Images of Christ

This morning I was reading in the epistle to the Hebrews and one of the things that leapt out of the page at me was that Christ is the "express image" or "exact representation" (as the NIV puts it) of the Father. This put me in mind of other verses in John's Gospel where Christ tells us that if we have seen Him, we have also seen the Father.

This is quite amazing, really. To see Christ is to see the Father, because they are One. If this is so (and it is) then those who make pictures of "Jesus" for Sunday School materials, paintings, book illustrations, etc., should take heed because of their gross violation of the second commandment.

"Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth." Deuteronomy 4:15-18 [NKJV]


Christ didn't leave us without a visible representation for remembering Him by. It is found in the Loaf and the Cup of the Communion Table. With this let us be content.