrote Love

One thing many like to do as they apply the 2nd commandment to life today is to explore all the modern forms of self-willed, idolatrous worship. For example, the crucifix that many employ as a good luck charm or a mechanism of prayer. We could talk about prayer beads which are much like the prayer wheels of the Tibetan Buddhists. We could talk about the pictures of Jesus that many hang prominently in their homes as if a fictional picture would give them access to the presence of Christ. We could talk about religious icons and so many other things that people use as a representation of God in their worship.

We could also discuss the fact that idolatry is a state of the heart, not just an image made by the hands. Its a false representation of God that we form in our minds, or the alternatives to God that we create in our lives—addictions and codependent relationships.

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We could talk about all those things, but we’re at the beginning of an incredible journey to discover what the law allows, not what it prohibits. We could learn a lot from examining the protective fence that keeps us from evil and harm, but there’s so much that the law empowers us to do that we don’t have time today to discuss all of that. So, once again, let’s turn our backs on the fence, and explore the vast possibilities that the law enables in this second part to our series on the Ten Commandments called, God Wrote Love.

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When we obey the second commandment and stop making idols to represent God, then we are freed up to explore the depths of the character and attributes of God. We too often put God into a little package that feels good for us, while failing to see the awesomeness of God’s unending attributes. He’s not just an idol that’s there to meet our needs and be available at our beck and call. We can’t set Him on our mantle or constrain Him to our will.

If God cannot be constrained by us, then any interactions God has with us are intentional. God’s involvement with our life isn’t an interruption for Him, it’s an intimately planned affair where He pursues us long before we even knew we had a need and long after our need is satisfied. We don’t call upon God so much as we respond to His calling on us.

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In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says,

Revelation 3:20 ESV

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

We are the ones responding to God, not God to us.

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1 John 4:19 tells us that,

1 John 4:19 ESV

We love because he first loved us.

In this unbounded-God-pursues-us scenario, God is so much more awesome than one of those idols that people use to call on God.

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Those prayer wheels I mentioned earlier are a good example of idolatry. At their center is a Life Tree, and wrapped around that are thousands, or in the case of the largest prayer wheels, millions, of repeated mantras. According to the Tibetan Buddhists a prayer wheel has as much effect as saying the matra verbally as many times as it has been written on the prayer wheel. So, walk by a prayer wheel and spin it and you’ll have all the power to get god’s attention as if you prayed over and over and over and over again. People apparently think that God is so busy that he doesn’t have time or doesn’t care much about you and me. So, we have to repeat ourselves a lot, or we have to call out to him loudly enough, or we have to catch him as he passes by on some other errand.

Our understanding of God takes the form of the idol we put in His place. We always limit God when we try to symbolize Him or fashion an example of Him. But He is unbounded, and untamable.

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CS Lewis, in his religious fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, wrote about the lion he calls Aslan—the one who fills the role of Jesus in his books. He says about Aslan that he is not a “tame” lion, but that he is “good.”

CS Lewis captures some of the challenge we have with God. We want a tame God. A God that we can put on a leash. But the second commandment frees us up to have a wild God that is infinitely good and loves us immensely. How much better to have a God who loves me, than to have a God that I can control or manipulate?

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Exodus records an encounter between Moses and God where Moses asked God to show him His glory. God put Moses in a crag between rocks, covered him with His hand, and then passed by. The fact that God revealed himself here doesn’t limit him to this specific way of revealing himself. We could try to define God by the cloud on the mountain, or the thunder and lightning, or the brightness of his glory, or any other characteristic and we would miss the whole point. God spells it out for us in what He says to Moses, not what He appears like.

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Exodus 34:6–8 ESV

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

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Merciful

Gracious

Slow to anger

Abounding in Love

Abounding in Faithfulness

Forgiving Iniquity, transgression and sin

Won’t clear the guilty

Visits the iniquity of the fathers on their children

These are the characteristics of God that He wants us to pay attention to. Notice how positive and relational the first several characteristics are. Yet, for all his mercy, forgiveness, patience, faithfulness and love, God is also a righteous judge (you can find that in Psalm 7:11). Even this description of God is incomplete—a beautiful picture of God, but only a picture. What more wonderful things will we find out as we explore God’s word, and ultimately as we spend eternity with HIm. There is so much more to know about God, and so much about Himself that He longs to share with us. That’s why He longs for us to be in His presence again, not just for a moment like Moses on the mountain, but for all eternity.

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This is Jesus’ desire in John 14:1-3 when he says,

John 14:1–3 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

If we’re going to be exploring God’s infinite characteristics for all eternity then it’s certainly beyond the scope of our time and our ability today, but it’s exciting for me to recognize that God wants us to know Him as much as it is possible in our current condition. It was to make this possible, God came down to earth as one of us—Immanuel, God with us. Jesus expressed this in John 17:3-4 as He prayed:

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John 17:3–4 ESV

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the second commandment. All the False conceptions of God that we cling to and the idols that we create are barriers between us and Christ. If you want to know all that there is to know about God, then go with an open mind to study the life and works and characteristics of Jesus. He is the glory of God on earth. He is worthy of our adoration and praise.

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Hebrews 1:3 ESV

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

That the infinite, creator of the universe, would confine himself to a human form is a bold assertion of God’s personal interest in each of us, and His desire for us to know Him.

In the Image of God

Part of understanding what it means to not worship an idol is to recognize the worthiness of God. We don’t worship an idol, we seek to understand and worship God. A second aspect of this commandment is that we should stop seeking to make images of God, and allow God to remake us in His image. Turn back to Genesis 1:26:

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Genesis 1:26 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The second commandment says not to make “any likeness of anything” to worship it in place of God. God already made something to be the likeness of himself. You were made in God’s image. It’s not the design of our bodies that is the image of God, but rather the innate characteristics that God designed us with — a desire for loving relationship, a deep sense of justice and equity, the desire and power to create beautiful things—these are the attributes of our humanity that demonstrate some of the most beautiful characteristics of our creator God. Sin has tarnished our luster and diminished God’s reflection in our character, but God’s got a plan to fix that.

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When we look around at other people we can see a little bit of the worth of God in them. God has designed us with a small portion of his infinite creativity, and a large helping of His loving nature. When you have the infinitely creative God as your backdrop, as you look around at the wide variety of faces and the diverse expression of creativity in dress, and music, and art, and speaking, and making, and thinking, you can’t help but say, “God is so cool!” Every expression of creativity from mankind is a reflection of our creator God. From the musician to the painter to the programmer to the engineer to the farmer to the medical professional and to the mathematician—everyone is living out a little piece of God’s creativity. That tells me that each one of us has worth. You can’t look at one person and say, “because they’re not a fabulous writer or speaker or administrator, they’re not worth much.” Or “because they don’t make as much money, they’re not worth much.” No, God created us with inestimable value, regardless of how productive or creative or effective the world sees us.

While idols always distract us from God, God designed us to reflect Him to this world—when people see us honoring God they begin to comprehend the love of God. The last six commandments outline ways that we can demonstrate God’s love to our fellow mankind.

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I think this is why Revelation 14 tells us that the remnant of God’s people follow the lamb wherever He goes and have the Father’s character imprinted in their minds. It says in Revelation 14:12,

Revelation 14:12 ESV

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

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When we are honoring, loving, faithful, honest and content, the world sees a God that is trustworthy, just, faithful, selfless, giving, kind and good.

When we reject God’s law of love we become a distorted image of God, and people begin to see Him as proud, vindictive, deceptive, shallow, dissatisfied and selfish.

Conclusion

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In the first sermon in this series I described the law as a fence, much like the imaginary fence around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden of eden. It’s a prohibition that keeps us from sin and evil. What was inside the fence was much smaller than the world of opportunities outside the fence. The Bible says that we live above the law—beyond the law. When we live in the spirit, then we have a world of opportunities that the law allows for. It’s only when we climb that fence and jump into sin that we are under the law. We’ve just looked at a couple of the many areas that the second commandment allows for. I’m sure there are many other applications that we could explore, but let’s wrap up this study with a couple take-aways and a commitment.

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The first take-away is that this command frees us up from our own limited conceptions of God to explore the infinite beauty of God’s character. We’ll be exploring God’s attributes for all eternity, but today we can start by studying the life and works and character of Jesus.

The second take-away is that God is sending us into the world as little images of Him—not to be worshiped, but to be a reflection of His character; a taste of His goodness.

Will you join me in committing to explore all that you can find about Jesus, and to allow the Holy Spirit to write God’s law of love in your heart and mind so that you can reflect God’s character to the world?