The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-J, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 12."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1980. All Rights Reserved.

Question

In Deuteronomy 5:8, when we’re given the ten commandments, it mentions, I’ll read the verse, “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters beneath the earth.” I was wondering what your feeling was on pictures of Jesus?

Answer

Well, I don’t think that’s the intent of the Scripture. The text, “Thou shalt not make any carved image” is based upon the prior verse, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” “Thou shalt not make thee any carved image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath.” The assumption is that you’re not to worship the stars, the sun, the birds, the animals, man, any other thing. But once God invaded the world in a human form, He gave substance, or image, didn’t He? And that’s exactly what Hebrews 1 says, that He is the express image of God. God gave us an icon, and I hate to use that sense, but God gave us an image; God gave us a model and a pattern. So I don’t think that it is outside; I don’t think it violates this intent, to make an image which is constituted as another god. You could never make an image of a spirit being, right? So He couldn’t be talking about an image of Himself. I mean, not essentially. But there was a case where they did this. You know in the golden calf incident—I don’t know if you’ve thought this through—but if you read the text, in the wilderness, when the people made the golden calf, you remember Moses was up on the mountain getting the law and the people were down with Aaron making the golden calf. They made the golden calf as a representative of the true God; it was not a pagan idol. It was the representation of their own God. They were still in some sense monotheistic. They were trying to represent God, and that’s what the text indicates, in that calf. And at that point God judged them. The only proper manifestation that God has ever permitted of His person, is in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Now, there’s one other thing that I might just mention. God has used a lot of symbols of His person. In the Old Testament, I can think of one major thing; it was a serpent on a rod, which in a sense pictured Christ. And there’s much language imagery as well. Every lamb that was slain was in a sense prefiguring Christ. But I think you’re safe in saying that since God has revealed Himself—this is the bottom line—God has revealed Himself in the image of man, the man Christ Jesus, that God allows us that one representation. I don’t have a problem with that. He allows us that one representation, so that we see God in human dimension.

Now, having said that, let me say this—we do not have in our house a picture of Jesus, of any kind, because I don’t think any of them look like Him probably, and I would rather have Him be who He really is than me to assume that He is someone He is not. That’s just a personal thing. So what we do is without having a picture of Jesus, we still encourage our children to read many many Christian books. And all of them have pictures of Jesus, but all of them have pictured Him differently. And I think you’re pretty safe if you approach it that way. If you get some great big head of Christ slammed in the middle of your house, now I’m not against that; that’s OK if you like that. But I perceive Christ in my own mind, and I’m very comfortable with that. And I’ve never yet seen the picture that looks like what I believe He is, but that’s just a personal preference.

But I really don’t think the spirit of Deuteronomy 5:8 is broken when we have representation of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the word imagery of the New Testament paints for us marvelous pictures of Christ. And you can never—I don’t know about you—you can never, I can say for myself, I can never really read an account in the gospels of Christ, without vivid imagery of His person. Can you? I mean when I see Him, for example, reaching down to touch a leper, if that was just God doing that, I don’t know that I could even focus on that. When you think of God, do you think of something? Do you think of a form or a shape? I don’t. I don’t know that I think of anything. When I think of Christ, immediately I have this image of the robe and His hands and you know. So I really think that the spirit of the person who simply has in his mind or perceives Christ in human form is not in violation of that.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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