There seems to be an expectation that one can create an image of Christ and not worship such an image. On the one hand, if the image is a true representation of Christ, then worship ought to be expected – how can we see an image of God in the flesh and not worship? On the other hand, if the image isn’t a true representation of Christ, it is false and ought not be created in the first place.
We live in an image-obsessed culture – everything we do is captured in images: photographs, drawings, videos, and TikToks. Images and images and images and images. They help us think. They help us learn. They help us better understand ideas and concepts. ‘I’m just a visual person,’ some will suggest, ‘so I need to see things in pictures – and if I don’t, I’ll just imagine those images in my mind anyways.’
Given those cultural norms, the reasons for a proliferation of images of Christ might seem obvious as they increasingly appear in TV shows and movies, on book covers and in illustrations for kids books (and story Bibles), or hanging in museums and dining rooms and in churches. We assume these images of Christ aren’t a problem, since Jesus assumed a human nature – ‘these images are simply a representation of the incarnate Christ,’ we reason.
Yet are these images right? Are these images good? Are these images useful? The Reformed and Presbyterian doctrinal standards speak in unison to tell us that any image, of any of the persons of the Godhead, is sinful. Every attempt at making an image of Christ in His humanity falls short of truly representing Christ, and thereby every attempt at making an image of Christ in His humanity is a means of lying (a ninth commandment violation) and making false gods (a first commandment violation), in addition to violating the second commandment.
In Exodus 20, amidst the nine other commandment, the second one reads:
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 (Ex. 20:4-6).
Notice that this commandment has two aspects to it: first, it calls us not to create images; second, it calls us not to worship images. Some have suggested that what is meant in this text is merely a prohibition against worshiping images of Christ, but the prohibition is more restrictive than that: don’t even create the image to begin with. The specific command not to worship an image is tagged onto a more general prohibition against images. As these first commandments are all pertaining to the glory and supremacy of God, the danger in creating images is that we will end up creating things that take our attention away from God. Whether they become ‘gods’ to us, or merely idols which keep us away from our Father in heaven, they are a hindrance to our faith and condemned by God. Notice the reason included with this commandment (and the fourth commandment, but no others): God is jealous, and false gods and false images will provoke His anger; yet those who keep His commandments will be recipients of His great love.
Related to this, the Westminster Larger Catechism asks:
WLC 109: What are the sins forbidden in the Second Commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the Second Commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever…