What the Bible says about Cross and Second Commandment (2024)

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What the Bible says aboutCross and Second Commandment
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Exodus 20:4

See Also

The Second Commandment: No Idols | Reformed Theological SeminaryIs Cursing a Sin? What the Bible Says About Swearing & ProfanityBible, King James VersionThe Second Commandment: No Idols - First Presbyterian Church

Whether in front of a church or in the neighbor's yard, nativity scenes are everywhere. The details of this scene are remarkably inaccurate, starting with the fact that Christ's birth did not occur in the winter! Though the Bible clearly disproves such misconceptions, they nevertheless persist.

A major reason why many continue to misrepresent the nativity scene exemplifies the image-based nature of mainstream Christianity as opposed to the text-based truths of God's Word. The disconnect between such images and the text of the Bible illustrates the effect of breaking the second commandment.

More common than the nativity scene in mainstream Christian worship is the depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Both images break the second commandment. God clearly bans the use of any image in the worship of Him. The only physical medium in which God has chosen to reveal Himself to us is language, specifically His Word.

A fundamental difference exists between images and language, and by understanding the difference, we can understand the second commandment's importance to us. The difference lies in the way we understand and mentally process images in contrast to language. Images convey their meaning through physical and concrete objects with which we interact. In contrast, language conveys meaning abstractly, requiring us to understand even what we may have never experienced.

When a person sees an image, he must first understand exactly what the image is of, then he has to deduce what is not in the image. Because of this, images convey meaning primarily through concrete objects—a house, for instance. Any non-physical attribute of the meaning—for example, domesticity—must be deduced.

Returning to the nativity scene, how does reading about the nativity scene instead of looking at a representation of it affect our understanding? If someone were unfamiliar with the Bible, what would he learn from seeing only a representation or reading only the text? From the representations, all he could learn about the birth of Jesus is that He was born in a barn to a man and woman while visited by three guests. The representation leaves out what the text considers more important: that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God; that He was not fathered by Joseph but by God the Father through Mary, a virgin; that He was the Messiah prophesied about by the prophets, etc.

The danger inherent in images is that they reduce any abstract idea or non-physical thing to what we understand through our senses. Just as a nativity scene reduces Jesus to a mere infant instead of the divine Son of God, crucifixes reduce Him to a suffering, dying man instead of the propitiation of our sins who now lives so that we can have eternal life. Both images reduce the spiritual significance of the events to a purely physical level.

A person can never understand God through an image or representation, for to make an image of God is to reduce Him to physical attributes we can sense. God describes in Isaiah 55:9 just how disparate He is from us. God's love, mercy, power, and His many other attributes cannot be depicted through images. If we attempt to do so, we reduce God to the level of man, making the representation not of the true God, but of a manmade god, an idol. When we reduce God to a physical image that we can understand without the aid of God's Spirit, we actually raise ourselves above God and turn Him into a god conceived from our own physical sensations. He becomes only what we have seen, felt, smelled, heard, or tasted.

The world may consider their nativity scenes and crucifixes as harmless aids to their worship of God, but in their arrogance, they have ignored the second commandment. Through images, the world has reduced God and His power to their own level. Diminishing God removes our understanding of and respect for His authority. As called sons and daughters of God in the body of Christ, it is important to remember how important the second commandment is, lest we try to conceive of God physically and reduce and diminish Him in our own minds.

See Also

Ten Commandments in Texas Classrooms: But What Version?

Staff
A Picture Against a Thousand Words

Related Topics: Cross and Second Commandment| Crucifix| Graven Image| Idolatry| Images, Graven| Nativity of Jesus Christ| Second Commandment| The Second Commandment

Matthew 10:38

The second commandment forbids the use of any physical representation of something used in the worship of God. It prohibits anything that tries to represent divinity in a physical way, such as pictures or statues. The crucifix (an image of Jesus on the cross) certainly fits into this category. Even though the stated intent is for use as a remembrance of the crucifixion, God commands us not to use any image or likeness in our worship of Him.

The cross has been used as a religious symbol since long before the crucifixion of Jesus. It originated in the Babylonian mystery religions, where it was a symbol of the god, Tammuz. In his book The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop summarizes the universality of the cross by saying that “there is hardly a pagan tribe where the cross has not been found.” The cross did not even become associated with nominal Christianity until the time of Constantine, centuries after the crucifixion. And while the Scriptures refer to the cross metaphorically, the apostolic church never made use of it in a physical way.

In addition to the pagan origin, the question is still unresolved exactly what Jesus died on. The Greek word translated as “cross” is stauros, meaning a stake or upright pole. It may have had a cross-beam on it, or it may have simply been a long piece of wood, thick enough to bear the weight of a human body. Adding to the mystery are four scriptures asserting that Jesus was hung on atree (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; I Peter 2:24), and the Greek indicates a green, living tree rather than a stauros of dead wood. Because of this, one possibility is that the stauros of Jesus was just the crossbeam, which was attached to a living tree.

But the traditions of nominal Christianity have memorialized the pagan cross. To add insult to injury, millions venerate the means of death of the Messiah through their physical representations, rather than commemorating His death as He commanded, through the annual observance of the Passover (see I Corinthians 11:24-25). Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus Christ despised the shame of the cross in order to become our Savior, yet nominal Christianity both memorializes that shame in an image and turns it into a good-luck charm.

In studying Christ's instructions for taking up or bearing our stauros, it is clear that He did not intend for us to have anything to do with a physical crucifix, any more than He intended for us literally to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand to avoid sin (see Matthew 5:29-30). Rather, the use of the cross stands for a much larger concept that cannot—and should not—be crammed into a mere icon.

The Jews living under Roman dominion were all too familiar with crucifixions. When they saw a man carrying a stauros, it could only mean that his time on earth was essentially finished; they knew that man was as good as dead. So when Jesus told His followers to take up their crosses, they also were to account themselves as already being dead. What life remained was given over to the control of another, symbolizing complete surrender, while pointing to the encumbered life of a disciple.

David C. Grabbe
What Does It Mean to Take Up the Cross?

Related Topics: Constantine| Cross and Second Commandment| Crucifix| Crucifixion| Second Commandment| Stauros| Taking up Cross| The Second Commandment

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