Short Answer
Having images or artwork of Christ is not necessarily idolatry if they are not used for worship. The Bible forbids making images as objects of worship, not using visual representations for teaching or appreciation. The key issue is the heart—whether the image is honored as art or wrongly treated as something sacred.
The Overview
The Bible strongly warns against idolatry, especially in passages like Exodus 20 and Leviticus 26, where people are commanded not to make or worship carved images. These commands were given in a context where people created physical objects and treated them as representations of God, bowing down and offering worship to them. The issue was not merely the existence of images, but their misuse in worship.
Throughout church history, Christians have debated how strictly these commands should be applied. Some traditions, especially those influenced by the Puritans, rejected all visual depictions of Christ to avoid any risk of idolatry. Others have allowed artistic representations, provided they are not used as objects of devotion. This has led to a range of perspectives within Christianity.
A balanced understanding recognizes that images themselves are not inherently sinful. For example, Scripture describes God commanding artistic elements in worship settings, such as the cherubim in the tabernacle. This shows that visual representations can have a place when they are not objects of worship. In the same way, paintings, statues, or illustrations of Christ can serve as reminders, teaching tools, or artistic expressions.
The real concern is how these images are used. If someone begins to trust, pray to, or depend on an image as if it has spiritual power, it becomes idolatry. But if the image is simply appreciated as art or used for learning and reflection, it is not wrong. Ultimately, the focus of worship must remain on Christ Himself—not on any physical representation of Him.
Key Takeaways
- Idolatry Is About Worship, Not Just Images
The Bible forbids worshiping images, not necessarily creating them. - Context Matters in Scripture
Commands against images were directed at idol worship practices. - Art Can Be Acceptable
Visual representations can be used for teaching or appreciation. - The Heart Determines Right or Wrong
Trusting or relying on an image turns it into idolatry. - Worship Must Be Directed to God Alone
No image should replace or represent God in worship.
The Source — The Speaker Transcript
00:00:01
All right, let’s talk to Ryan now. Ryan, you’re on the air with Mike Fibarz. How can I help? >> Hello, Mike. How are you? >> Good. Um, I I was going to ask you about idolatry, specifically Leviticus uh 26:1. Um, I uh I appreciate art. I’m I’m a newer Christian and um I noticed some of my Christian friends have either paintings or statues of Christ and um I do have a replica of Christ the Redeemer statue uh on my patio from Brazil, the the the replica. And I I realize um I don’t
00:00:40
know. I don’t I don’t pray to it, but um I I like having those things around. And I wonder if that is the wrong comfort to have like in that graven image. Like is that idolatry or to appreciate it for art? Um I don’t know. This this may be a stupid question. >> No, it’s not a stupid question. Matter of fact, it’s still a debated question. And there are some in the great tradition of the Puritans and I’ll call it a great tradition because there’s so many great things about it that um you
00:01:09
know I’m I’m all for. But when you have uh the [snorts] what we would call an iconoclastic view which just meant that after the reformation uh there was this sense of taking down all the idols and the idols they saw as any statue that was made. and they would quote Leviticus 26 and Exodus chapter 20 and you know they don’t want you kissing the the ivory feet uh you know or the marbled feet of of Mary or Joseph or you know some statue of Jesus. So you know they didn’t want they didn’t want a crucifix
00:01:41
with Christ hanging on the cross. So they purified the church thus the name >> [snorts] >> uh and they said we’re not going to have any of that simplistic worship. They even started to say take all the instruments out because in the high church of course certainly in Roman Catholicism go back to Beethoven and Bach we had you know pipe organs and orchestras and all kinds of instruments and now it was like nope uh we’re just going to sing ac capella and you saw this pendulum swing back [snorts] and I
00:02:06
guess the latest of this might be Ji Packer in a book that was a best-selling medallionwinning book uh knowing God it’s a great book uh but he will say I don’t want any picture of Jesus I don’t want any repres representation of Jesus. So they’d go to your church if all a bunch of JI Packers would say, “Hey, your your your cutouts for the kids, you know, flannelraphph stories, if they still do that, or whatever, the the things on the on the screen trying to teach your kids what Jesus did, you
00:02:34
cannot have an image of of Christ.” And and I’m going to say I don’t think that’s the context of any of what we’re reading regarding making these images. Right? We remember Moses got horribly [snorts] angry when the golden calf was there and they were bowing down to it and they were worshiping. He said, “You’re not going to do that. God does not need some kind of of image to worship him.” And they would even argue and and if you go into the Semitic ancient near east, the way that this is
00:03:03
probably understood as that the calf was the uh burdened uh beast that would carry the deity of Yahweh. And they would say, “Well, we’re really not worshiping, you know, the calf.” although he’s engaged in our all of that was was was rightly understood as let’s get rid of these images in our worship. But if you look at what’s really being said, right, in Exodus 20, it’s a lot like the whole discussion of the tattoos, right? Tattooing and cutting yourself for the dead. Well, you got to
00:03:32
get the context of that. You you want to put a verse on your arm, whatever you can, but you can’t take it off easily. You you’re free to do it. And and even in Exodus 20 when the ten commandments are first uh recorded here, it talks about no likeness that is on earth, right? Anything on the earth or anything under the earth. The idea of having uh an image is really in the context of you’re not supposed to have any other god before me. You’re not supposed to make a carved image or any likeness of
00:04:01
something. And then all of a sudden, God creates a worship center and he has these angels over the box where he’s going to manifest his glory. And therefore, and I think you probably you could catch [clears throat] a fish and and you could hang it in your in your study or in your man cave and and you probably wouldn’t think twice about it. Well, that’s a an image of of something that swims under the sea and and it’s like under the water. That’s specific in in Genesis 20. Well, you’re not
00:04:26
worshiping the fish on the wall. and your kids in Sunday school at your church are not worshiping the video that talks about Jesus walking through Galilee and calling the disciples to leave their nets and follow him. Here’s my argument for the fact that I don’t think you should be offended in your conscience about a uh image of Christ. And that is if it’s not used in worship, I’m going to say the image of Christ, God himself put Christ in an image, right? I mean God took the the son and
00:04:57
gave him a visible image and therefore right all the embodiment of Christ I’m thinking he is himself in flesh and encased in flesh he still is and we will worship him one day and he will be in flesh I’m not worshiping our representations of Christ but if I have a video for my kids right I’m going to I’m going to be fine with that and I sit here in an office I have no depictions of Jesus uh well I take that back. I’m looking at a Rembrandt right over my computer screen. I guess I do. I have
00:05:28
him on the storm with the apostles on a piece of canvas, right? It’s not the original. The original was stolen and is lost and they don’t know where it is. So, I don’t have the original. Don’t come to my Don’t send the FBI to my office. But here I have uh the Rembrandt of of Jesus on on Galilee in the storm. It’s a great picture. It encourages me to keep going when the times are tough. I don’t worship that picture, but I’m encouraged by the picture. I guess I do,
00:05:53
but I’m thinking I don’t have the picture like my grandpa did in his in his living room of a oil painting of of Jesus by the uh you know the Renaissance painters. But my grandpa never worshiped that. But it’s okay, right? I’m not going to be surrounded by a bunch of of images of Christ. I think of Christ as embodied in heaven at the right hand of the father and my worship goes to him. But the reality is that when I’m teaching as a didactic effort, especially with children or even in my
00:06:23
own study as I look up, I guess I do. I have something to motivate me that reminds me of the earthly incarnate Christ, right? I don’t I don’t think anyone should have a problem with that. Now, Jipacker, notwithstanding, right, he’s kind of a throwback. He was a professor of the Puritans, so he bought a lot of that. In a very, you know, true sense, I’m an iconic class at heart. As I often say to my my colleagues, I I I don’t like a lot of stuff that is somehow associated with worship. I want
00:06:51
it to be clean. I don’t want Christ on a cross. I’m not even big on crosses. I don’t even like you wearing a cross around your neck necessarily, but I’m not going to tell someone they can’t. I’m all about trying to think in our own minds about Christ being crucified by our words. When Paul spoke to the Galatians, right? Christ, you know, wasn’t crucified in Galatia, but he said before whose eyes Christ was crucified in his preaching. That was the point. He was giving them words. When people say,
00:07:17
“We don’t even have a cross on your pulpit or behind your pulpit.” I’m going to say, “Yeah, but you better hear it preached here [snorts] every week.” And you do, and therefore, I don’t need the image, but I’m not opposed to the image. So, I kind of have a little bit of the u I I I’m I have a affinity to the Puritans view on this and I get it because I do know if I go to uh to Rome, which I’ve been to the Vatican, I’ve been to the Middle East several times, I
00:07:43
know there’s a lot of stumbling over images and I don’t like it. And I don’t want our worship to be associated with images. But I don’t think it’s wrong for you or I to have in our office or our study or in our our living room some kind of depiction, a woodcut or a canvased oil painting or whatever it is that depicts Christ. As long as it’s communicating to us, not here, come here and worship this image, but hey, this is the reminder of the incarnate Christ. a [snorts] book I would recommend to you
00:08:12
which goes into a lot of what uh and it’s a short book and an easy read but but Francis Schaefer wrote a book called uh art in the Bible I think is what the title is. It’s a great read. I just reread it recently and I just thought it’s so good for us to remember even as I read in my daily Bible reading not long ago that the things that were done in the tabernacle were done for glory and for beauty and and it even depicted angelic beings and all of that was for glory and for beauty. I love art. I like
00:08:40
art. I tried to mess around in art as a kid. And I I just I I respect good art. And I think we should not be shying away from art that depicts biblical scenes or biblical characters or even the mainstay of what our biblical theology is based on or the person of Christ. But you can go too far and you can see the woman. You know, you might visit some old lady in the church and she’s got 18 images of Christ around her and she thinks that there’s something to it. they become an amulet for her or a good luck charm for
00:09:10
her. And [snorts] if you’re trusting in the image, you’ve gone too far. And if you can’t handle that, you’re going to be trusting in an image. Well, then don’t put don’t put any around you. But you and I, I trust, are not we’re not trusting in any images. Does that help? >> It does. Thank you. I’m going to get that book, The Art in the Bible. I found it online. Thank you. >> Yeah, it’s a good read and it’s a short read. You can read it, you know, couple
00:09:31
couple sittings, no problem. And um Schaefer makes the case and it’s a good one. And and there was a critical concern series book too and it’s a lot you know Schaefer is just right to the point and I love the way he thinks in this book but [snorts] uh there was a critical concern book by Multma Press that came out years ago in the 80s or ‘9s about art and Christianity and you know that’s a generally good topic. I know Moody Publications has put out a couple books recently on art and
00:09:57
Christianity. Those are helpful and it’s good, but I think Schaefer is going to stay right within the biblical lines without any kind of flirting with, you know, we all should listen to Bob Dylan or whatever. So, yeah, I hope that helps. >> Okay. Thanks, Ryan. It did. Thank you, Mike. Okay. All right.
