 Real Idols
Last week in our Sunday sermon, we considered Paul’s proclamation to the citizens of Athens in the Areopagus. The Apostle was confronting the rampant idolatry of the city. When we think about idolatry, we probably start by thinking about the fact that the idol is not god at all (Isaiah 44:9-11). This is true. It is also true that the idol is a tool for demonic worship (1 Corinthians 10:19-21). Since we were all made to worship and serve God it is a big sin to give that praise and glory to other things. But there is another problem with idolatry. Every idol or concept of deity conceived of by the imagination of man is too small and too weak to be the one true God. As one historic theologian has said, “Our hearts are idol factories.” However, they are idol factories producing cheap knockoffs of the real thing. The Trap These idols are crafty prisons of the inmates own making. We often express our hatred for the life destroying power that these idols have over men and women. The ability of drugs, pornography, and gambling to draw away the heart of man is amazing. But remember, these things don’t have power on their own. The sinner is enslaved by their own passions (Romans 6:15-23). The amazing point here is that in our sin the grip that holds us to the impotent idol is our own. I believe that so much emotional and spiritual trauma is, to an extent, self inflicted by people holding on to sin, shame, and pain. The trap is that we imagine a god too small to deliver us from the problems and challenges that we face. Even many who claim to be Christians are actually living as unbelievers because the god they believe in is too small to vanquish their sin, free their hearts, and lead them in victory! The Truth So if the true God is a Big God, so big in fact that He is by His very nature beyond the limits of our imagination, then how can we know Him? The answer is that He must condescend to us and reveal Himself to us. By condescend, I mean that He must come down to us. We might say that He must “get on our level,” so that we can understand Him. Throughout history God has used interactions with key people such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses to give understanding of who He is. He has also used interactions with key positions Pharaoh, kings of various rival nations, or even the kings of Israel and Judah to demonstrate His power and purposes. God even uses the general knowledge of the created world to display His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). God has also chosen to communicate with us through divine revelation in the inspired writings of prophets and Apostles (2 Peter 1:16-21). God used these individuals to deliver His message to us. Dr. Jeff Johnson writes “There is no true theology without divine revelation. Light comes from above--from God. Knowledge of God is not obtained from man’s own ability to climb out of His darkness into the light.” God has chosen to come to us and tell us what we need to know so that we can love and worship Him. God tells us what He wants us to know about Him so that we can rest and rely upon Him. Most of all God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through the incarnation. I love Christmas time, and the celebration of Jesus birth is far more than the celebration of the successful delivery of a baby (although that is an amazing thing), but rather it is the celebration of God coming into the world in the form of a servant (Philippians 2:4-11) so that everyone who trusts in Him can be made a son (1 John 3:1-3). The Transcendent The Bible uses many words to convey the transcendent nature of God. He is Spirit, awesome, great, mighty, almighty, majestic, glorious, worthy, immutable (unchangeable), wise, just, good, true, faithful, love, blessed (happy), honorable, perfect, complete, glorious and Holy! Also this is only a partial list. The reality is that God is far greater than we can imagine and beyond any box that we might attempt to put Him into. However, this reality has led many to try to speculate beyond what the Scripture says because God is more than what is in the Bible. But we must not fall into this error, because when we go beyond the sure revelation of God in the Bible we will certainly end up with a worthless idol instead of the true God (1 Corinthians 4:6). It is because of the infinite, transcendent nature of God that we must rest ourselves in God as He has revealed Himself in the 66 books of Scripture alone.
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