Graven Images Versus Being the Image

2011-02-04

“If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.” (Deuteronomy 13:12-18)

This here is a lesson for me, and for anyone who wants to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Since the narrative speaks for itself, let me tell you what it means for us. If there is an idol in my life, whether it is a sinful habit, something that distracts me from following Jesus Christ, a physical object of worship, or the like, it needs to be violently removed and destroyed from my life. It is not to be stowed in a closet, remaining for the rainy day to come that I may succumb to it again. It is to be destroyed so that it cannot be recovered.

Now this is easier said about physical objects. They go into the fire and they are lost forever, or smashed until irreparable. But habits are harder to break, which is why Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Now the cross is a symbol that is often poignantly referred to in song and verse, but in reality it was a violent death that Jesus Christ experienced. He held nothing back to redeem men from the horrors of the fate of this world, and we have our little token crosses we wear or display, forgetting the terrifying reality of the pain of this torture device.

It is time to take the trash out! It is time to stand up and wage war against the rebellious nature of the old man and be the new man. It has been said before by others that life is too short to spend time on things that are not of God. Let us leave the old man behind and live for the Savior that withheld nothing from us. Destroy the graven images, and be the image of God in Christ that we were created to be.