The Defiling of Worship
In this series, I take our law homily from our church gathering each week (The law homily is where we read from the law of God and let His law examine our hearts so that we can be a tender-hearted and repenting people), and I post them here for your edification.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. - Exodus 20:4-6
INTRODUCTION
In a world saturated with images and icons, where visual aids are touted as essential for enhancing our spiritual experience, we are confronted with a crucial question: What does God require of us in worship? Or to say it a different way, in our well-meaning attempts to relate to the Almighty, are we inadvertently defiling our worship?
The Westminster Larger Catechism speaks to this very question. It instructs us that one of the duties required in the second commandment is to “keep pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in His Word.” What the catechism is saying, is that the only way to know whether our worship is proper and true, is to consult with the Word of God, since God has perfectly revealed how we are to worship Him within the pages of Holy Scripture.
If you are familiar with the theological phrase, the Catechism draws from and builds upon a concept known as the "Regulative Principle of Worship," which is a foundational concept in Reformed theology and worship. The Regulative Principle asserts that God instituted the acceptable way of worshipping Him in the Scriptures and that anything not commanded in the Scriptures concerning worship is strictly forbidden. We may only do what God has commanded when it comes to worship. And if God has not explicitly commanded something, we have no permission to do it in worship.
THE FURY OF GOD TOWARD’S IMAGES
As previously mentioned, God explicitly dictates how we are to worship Him. We do not have the liberty to offer any ritualistic act we fancy and expect He will respond with joyful pleasure. He is not like the doting mother who puts every sub-par scribbling prominently positioned on her fridge. He has revealed what pleases Him, which is worship conducted in accordance with the Scripture. If we deviate from Scripture, and do things God has not sanctioned, we do not invite His pleasure, but instead His wrath.
Take Cain, for instance. He arrogantly assumed that he could present whatever withered vegetable he wanted, thinking God would have to accept it. The text tells us that He brought “some of the fruits” of the ground, whereas his brother brought the very best of the flock for his sacrifice. In this, God had great regard for Abel and his offering. But, for Cain, God did not have regard and eventually put him under a life and world-altering curse.
Remember also the Israelites, who in their foolishness, fashioned a golden calf and declared, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). They even had the audacity to call this idol Yahweh, thinking they could worship the true God through a graven image. Rather than God praising their effort, or awarding them a participation trophy for trying their best, God responded with swift and torrential fury. God commanded the Levites to go all throughout the cam slaughtering their kin, resulting in three thousand deaths. The people might have thought, “What’s the big deal? We’re still worshiping Yahweh, we are just doing so with a visual aid to help us connect with Him better.” But God did not grant any validity to their line of thinking.
Consider one more example: Nadab and Abihu. These men were of the priestly order; they were Aaron’s sons, and they were given specific instructions on how to bring holy fire into the sanctuary of God. Unfortunately, Nadab and Abihu presumed upon the grace of God. They downplayed His holy prescriptions, presented fire in an unregulated way, and God responded to them, by raining fire on top of their heads (Leviticus 10:1-2). And as the ashes of his dead sons still smoked, God told Aaron not to shed a tear about it, since there boys dared to provoke the fury of God (Leviticus 10:6). God had already told them how to bring fire into God’s presence They presented a kind of fire that was “unauthorized”, which God had not commanded, and fire came out from the Lord’s presence and consumed them (Leviticus 10:1-2). Their presumption cost them their lives, as God will not tolerate worship that strays from His commands.
In each of these cases, the message is resoundingly clear: God demands worship on His terms, and the consequences for ignoring those terms are devastating. This is especially true when it comes to the second commandment, as clearly demonstrated in Exodus 20:4-6 and all throughout the idolatrous history of Israel. Given the specificity and severity of the command, one would do well to take the opposite approach of Israel and Judah. Instead of flagrantly casting aside the commands of God, or ignorantly overlooking them, we should approach this issue with great trepidation and humility, as well as with an joyful eagerness to please the Lord through our faithful obedience. This is a moral command that has not been abrogated in the New Testament. Yet, in the modern evangelical world, this command has become almost entirely irrelevant to the media we produce, the books we illustrate, and the forms of worship we tolerate. This, along with other things, has been a part of the downgrade and defiling of worship.
Let me be abundantly clear, there is no honest reading of Exodus 20:4-6 that allows for any images to ever be made of the triune God. And since the triune God is Father, Son, and Spirit, depicting any person of the Godhead, in anyway, that is not explicitly sanctioned in Scripture, is the moral equivalent of making a golden calf and calling it Yahweh. God has explicitly forbidden us from conveying Him with any image from heaven above or on the earth beneath. This means there is no actual or even potential image of God, that we could create, that would not be an abomination unto Him. This applies to statues of Jesus, paintings of Jesus, and actors who play Jesus on screen, while other actors pretend to worship him.
Now, I am fully aware that many people will disagree with me. Some may protest, "Watching TV shows like 'The Chosen' is not an act of worship, therefore I am not violating this commandment." Not only is that statement patently absurd, it arises from an ignorance of what the text is actually commanding. The imperative of Exodus 20:4-6 is not saying: “Make all of the images you like so long as you do not worship them.” Instead, the passage forbids us from even making unsanctioned images in the first place. Because God knows how quickly our hearts will leap into worship, He has not only forbidden the worship of idols, but the making of them. He not only has forbidden us from worshipping Jonathan Roumie and Jim Caviezel, He has forbidden these men and us from casting the most precious image of God in their human and finite likeness. Remember, the command is not “do not worship,” but the much more comprehensive command of “do not make.” We have no license whatsoever of making any image of Jesus ever. This is what the command is saying.
In addition to these considerations, we also need to consider carefully what worship is! Worship is not confined to the walls of the church. Worship is not limited to singing emotive songs about God. Worship is not just the prostrate lying, the folded hands, or arms raised in celebration of Yahweh. Worship is any act of relating to, learning from, identifying with, and enjoying our God. Worship occurs when you are reading and you stumble upon a new detail in Scripture, when gratitude fills your heart for your spouse, or when you praise God for the excellent sunrises or rainbows after a downpour. Worship is any level of appreciation for God that swells as gratitude in your heart for Him. Thus, when you watch a show depicting a human being pretending to be Jesus, and you use that medium to increase your gratitude for Jesus, your knowledge of Jesus, and your identification with Jesus then you have engaged in a worshipful action.
By enjoying a show with a human pretending to be Jesus, you are not only consuming forbidden material that was not directly sanctioned by the Almighty, but you are participating in a kind of worshipful participation of that which the Father has prohibited. If we do not feel the weight of this, perhaps it is because our conscience has been seared from ongoing exposure and acceptance of sin. This is what defiling worship looks like.
A CALL TO REPENTANCE
With that, it is time for us to rend our hearts and not our garments. It is time for us repent of our reliance on graven images when the Word clearly and unavoidably condemns them. It is time for the Catholic Church to put away her golden calf Jesus statues, it is time for families to put away their graven image Bible story books, and it is time for American Christians to stop supporting movie companies that flagrantly pump images of Jesus into our homes defying the Words of the living God. It is time for us to muster the courage to cast aside every idol, every image that pollutes the worship of the one true God, and be found content with a worship prescribed for us in His Holy Word. Blessing and joy are available to those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:34). But, the wrath of God is kindled against all those who dare to defile His Holy name with worthless images.
Does this mean that a Christian will lose their salvation if they watch the Chosen? No. But it also doesn’t mean God is indifferent to the issue or that a sincere believer would be either. Paul says in Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
As Christians, one of the key watermarks of sincere regeneration is a heart that longs to please the Father. Christians are not the kind of people who tout their rights, cling to their freedoms, and ignore the Word of God in favor of their preferences. Christians are tender hearted and lovers of truth. Christians are the ones who will lay down their preferences to adopt the preferences of the Father. And since that is true, I believe all sincere Christians will rejoice in what the Bible says, will conform their life to what the Bible says, even if it means refusing to watch a favorite TV show.
Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the only sanctioned image ever made of the Father. This tells us that no other image by God has ever been commissioned and from the Christian no other image should be tolerated.
