Divine Attributes – Snapshots

Any Likeness of Any Thing

The 2^nd command in the Decalogue forbids making unto ourselves any image of God, or even any likeness of God. (Ex 20:4) It also forbids worshipping any object resembling or representing God, treating any physical likeness of God with special reverence as if it were God, to honor or respect it as an embodiment or depiction of God. (5) Any such image or likeness can become an idol: all who worship or revere the object as a god become idolaters (2Co 10:7), and have no part in the kingdom of God. (1Co 6:9-10)

So, does this command forbid making a movie about Jesus to share the Gospel story? as a way to tell others about Christ, to try to reveal who He is, to help others understand what He is like and what He has done for us? Is it wrong to paint a scene of Jesus in the act of ministry? or suffering on the cross, dying for our sins?

Such artistic creations are indeed representations of God by definition; they depict Him explicitly, even though they’re not generally intended to embody God, or to be reverenced as if they are God, to take His place or supplant Him. So, we might be tempted to think it’s OK to develop such art. Yet God doesn’t provide any exceptions to His command: there’s no acceptable motive for creating any likeness of Himself.

Even though the intent is generally to point others to God, to make Him known more widely and effectively through engaging modes of communication, it doesn’t justify breaking God’s command. Similar to telling a story or giving an illustration, a picture, likeness or image can indeed be worth a thousand words, but are such images actually helpful? or do they do more harm than good?

Those who interpret such art forms as if they were God Himself are evidently immature and misguided, yet once an image of God is created, we have no control over how people will respond to it; those who are weaker in their spiritual understanding or disposition will invariably treat such images with special reverence or even worship, while the more mature may merely treat the object with elevated respect, deference or importance. In any case, disrespecting such objects is generally considered sacrilegious because of what they represent, and this is to be expected.

Any physical object associated directly with God, even in a cursory manner, becomes holy or sacred (Nu 16:37); the very name of God is holy and ought not to be abused, spoken irreverently or casually. (Mt 6:9) How much more careful then should we be with any supposed likeness of God? If it’s natural to treat it with reverence and respect, even if we don’t worship it, doesn’t this inform our application of God’s 2^nd command? He clearly says not to create such likenesses, evidently, because He doesn’t want us awkwardly engaging with sub-optimal, inaccurate images of Himself.

Consequently, when Father God reveals Himself, He always does so with symbolism: a burning bush, a bronze serpent, pillars of cloud and fire, a lamb, a lion, not with explicit likenesses or images. Between the cherubim in the Holy of Holies in the temple, the only place on Earth where Father God says He will dwell … there’s no image, only Shekhinah glory.

Even the Son of God Jesus Christ, when He came to live among us, may not have revealed His true appearance; He may well have dwelt among us incognito. He is the most beautiful Being in existence (Ps 45:2), yet He took upon Himself an unattractive form (Is 53:2), humbling Himself more than we can ever truly know. (Php 2:7-8)

Also in His glory, when John describes the Son of Man (Re 1:13-16), the detail is insufficient to completely inform the creation of an image; it’s still a bit symbolic and vague. We may imagine the remaining detail, but this is no stumbling block to anyone; it’s quite different than crafting an actual image.

Further, no matter how sincere, thorough and careful an artist is, no likeness or image can fully capture the infinitude of God — the work will misrepresent Him by definition, and very likely in significant, profound ways. Even images or movies about Christ seeking to publish His story and share the Gospel, even if they’re only quoting Him verbatim from Scripture, must guess at His disposition, attitude and general demeanor. But body language, facial expression and verbal tone are thought to be 70-90% of communication, and it’s certain that every attempt to embody these aspects of Christ will be imperfect and therefore incorrect, misrepresenting Him in some substantial way, and we truly have no idea how far off any of them are. The more I learn of God’s heart (Ps 119:136), the more I fear many of these works are seriously missing the mark, perhaps even presenting another Jesus, not the true Messiah. (2Co 11:4)

So, do such movies, pictures and statues really help us understand what God is like, so we may know and worship Him more effectively? If they did, if they were good for us, wouldn’t God have provided them Himself? (Ja 1:17) He could have done so, bypassing all the corruption and misrepresentation from well-meaning artists, but He not only didn’t provide anything — He carefully worded the 2^nd command so as to explicitly forbid anyone else from doing so.

Perhaps Jehovah God gave us the 2^nd commandment the way He did because there’s something deeper at stake here. We’re constantly trying to re-make God in our own image (Ps 50:21), to re-imagine Him after our own sinful likeness, rather than beholding His glory as He is revealing Himself so we’re transformed more into His image. (2Co 3:18) We do this instinctively, corrupting our own worship, being alienated from the life of God through our own ignorance of Him. (Ep 4:18)

The natural man will never receive God as He truly is (1Co 2:14), only what it wishes for Him to be. Since any physical object or artist’s rendition of God diminishes His glory per the artist’s own biases and limitations, attending to, serving or inappropriately focusing our attention on such works will necessarily diminish the quality of our own worship, our capacity to ultimately enjoy Him in Spirit and in Truth. (Jn 4:24)

God has given us His written Word to fully inform both our Gospel witness (Ro 16:26) and our worship. (Ps 119:7) When our eyes are enlightened by the Spirit through the Word, we really don’t need anything else. (2Ti 3:16-17)

The enemy’s always ready with a clever argument as to why it’s beneficial to violate God’s commands, but if we consider his reasoning carefully it always fails the sniff test. Are those who produce explicit images of God guilty of violating the 2^nd command? Are they creating stumbling blocks for the weak? Are they, in fact, attacking the glory of God? I’m afraid they are, though God may use their works for good in spite of this. (Ro 3:7) Only God knows the heart, and He will sort it all out when He returns. (1Ti 1:13)

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Ye Are Gods

As Jesus testifies to the Jews of His identity, that He and Father God are one (Jn 10:30), they take up stones to stone Him. (31) When He challenges them to explain why they’re trying to kill Him (32), they accuse Him of blasphemy (33a), offended that He, a mere mortal, is making Himself God. (33b) They’ve evidently decided a human being cannot possibly be God, that God would not present Himself that way.

Are they presuming God cannot present Himself in human form? That this is simply too difficult for God? (Ge 18:13-14a) Likely not; they understand God is omnipotent, capable of anything He wishes. (Ps 115:3)

They evidently presume God would never want to do so; that this would be inappropriate, too condescending, way beneath His majesty; He would never abase Himself in this manner. Perhaps they reason human beings are too weak and sinful, so far beneath God He would never humble Himself to appear in human form. (Php 2:7-8)

In response, Christ quotes from Psalm 82 and challenges the Jews with a question: If God Himself tells us we’re gods (Ps 82:6a), why is it blasphemy for Christ to claim to be the Son of God? (Jn 10:34-36) He appears to be addressing the root cause of their presupposition: that God would never take on a human body, and so identify Himself with us as to live as a Man among us.

In saying we are gods (lords, rulers) Christ is evidently pointing out a consequence of God making men in His own image (Ge 1:26a), charging us to subdue the earth (28a) as He gives us dominion over all of it. (26b) We not only bear His likeness, as kings we have a domain of authority and control resembling His. Christ appears to be demonstrating our value lies not in our behavior but in our image, design and calling. This is fundamental truth these Jews seem to have overlooked, exposing their presupposition as error.

Further, in the immediate context of His quote from Psalms, we find we are all children of the most High. (Ps 82:6b) God values us immensely and identifies with us as a Father, treating us as part of His family. Christ appears to be giving sufficient evidence Jehovah God is willing to walk among us as one of us (Ge 3:8-9); He loves us and values us dearly.

So, in His challenge, Christ effectively removes any and all grounds for presuming God is unwilling to take on human flesh, and exhorts the Jews to focus on the evidence: Do Christ’s works verify His claim to be divine? If so, they should be willing to accept Him as God rather than cling to arbitrary bias unsupported in Scripture. (Jn 10:37-38)

This seems exemplary of God’s dealings with Man; in receiving Him we must humble ourselves, receive the evidence He’s given us (1Jn 5:10-11), acknowledge Him as God and trust Him as Savior. (Jn 1:12)

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Being the Brightness

When Christ walked the earth He looked normal, like any other person, but on the Mount of Transfiguration His face became so bright it shone like the sun. (Mt 17:1-2) This is evidently His natural state, what He’s like when He isn’t veiled, disguised, subdued.

For example, when Jesus appears to Paul from Heaven His face is even brighter than the sun. (Ac 26:13) And we find the same when Jesus appears to John years later (Re 1:16); Christ is so overwhelming in His mere appearance our dear brother John faints dead away. (17a)

Further, when Christ returns to reign on Earth, His very brightness destroys His enemies. (2Th 2:8) So, He’s already toning it down a good bit when He appears to the apostles and to Paul.

Jesus is the brightness of God (He 1:1-3); He Who made the universe outshines all the stars together. (Co 1:16) When Jesus walks into a room, unless He gets out His dimmer switch and tones it down, we will not only be unable to look at Him — any more than we can stare directly into the sun — in our natural state we’ll need to take cover and/or shield ourselves from His brightness in order to survive… if anything actually could shield us from it. And this is when He’s in a kind, loving, gentle mood.

What then will it be like when He’s angry? When Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, rises up from His eternal throne in a full on, indignant rage? (Je 10:10) At the end of the age, when the King of Kings shows up in all His glory and splendor (Re 19:16), full of wrath and fury (2Co 5:11) we have no idea what that will be like – nothing in all Creation can endure His undiluted, unfiltered, angry presence (Re 6:16-17): Creation itself will try desperately to flee and find no cover. (Re 20:11)

When He came the first time, Jesus Christ of Nazareth was unimpressive, not much to look at. (Is 53:2b) Born in a stable among some animals, to a poor family from a very poor community, having no formal education, He essentially came to us incognito. If He hadn’t veiled His glory like this His enemies wouldn’t have been able to act like enemies; He was pleased to give them the opportunity to express their nature before the universe, which they certainly did, for all of us to ponder. (1Th 2:16)

And I suppose it’s reasonable to expect this is why He still seems to be mostly in hiding, not typically showing Himself in unmistakable, overwhelming ways just yet (He 12:18-21): it’s evidently to let us all show who and what we are before He throws open the doors of the Heavenly Courtroom. (Ro 9:22) He will do so, some day. (Ro 2:4-6)

So, it’s wisdom to kiss the Son lest He be angry, and we perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled just a little. (Ps 2:2) Let’s not trifle with Jesus (2Co 5:11); He’s been incredibly kind and merciful to deliver us from the wrath to come (1Th 1:10), but let’s not disrespect Him or take Him for granted; He’s to be feared as well as loved. So, let’s honor and revere Him as He deserves (Jn 5:23), serving and obeying Him with fear and trembling. (Php 2:12)

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Christ Our Life

Losing a loved one, a friend, a job, or our health can be destabilizing, even a slight change in our routine can be challenging. What does it take to disorient us and send us into a tailspin? When our world begins to collapse do we become fearful, lost? Do we lose our faith in God? in Life itself?

To the degree we draw our sense of well-being from this world, the more losing it will cripple us. Trying to draw life from non-life-giving sources is a dead end.

The truth is, even now we don’t have any of these temporal things we think we have; our possessions, relationships, health, occupation, our whole world is passing away. (1Jn 2:17) We came into this world with nothing, and we won’t take any of it with us when we leave. (1Ti 6:7) What we have the moment after we die is all we really have now.

This is troubling if we’re looking for life and love like most everyone else, minding earthly things (Php 3:18-19), defining life in the context of earthly experience … building houses on the sand. (Mt 7:26-27)

When Christ becomes our Life (Co 3:4) our sense of well-being is grounded in Him; our foundation doesn’t collapse when our temporal world falls apart because we’ve built our house on the Rock. (Mt 7:24-25) Our life down here is a vapor (Ja 4:14); our treasure isn’t here, it’s in Him. (Mt 6:19-21)

In this world we will have tribulation, and that’s OK. (Jn 16:33) We who are already dead in Christ, our life is hid with Him in God (Co 3:1), and we will live with Him. (2Ti 2:11) Our lives are living sacrifices for Him to do with as He pleases. (Ro 12:1) To live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Php 1:21)

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I Create Evil

The problem of evil in the world is challenging; we recognize pain and suffering exists — bad things happen — and we often describe this as (empirical or natural) evil. And if we’re thoughtful, we also recognize we all do things we ought not — we do wrong: when people deeply and willfully violate the universal moral standard of human conduct, we call such behavior (moral) evil. If God can prevent evil and does not, or if God Himself actually causes evil, we have difficulty understanding how God can also be just, good and loving.

First, there’s a difference between saying God allows evil, and saying God causes evil. There’s also a difference between saying God causes human suffering, and saying God causes people to be morally corrupt and wicked.

The Bible clearly states God creates evil (Is 45:7), but the immediate context doesn’t tell us what kind of evil God creates. Does God cause people to be wicked, to break His Law, or does He merely cause some (or all) human suffering?

Scripture tells us plainly God often causes human suffering: He punishes Israel when she breaks His laws (De 28:21-22) and He chastens those He loves. (He 12:5-6) His motive is always good (Ps 145:17): God punishes evil righteously (Ps 9:7-8), and He chastens His children to cause them to be holy. (He 12:10, Ps 119:75) He does not cause all human suffering (Lk 13:16), but He does ordain all of it for His purposes. (Ge 50:20, Ep 1:11)

But scripture does not clearly state God causes people to be wicked; rather, God says He doesn’t even tempt us to do evil (Ja 1:13), much less cause us to be evil; people are wicked all on their own. (14) This is the fact of Free Will: God allows us to sin against Himself and each other. (Ro 1:24-26) In fact, unless God restrains us from being evil (Ps 19:13), evil is the default human condition (Ep 2:1-3, Mt 7:11) and it’s been this way ever since the Fall of Man. (Ge 6:5)

The alternative is a God Who actually causes us to do evil and then punishes us for doing what He makes us do. (Ro 2:8-9) God might indeed be so, in theory anyway, but I’d need to confess I know nothing at all of His moral character, having lost all hope I ever could.

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The Avenger

God tells us very plainly not to avenge ourselves (Ro 12:19), yet He also makes provision in His Law for His people to avenge the death of a loved one, and He evidently wants us to do this. (De 19:12) Thus, while it’s true that vengeance belongs to God alone and not to us, there are evidently times when He chooses us to be the instrument of His vengeance and to deliver it on His behalf.

As we exact revenge on our own, we seldom do so with the right heart; our wrath doesn’t work the righteousness of God (Ja 1:20); righteous anger is indeed a rare thing. Yet when God sets the boundaries on when and how we’re allowed to take revenge, He is keeping us within His standards and ordering our steps in His ways.

After all, as warped as our desire to get even generally is, it is based on a desire for justice, and justice is generally a good thing; it’s a deterrent to evil and places the ultimate cost of malevolence on the perpetrator rather than the victim. When a legal system aligns with God and allows us to take proper revenge, this is holiness.

What God forbids is taking matters into our own hands; He sets the stage for revenge in the context of impartial community which agrees on the legitimacy, method, timing, and degree of our response. Apart from such a legal system, we must leave restitution entirely in God’s hands.

Even so, though we’re not allowed to avenge ourselves per current legal standards, we may certainly desire justice (Re 6:10), even rejoice when it’s carried out, and this might indeed be righteous. (Re 19:1-2) When justice is sought so God Himself might be vindicated, for He is the one primarily and mostly wronged in every offense (Ps 51:4), our interest in justice may then be upright. (Ps 119:84)

Yet how do we integrate love for mercy into our love for justice? How are we to do justly as well as love mercy? (Mi 6:8) We do it by loving our neighbor, desiring what’s best for him, which is to be reconciled to God and to walk in His ways.

When repentance is already present (Ex 20:6), or if we have evidence that mercy will further reveal the goodness of God and encourage repentance (Ro 2:4), then mercy is very likely appropriate. (Mt 18:33) Otherwise, justice is likely best, for offender, victim, and all within society. (De 19:20)

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To Know the Love

The love of God is certainly a mystery; He loves in ways which are quite foreign to us. He loves His enemies (Mt 5:44-45), offering forgiveness and reconciliation (Ro 10:21), while allowing immense suffering in His own children when He could easily prevent it; to the most faithful and obedient He even bestows pain and suffering as a gift. (Php 1:29) It’s not the kind of love we’re familiar with.

The goal of God’s love, the guiding principle, is evidently not our temporal pleasure or comfort, but that we might be partakers of His holiness. (He 12:10) This truly is ultimate benevolence and merciful kindness, to align us with Himself and His nature, with truth and light; anything less would be unloving and malicious.

God knows all, including what we would do, left to our own devices, in every situation we could possibly encounter, and what we would become without His intervention and aid in every conceivable circumstance. He also knows the absolute best way to reveal Himself in and through us, and how to work holiness in us for His own glory and pleasure. (Php 2:13) His love, both for Himself and for us, ensures He will do so perfectly, in the perfect way and in the perfect time (Jud 24), working everything for ultimate good in and for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. (Ro 8:28)

The primary manifestation of God’s love is in sending His Son into the world that we might live through Him. (1Jn 4:9) It’s here we find the ultimate expression of love: God sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (10), to redeem us from all iniquity and purify us unto Himself. (Tit 2:14)

In order to save us God became sin for us, that we might be made perfectly righteous in Him. (2Co 5:21) God suffers inexpressibly in order to be in relationship with us, laying down His very life for us. (1Jn 3:16) In other words, God is all in; He holds nothing back (Ro 8:32), and He can rightly require no less of us (Ro 12:1) — this isn’t about comfort: it’s about holiness, without which no one will see God. (He 12:14)

The full experiential knowledge of this love is priceless; we should study it and meditate on it, asking God to open our eyes (Ep 1:16b-17), praying for ourselves and for each other, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ep 3:14-19)

How well we understand God’s love is revealed in how well we’re obeying Him. (1Jn 2:3) How thankful are we? (Ep 5:20) How joyful? (Php 4:4) Are we abounding in hope? (Ro 15:13) Are we seeking the welfare of our enemies, in God and for Him? (Mt 5:44-45) Do we see God’s love in all He does? (Ro 11:36) This is the Holy Ghost revealing the love of God in us, and shedding it abroad through us. (Ro 5:5)

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Friend

When Judas was in the very act of betraying Christ, Christ knew exactly what Judas was up to, how wicked it was, and how much pain and suffering it would bring upon Himself. Christ saw Judas coming toward Him in the garden of Gethsemane, temple guards in tow, to betray the Son of Man with a kiss.

Judas was committing, in all likelihood, most evil act in all of human history. Nothing else compares to it, betraying the perfectly innocent, precious Son of God to crucifixion and death. Jesus had already warned, ^“The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born.” (Mk 14:21) This was evidently a peculiarly unique and wicked sin. No other act is ever described in such grave terms.

Yet, as evil as this act was, as sold out to Satan himself as Judas Iscariot was at that moment (Lk 22:3), Christ addresses Judas as His friend. (Mt 26:49-50) Christ extends the offer of friendship one last time, as if to give Judas one final opportunity to be honest with himself, and with Christ, before they took Him away.

This may be the greatest example of fulfilling Christ’s own command, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Mt 5:44) We’re to bless those who wrong us, do good to them, wish them well, not decide what their punishment should be or wish them any harm. If we truly believe God is perfectly just, and also perfectly merciful, we’ll not hesitate to leave all in His hands.

It’s not that we shouldn’t acknowledge sinful behavior for what it is, or protect ourselves and those we love from abuse, but when God calls us to suffering, we should not retaliate. We should be praying for our enemies and seeking their welfare, regardless what they’re up to.

When we behold the wicked, it’s so tempting to allow unrighteous indignation to well up within us, as if we’d never do such things, and begin to posture ourselves as knowing what they deserve and wishing it upon them. But this disposition doesn’t spring from humility and love; it isn’t Christ in us. It springs from the lie that God is unjust, that we can do better. We can’t. God is good, only God is good, and He is always good.

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Write in a Book

When Christ reveals His ultimate purposes and plans to His church, to prepare her, guide her into all truth, edify and comfort her, He doesn’t simply send a prophet, an apostle or a teacher; Christ reveals the message to a trusted apostle and enables him to write it down in a book. (Re 1:11) This may seem uneventful to us at first glance, but I think it’s significant.

As we pursue truth, particularly in spiritual things, we have very few options:

1. We may trust God to speak directly to us to confirm what’s true.
2. We may trust other “selves” to tell us what God has revealed to them.
3. We may trust what we read in a book which claims to be inspired of God, a text which bears up under the most intense scrutiny over time.

The first two options are obviously problematic because we’re all flawed and tend to misunderstand and misrepresent truth, even when God clearly reveals it to us. Even when we’re trying our best we often get it wrong, much less when we’re actually trying to deceive ourselves and others. This makes even written materials suspect, since they’re likely just more permanent variations of the same.

To be rightly grounded in truth, we need a book which not only claims to be inspired by God, but which proves itself out to be so over many generations, generally received as God-breathed by those loving and pursuing God, based on how its words encourage, strengthen and direct us.

And, ideally, this would be a book written down by holy people who both love God supremely and also suffer greatly in providing it to us, who receive its message under persecution and difficulty, who actually do suffer in their own pursuit of God, and who have no hope of profiting personally in any way from writing it.

And if this book actually is inspired by God, we expect to find those who aren’t pursuing God to be careless with it, taking it out of context and using it for their own benefit. And we find those hostile to God relentlessly and irrationally attacking it, opposing it, maligning and mocking it, blind to their own irrationality in the process.

The Bible, the Word of Truth, fits this expectation to a “T”, and it’s the only book which does. It’s the foundation of Western civilization, an ongoing miracle for us all to discover and cherish. Many who won’t claim to be Christians take it as truth on a moral and spiritual level, astonished at how such a book could have come to us by any natural means.

And those who attack and denounce it must inevitably take it out of context, twisting its words as they would no other text to which they’d give an honest read. It’s clear they hate its Author and cannot give it the chance it deserves. (Ro 8:7)

To love God is to love His word; it becomes the joy and rejoicing of our hearts (Je 15:16), just as He is. (Php 4:4)

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His Own Purpose

Humans are distinct from animals in that we must have purpose in our lives, meaning, a reason to be alive. We act as if we’re aware that we’re designed with some objective in mind, and that we expect to be evaluated according to some standard, related to how well we’ve realized our purpose.

The existence of a design standard further implies someone, the Grand Designer, Who is evaluating us, and that there are real consequences for neglecting or resisting our design, rewards and punishments involved in this life and the next, due to our performance. (Php 2:12) This is all instinctive, built deeply into our very physiology; we know it’s true, and we can’t escape it. (Ro 1:20)

To pretend we are the ultimate judge of ourselves is to miss the whole point; we didn’t design ourselves so we can’t give ourselves purpose. We know the standard isn’t arbitrary, it’s not something we can simply make up as we go. And no other created person can tell us our purpose any more than we can.

We may try to obtain some semblance of meaning by taking up responsibility, putting ourselves together and trying to make the world a better place. The fact this actually works is telling; it must be somewhat aligned with our true purpose. (1Ti 5:8) If there weren’t an ultimate Designer, this might be the best we could do.

Yet our instincts reflect reality; we’re fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14), and it’s our Creator Who gives us meaning: if God says we’re missing the point in some way, ignoring this isn’t helpful. God is love, and His design is best.

God has set specific, unique objectives for each of us (Ep 2:10); this is our calling, which we must discover in Him and pursue. (2Ti 1:9) It’s an invitation to challenge and adventure, to discover beauty and fulfillment of indescribable value; though there are shadows all about us pointing us to this reality, there’s no earthly parallel.

The genius of God’s Way is that it not only perfectly suits our individual design, it places each believer within the context of a cosmic team, part of a divine body pursuing an eternal goal together, for which we’re all perfectly suited. We aren’t struggling through this life, enduring all its suffering and malevolence, alone. (1Pe 5:8-9)

It is only within this context that suffering itself can truly be called a gift (Php 1:29), when we’re voluntarily suffering for a higher purpose. (Mt 5:11-12) What He has called us to is unspeakable glory in Him. (Ro 8:18) Perfect fulfillment and satisfaction on every conceivable level.

Christ, our perfect example (1Pe 2:21), perfectly exemplified how to find and fulfill our purpose: He didn’t come to make everyone happy, or even Himself (Ro 15:3); He came to do His Father’s will, and to finish His work. (Jn 4:34) In the same way, we’re to prove the will of God for ourselves, and then do it. (Ro 12:2)

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