They exchanged the truth of God for a
lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator (Romans
1:25).
In part 2 of this theme – What does it mean to be human? – we examined cognition, the ability to make choices and the biblical concept of imago dei: of all creatures, mankind alone is created in the
image and likeness of God.
But, over imago dei, hangs a dark and ominous haze.
Being uniquely created in the image of God bestows
unparalleled dignity on every human person plus a hard-wired moral compass, and
the ability to love unconditionally as a decision of the will.
However, when twisted and distorted by human
selfishness, imago dei exhibits itself in an otherwise inexplicable, yet overwhelming need to worship something, anything – other than God.
Because we possess the ability to choose, and our human
thinking is distorted by sin and evil, we who are created in His likeness
embrace foolish and flimsy substitutes for the One who is Almighty and the
personification of Perfection.
Five centuries ago at the time of the Reformation,
Jean Calvin characterized man as homo-religiosis: deeply committed to
worship. He went further to depict human nature as “a perpetual factory of idols”.
And here’s the cruel irony of idolatry: we choose – no, demand – to ignore or substitute with something far less, Him in whose image we’re made.
D.A. Carson labels this the “de-godding of God”.
Why is that so common in our day? Why, in a county whose
very national anthem pleads God keep our land, glorious and free do we
witness the wholesale dismissal of the Almighty from conversations of politics,
justice, and the market economy?
Against that cultural backdrop are we to conclude that
God is removed from the equation and our society solely decides who each of us
is?
Are we simply, blindly, passively pressed into the mold
and expectations of the culture at large?
British journalist and Christian philosopher G.K. Chesterton wondered aloud a century ago whether “the huge modern heresy of altering the human soul to fit its conditions, instead of altering human conditions to fit the human soul” was to blame?
So, does the decision on my identity – who I am and why I matter – rest with the appraisal metrics of the greater community? Is my dignity validated only by what the educational elite, or moguls of entertainment, or those who control corporate branding, have resolved?
Does the media define me?
Author Christopher Watkins in his magnum opus
entitled Biblical Critical Theory makes the following observation: “As well as entertaining us, advertising messages and media shows encode and repeat the fundamental patterns through which we understand who we are.”
Is it therefore inevitable, that in the confusion of
self-perception that God has been refashioned into something other than what He
is?
Are contemporary values culpable when His unqualified
authority is ignored? When He is regarded as merely a primitive and inconvenient
fabrication of human imagination?
Is the “de-godding of God” an almost inevitable consequence of contemporary living?
Clearly, that’s an oversimplification.
Over 27 centuries ago, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah drew an audacious – and somewhat sarcastic – image as he composed a mocking parable.
In his tale, a man fells a tree. Half of the log is used for
fuel for fire to make bread and cook his meat. The story continues:
From the rest he
makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
“Save me! You are my god!”
They know nothing, they
understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so
they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot
understand.
No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or
understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a
detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” (Isaiah 44:17-19)
The Apostle Paul expands on the absurdity of the “degodding of God” in his classic 1st century summary: Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles…They exchanged the
truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than
the Creator (Romans 1:22,23,25).
Although dismissed from polite conversation as an oversimplistic anachronism, the Bible affirms that idolatry – the “degodding of God” – has afflicted mankind from the beginning of time. And it continues to plague us.
In a perfect garden paradise, the seeds of idolatrous seduction
and distortion were sewn. When our first parents saw that the fruit of the
tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining
wisdom (Genesis 3:6), they succumbed to temptation.
Theologians call this historic watershed moment “the Fall” as if an inadvertent, unintentional misstep was responsible for the first stumble in an avalanche of human sin. However, the text indicates that the reality was closer to enthusiastically jumping in with both feet.
Takeaway - the Apostle John, deeply concerned for Christ’s sheep near the end of the 1st century,
concludes his first epistle with an awkward, jarring final sentence: Dear
children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).
The warning hangs there as if grander, more complete
conclusion to his letter has been lost.
But all manuscript evidence supports this is how John intended
to finish.
This cautionary command is his terminal point. He
intended to be provocative.
Why?
Clearly the aged Apostle was troubled by the temptation
for Christ-followers to allow idolatry to gain a foot-hold in their lives.
How? To what are we to be vigilant? How do we recognize
the threat to be protected against?
The late Timothy Keller explains idolatry transpires “when a finite value” becomes “a center of value by which other values are judged.”
Keller continues that when something/someone is “elevated to centrality and imagined as a final source of meaning, then one has chosen what Jews and Christians call a god.”
One has fallen victim to idolatry Keller continues, when “looking to your own wisdom and competence, or to some other created thing, to provide the power, approval, comfort, and security that only God can provide.”
So, if the sin of idolatry is so insidious and corrosive to the Christ-follower’s heart and mind, from where does protection and fortification come?
Our lives are garrisoned by the Spirit of God as we
engage in worship of the Triune God, echoing the words of the psalmist: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for
you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God (Psalm 42:1,2).
graphic from ultimz.com
