Images We Must Have

Just as it is false to say that the tabernacle in the wilderness had no artistic representations of spiritual things, so also it is false to say that new covenant church has no portrayals in it. From blue pomegranates to cherubim covering the mercy seat, the tabernacle contained such images. But they were prohibited from making certain representations, and whenever the Israelites were faithful, they guarded that empty space above the mercy seat with a jealous and fierce love.

In a similar way, new covenant worship is filled with icons—but as committed Protestants, we insist that the icons have to be given to us, assigned to us. For example, this church has hundreds of icons in it—you all are created in the image of God, and this is in fact an image of God. Moreover, Christ is faithfully portrayed in the preaching of the gospel (Gal. 3:1), or in the reading of Scripture (Rev. 1:16). Such portrayals must occur in Christian churches, which means God has decreed that the image of God in Christ be painted with words as brushes.

And then God gives us baptism, an enacted image of the death of Christ and our death in Him. This is an image, a representation of His substitutionary death, into which we all enter. And then every week we come to the image of bread and wine. Christ has given us an image of His broken body, and an image of His shed blood, and we look on this image every week. But looking on it is just the beginning.

When we are obedient and carefully limit ourselves to the portrayals that God has required and assigned, we are given the great privilege of partaking in those portrayals. But when we invent our own icons, the promised partaking evaporates. Not only does the blessing not happen, a curse comes in, down to the third and fourth generations. We cannot meet with God unless we meet Him at the appointed places.

Faithful Christian worship must therefore have images. But it is equally crucial that we limit ourselves to the images we were given. So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.