What is your image of God?  When you think of God, or speak about Him, what do you believe Him to be like?  Why do I ask?  For this reason – our image of God, what we believe Him to be like, has a profound impact upon how we relate toward Him.  Indeed, our perception of God can prevent us from responding to His call on our lives.  Therefore it is important that we have a clear and correct, rather than a distorted, image of God.  We need to ask ourselves – what image of God do we have?  Is it a correct image?  From whence have we got this image and what is its effect on our relationship with God?

Turn with me to Exodus 20:4. We hear the commandments that God gave to the people of Israel via Moses. They were given to a people who were largely ignorant of God. They were given so that this people might know how to act towards God. The first instruction is that they should put their confidence in God alone. There is to be no other God for Israel save Jehovah. The second, which we find in verse 4, concerns the manner in which God is to be worshipped.  It is a twofold instruction, of which the first part is this: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below."
An idol is an image that is worshipped.  It is not entirely clear from this translation but the word ‘idol’ includes any image of any ‘god’ – even an image of the one, true, eternal Almighty God Himself.  So the first thing that needs to be said about any image of God that we may have, is that it must not be man-made.

You may well say to me that you neither have, nor have access to, any object that purports to be,  is represented as being, or is intended as, a likeness of God. That may very well be true.  However, let me ask you a question: what about your own perception of God?  To what extent is that man-made?  Where has your perception, your image, your idea of God come from?  Is it something that you have put together yourself?  Is it something that you have learned from someone else, or even from the church?  Because if that’s all it is then it’s man-made!  And if your image of God is man-made then it is both faulty and unacceptable to God.

This may sound harsh, but it is unacceptable to God because no man-made image of God can ever be anything other than faulty.  It is unacceptable to God because He says so – and being God He gets to decide!  So we need to ensure that, whatever image of God we are carrying around in our heads, it is neither something that we have dreamt up ourselves nor something that we have simply accepted from someone else.

Do we need an image of God?  Yes we do!  I'm not talking about an image in the physical sense (like a statue), but rather an understanding of God's character.  We cannot worship God, or serve Him, if we have no idea what He is like!  And if we don’t know God then, when we try to worship Him, we are only guessing and cannot worship Him acceptably (or at all).  Thankfully God does not leave us in this invidious position – He reveals Himself to us.  He doesn’t leave us to work out for ourselves what He is like.  He tells us and shows us. What we need to see is God’s revelation of Himself and not allow our perception of Him to be distorted by man’s ideas and opinions.

What kind of false images of God may we be holding?  It is possible that we may have grown up with an image of God that makes Him appear like some kind of celestial park-keeper or headmaster. That is certainly an example of one direction in which our image of God may be distorted. There are many people, both in the world at large and within the church, who perceive God as an un-pleasable finder of faults; as someone remote and distant who can never be satisfied and who delights in punishment.  Now if that is what you believe about God then it will both affect how you act towards Him and affect how you will portray Him to others.  If that is how you see God then you need to know about His amazing love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness.  If you are frightened of God because of how you perceive Him and how you perceive yourself, then you need to know that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believed in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" [John 3:16].  Jesus loves you, He died for you and He is reaching out to you waiting for you to take hold of Him and allow Him to rescue you.

There is another direction in which our perception of God may be distorted. We may have grown up hearing so much about the love of God that we perceive Him as some sort of doting grandfather figure; a 'soft touch' who doesn’t really care about sin!  We may well perceive God as someone who will always relent, as someone whom we can talk around at the end of our days and who doesn’t mind about how we live now.  After all, we may say, He is a God of love and if He is a God of love then He will not let anyone be lost!  Our reverential "fear of the Lord" has gone and we are casual with Him and careless of His commandments.  I am convinced that this is how many people, both in the world and in the church, perceive God. And if that is how we see God, then how do we see ourselves?  Do we even recognise ourselves as being in need of Him, His love, mercy compassion and forgiveness?  If our image of God is as a lovey-dovey 'soft touch' then we will not see ourselves as being in need of His grace!

Wrong images of God separate us from Him, either by driving us away from Him or by causing us to be careless about coming to Him.  We desperately need a true and accurate image of God.  However, we are incapable of constructing such a thing. Indeed we dare not even try. So where are we to find it?

We find the answer in Colossians 1:15.  The apostle Paul says of Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God". What does Paul mean?  Firstly, let me tell you what he does not mean.  He does not mean that Jesus merely bears some superficial resemblance to God, nor even a very good resemblance to God.  Every type of image to which we are accustomed shares two common characteristics. Firstly, any type of image with which we are familiar (eg. a photograph or a painting) is a representation that is, in some way, limited in its accuracy.  Secondly, every type of image with which we are familiar is but a representation of that which it shows – it isn’t the real thing.  (Your reflection in a mirror is not the real you).  When Paul describes Jesus as "the image of the invisible God" we might imagine that he is portraying Jesus as a good, but limited, representation of God and as being distinct from and different from God. We might imagine this but we would be absolutely wrong.  When Paul speaks of Jesus as "the image of the invisible God" he is not presenting Jesus as a representation of God but rather as the invisible God made visible!  Let me say that again: the invisible God made visible.  Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God.  In Jesus we find the one true image of God – an image that is not man-made but God-made!  How does Paul know this?  Is this something that he has dreamt up himself?  No, it isn’t! Turn to John 14: 8-9.

Jesus has been comforting His disciples and Thomas and Philip seem to be having difficulty in understanding precisely what He means.  At least, they are the two whom John records as questioning Jesus closely.  It is Thomas who extracts from Jesus those famous words: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me".  And then Philip, almost in desperation, cries out "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us".  What is Jesus' reply? Gently He says to them all: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father".  If we examine the Greek word rendered ‘seen’ we discover that the verb form means ‘to stare at’, ‘to discern clearly’, ‘to examine’.  Jesus is basically saying: whatever you want to know about God, examine Me!  This truth is explosive stuff.  It destroys all false teaching about God and Jesus.  It reveals God to us.  In particular, it completely confounds any notion that there is any route to God other than through Jesus Christ. We hear this erroneous notion all around us today, don't we?  We hear it as people insist that all religions ultimately lead to God.  Friends, that is a LIE; a lie from the pit of hell.  It's a lie designed to lull people into a false sense of security in order that they will not bother to seek Jesus, who is the only way to God.  Note how the truth shatters this false teaching.  Jesus Christ, who lived and walked among us, is the complete embodiment of the Living God.  God is not some distant and unconcerned being somewhere in outer space.  He has not made it difficult for us to come to Him - quite the reverse.  He is close at hand, so close that He came to earth and lived as a Man among us in the person of Jesus.  If we want to know God then we must examine Jesus.

When we choose to examine Jesus, what do we find?  Do we find a lovey-dovey, doting grandfather type figure who excuses all wrongs as irrelevant?  Do we find someone who is content to leave things as they are; who is content to leave publican and prostitute to their trade?  Not at all!  We discover someone who, in His earthly ministry, daily confronts sin, acknowledges it as such and challenges the sinner to "sin no more".  Do you remember the woman caught in adultery?  Turn in your bibles to John 8:1-11.  Invited to condemn her, Jesus challenges her accusers.  Made aware of sin, her accusers vanish.  Left alone with the woman, Jesus does not condemn her but He does not condone her behaviour either.  Rather he forgives her with the words "Go and sin no more".  He does not turn a blind eye – He challenges her to repent and forgives her.  Turn now to John 2:14-17.  Confronted by corruption in the temple, Jesus doesn’t stand and wring His hands and lament the state of affairs.  He takes direct action.  In Jesus we see every attribute of the holy, righteous God as revealed in the Old Testament; the holy and righteous God who revealed His character to Israel though His law.

But take note: neither do we find in Jesus the celestial park-keeper or headmaster figure.  Rather we find someone who forgives readily, who loves, encourages and strengthens. In Jesus we find one who compassionately heals and provides – one who is intimately concerned with every detail of our lives.  Most of all we find in Jesus one who, although He has been rejected and offended and hurt, never gives up seeking to reconcile to Himself the very people who caused His pain.  Again, in Jesus, we see every attribute of the saving, rescuing, reconciling, providing God of the Old Testament.  (If you have forgotten how the Old Testament reveals God as a reconciling God then, when you go home, read the book of Hosea.  Hosea’s relationship with his wife is a prophetic enactment of God’s relationship with His chosen people, Israel, and with His church).

In Jesus we find Almighty God’s supreme revelation of Himself.  But Jesus does not reveal God merely to satisfy our curiosity.  He reveals God to us in order that we may know our need of His salvation and grace.  He reveals God to us so that we may return into a right relationship with Him; that we may experience His salvation and know His grace at work in our lives.  He reveals God to us so that He may indeed be, for us, the way back to God.

What is our image of God?  How do we perceive Him?  Do we see Him as an unappeasable tyrant who delights in punishment?  If we do then we may well despair and believe that we have no hope. Take heart – Jesus came that we might be reconciled to God and He will not fail you if you put your trust in Him.  Do we see God as a doting grandfather figure who will tolerate anything with a 'there, there, never mind' attitude?  If so then we may well be careless, believing ourselves to be safe when, in fact, we are in mortal peril.  Be warned, God cannot tolerate sin.  It is something that He takes very seriously and, until it is dealt with it,  it separates us from Him – eternally.  In His great love and mercy, He has provided a way back to Himself, through Jesus.  But until we put our trust in Jesus Christ rather than in ourselves and our distorted notions about God, we are lost and condemned to eternal separation from God.  We must recognise in Jesus the invisible God made visible, in all His holiness, righteousness, mercy, grace and love.