"Ang Ikalawang Utos" (Lord's Day 35)

Herman Bavinck: “When Christ brings on the fulfillment of the Old Testament ment promises of salvation, He does not discard the law, but fulfills all its righteousness; by His perfect obedience He paves the way and in the HolySpirit grants the power by which His disciples can and will walk, in principle, according to the commandments of the law...

...The long series of admonishments with which the apostles as a general rule conclude their epistles are an amplification and application ofthe holy law of the Lord, and they are intended to help the believers to live in all their relationships and circumstances according to the will of God and the glorification of His name...

...The law of the ten commandments may not be separated from this rich context of affairs. Indeed, the decalogue must be viewed and explained in the light of the whole revelation of God in nature and in Scripture. Understood in this way, the Ten Commandments are a brief summary of the Christian ethic and an unsurpassed rule for our life.”

Exodus 20:1–3 ESV

And God spoke all these words, saying, “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.

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.

Ang question na ina-address sa unang utos ay kung sino ang dapat sambahin. Ang Diyos lang, wala nang iba. Yung second naman ay tungkol sa pagsamba sa tamang paraan. The first teaches us who to worship. The second how to worship him.

96. Q. What does God require in the second commandment?

We are not to make an image of God in any way, nor to worship him in any other manner than he has commanded in hisWord.

96. T. Ano ang hinihingi ng Diyos sa ikalawang utos?

Hindi tayo dapat gumawa ng imahen ng Diyos sa anumang paraan, o sambahin Siya sa anumang pamaraan maliban sa Kanya nang iniutos sa Kanyang Salita.

We are not to make an image of God in any way...

Deuteronomy 4:15–16 ESV

“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

Isaiah 40:18–25 (ESV)

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?...To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

Acts 17:29 ESV

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Romans 1:22–23 ESV

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.

Reasons for the Lord’s strong aversion to visible representation (Kevin DeYoung):

God is Spirit (John 4:24).

God is majestic.

God provides his own mediators (Col. 1:15).

...nor to worship him in any other manner than he has commanded in his Word.

Leviticus 10:3 ESV

Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

Deuteronomy 12:30–32 (ESV)

“Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way...Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”

1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV)

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”

Matthew 15:8–9 (ESV)

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

John 4:23–24 (ESV)

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Question 97. May we then not make any image at all?

God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Creatures may be portrayed, but God forbids us to make or have any images of them in order to worship them or to serve God through them.

Tanong 97. Hindi nga ba tayo maaaring gumawa ng anumang imahen kahit kailan?

Ang Diyos ay hindi maisasalarawan at hindi maaaring isalarawan sa anumang pamaraan na makikita. Ang mga nilalang ay maaring maisalarawan, ngunit ipinagbabawal ng Diyos ang gumawa tayo o magkaroon ng anumang imahen ng mga ito upang sambahin sila o paglingkuran ang Diyos sa pamamagitan nila.

Exodus 20:5–6 ESV

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.

Exodus 34:13–14 ESV

You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),

Question 98. But may images not be tolerated in the churches as “books for the laity”?

No, for we should not be wiser than God. He wants his people to be taught not by means of dumb images but by the living preaching of his Word.

Tanong 98. Ngunit hindi ba maaaring gamitin ang mga imahen sa mga iglesia bilang tulong sa pag-aaral ng mga pangkaraniwang tao?

Hindi, hindi tayo dapat magmarunong nang higit pa sa Diyos. Nais Niya na ang Kanyang mga hinirang ay turuan hindi sa pamamagitan ng mga inutil na imahen kundi sa pamamagitan ng buhay na pangangaral ng Kanyang Salita.

Jeremiah 10:8 (ESV)

They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!

Habakkuk 2:18–19 (ESV)

“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.”

Applications (Kevin DeYoung)

Be on guard against many dangers in the tradition of iconography that exists in some strands of the church.

We ought to guard against mental images of God.

We should be cautious in our use of pictures of Jesus.

We need to be faithful to instruct the people of God.

(I will add) Be faithful in the practice of the sacraments/ordinances.