Catherine D questions if "The Chosen" violates the Second Commandment, prompting a host who cites J.I. Packer and R.C. Sproul to argue that physical depictions of Jesus are inherently inaccurate because they capture only his humanity while omitting his divinity. Since God is spirit without body or parts, any image fails to represent the full God-man seated at the Father's right hand. Consequently, the host concludes that all visual representations of Christ should be banned as incomplete, urging listeners to apply rigorous theological discernment to media just as they do with books and podcasts to ensure worship remains "in spirit and in truth." [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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The Second Commandment Explained00:05:41
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Our Catherine D writes this What is your opinion on Christian entertainment like the Chosen TV series, depictions of Jesus violating the Second Commandment?
Recently, I heard the stance.
That any visual depiction of Jesus is a violation of the second commandment, and I'm trying to think through this issue.
Also, would you be wary of any play/slash movie based on a Bible story, even if it did not include Jesus, an image of Jesus?
Great question.
Thanks, Catherine.
I'll do my best to answer it.
So, full disclosure: I have not seen the chosen series, I've not seen a single episode.
I think I've seen a clip or two as it's circulated on the internet.
I'm just not really interested.
I don't know.
I know that a lot of people like it.
Maybe I should watch it eventually one of these days just so that I can address questions like this one.
I have had a few people reach out and ask, but typically I just don't really watch films or shows or things like that that are narrations trying to illustrate Bible stories.
You know, like the Noah movie that came out, I think it was with Russell Crowe.
I never watched it.
So I'm just not interested in those things.
Primarily because I think they're usually done theologically poorly.
I would rather just watch a fantasy or a story that doesn't relate to Christ, at least not directly.
It's not trying to re depict the story of the Bible and those narratives, something that's just, you know, like Lord of the Rings, for instance.
You know, I'd rather watch Lord of the Rings that I think has Christian metaphors and undertones and principles and all those kinds of things.
I would much rather, if I'm going to watch something, Entertainment, then I usually am not watching it for educational value.
I'm not watching some kind of film for education.
I'm doing it strictly for entertainment, usually with my family, things that I've screened that I think are appropriate.
So, all that being said, in terms of the second commandment, that's a really, I mean, people today think that that's crazy, but I appreciate the question because it's not crazy.
That has been the position for a long time down throughout church history.
I mean, even J.I. Packer in his famous book, Knowing God, right?
This is really recent.
J.I. Packer just passed away recently.
His book, Knowing God, talks about the second commandment, right?
So, for those of you who are unfamiliar, the second commandment, the first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me in Exodus chapter 20.
The second commandment is that, Thou shalt not make any graven images.
It goes on to say, anything in heaven above, or the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, that God calls us to worship God.
Him and to seek Him to walk by faith.
That's the idea.
And it's important because, you know, I was talking about this yesterday on the Lord's Day with my congregation, but it's important to recognize that the first and the second commandment are not redundant.
It's not merely a repetition of the same commandment just said two separate times in two different ways.
And I think a lot of people think that.
They think that, you know, the first commandment, have no other gods before me, don't worship idols.
The second commandment, Also, in case you missed it, don't worship idols.
That's how a lot of Christians read the first and second commandment.
Not what's being communicated.
The idolatry, one prime example would be when Israel, Aaron actually did this under Israel, the people, their motivation, Aaron made for them a golden calf.
And the golden calf, what a lot of Christians don't recognize, is that the golden calf was not meant to be some other God, another God other than Yahweh, Israel's covenantal God.
No, the golden calf was meant to be Yahweh.
This is the God.
It said, This is the God that led you up out of Egypt.
And they're not turning their back entirely, per se, on the God of Israel, Yahweh, the true God, and pretending as though some other God delivered them from bondage and slavery.
No, they're saying, This is the same God, and this is what he looks like.
So the second commandment is not just a reiteration of the first commandment.
The first commandment, Have no other gods before me, don't have other gods.
The second commandment is not simply saying, Oh, Also, don't have other gods.
Now, we already covered that in the first commandment.
So, the second commandment is really a prohibition, not on other gods, but making the one true God in a visible image, translating the one true God into a visible image.
So, one of the things that comes up would be John chapter 4.
Jesus has a discourse with the Samaritan woman.
She asks him about the place of worship, and really it seems as though her motivation is to kind of sidetrack the conversation away from her sin because he's just You know, called out her adultery, and then so she says, Oh, I perceive you are a prophet, so let's talk about something else besides my sin.
Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth00:03:29
Um, you know, what in which place should we worship?
So she asks a question about worship, and she's emphasizing the element of where should we worship on the mountain, Mount Sinai, or should we worship at the temple as the Jews do?
And Jesus says, I tell you the truth, the time is coming when the true worshipers will neither worship here or at the temple, but rather they will worship God who is spirit, they will worship Him in spirit.
And in truth.
And so, what Jesus says, among several things, at least one is that God is spirit.
Both the Westminster Confession of Faith and the 1689 Confession of Faith, in terms of doctrine of God, theology proper, speak of God in terms of his essence.
And they say that God is a most pure spirit without body, parts, and passions.
Without body, parts, and passions.
And so, God is spirit.
Therefore, we worship him in spirit and in truth.
Meaning that when it comes to our worship, where we worship is not the most significant question.
The significant questions, there are at least two, is number one, who do we worship?
Are we actually worshiping the true God, the triune God, the God of Scripture, as He has revealed Himself in His Word through special revelation?
Are we worshiping the right God?
Who are we worshiping and how?
Not where, but who and how.
How are we worshiping?
Well, in spirit and in truth.
In that context, the word spirit is referring to passion, holy zeal, righteous affection, love.
Adoration.
So we worship in spirit, meaning we worship with sincerity, we worship with authenticity, we worship with real affection and love, you know, in a way that is genuine with passion.
But we don't just worship with passion, the passion that we worship God with, that we should worship Him with in spirit, must also be balanced by truth.
And that means, as the confessions go on to say, that we don't worship God according to the devices of men.
Meaning that our Lord's Day worship, the gathering of the saints on the Lord's Day for the administering of the ordinary means of grace, publicly preaching the word, publicly praying the word, publicly singing the word, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and publicly seeing the word, S E E I N G, seeing the word in the only images that are actually prescribed under the new covenant by Christ Himself, being baptism and the Lord's Supper.
That's the only thing that we see.
In the administering of these ordinary means of grace on the Lord's Day with the gathered saints and the ecclesia, the assembly of the church, with this, we are to worship in spirit and in truth.
So, not just with passion, but also according to what God has clearly prescribed truth, God's truth, not according to the devices of men, not according to pragmatism, not seeker sensitive worship.
It's not our worship.
Is not a blank canvas for man's own creative license.
That's not what worship is about.
Worship is dictated by God.
So the who and the how are very important.
And how we worship stems from who we worship.
And who is God, the triune God?
Well, He is a most pure spirit without body, parts, and passions.
Jesus as God Incarnate00:06:49
Now, the controversy is that the second member of the Trinity.
Is not merely a most pure spirit without body, parts, and passions, but the second member of the Trinity actually is incarnate.
He actually took on flesh and he is the forever God man, meaning that he did not merely take on flesh during the time of his earthly ministry and then depart from that flesh, but he was resurrected in the flesh.
It was a bodily resurrection.
And so this flesh has now been glorified in Jesus in the flesh as the God man.
Is seated literally at the right hand of the Father, the Majesty on high.
And so the second member of the Trinity does, in fact, have flesh.
But all the way back to J.I. Packer, he would say that the second commandment that forbids images taking the true God, not the first commandment, don't worship other gods, but the second commandment, taking the true God but making him visible.
J.I. Packer, in commentating on this, would include images of Jesus.
Even R.C. Sproul, right, talking about guys who are recent.
Um, R.C. Sproul, if you look at his children's books, which I have one right here, some of you have asked, What is that book on your pulpit in the background?
This is The Lightlings by R.C. Sproul.
It's a great children's book, my kids love it.
I have two copies one to sit behind me and do nothing but look pretty, and then another copy that I actually use and read to my children.
They love the book, but in all of R.C. Sproul's books, there's no pictures of Jesus, and uh, one would be, let's see, specifically, I think it's um.
Dave, something.
It's about a donkey, a donkey who carried a king or something like that.
But the protagonist, this donkey, his name is Dave, and he's the donkey who gets chosen by the apostles to go and carry Jesus with Palm Sunday, you know, before his crucifixion, where people are saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
And so this donkey carries a king, and it shows a picture, there's an illustration in the book, of the donkey coming into a crowded area.
Area where everyone is laying down palm branches and laying down their tunics for the donkey to go on.
And the picture shows the head of the donkey entering the scene, but Jesus is out of the picture.
Your view of Jesus is obstructed.
And so that's even R.C. Sproul in a children's book saying, I'm not going to have an image of Jesus.
And the reason why, I'll kind of land the plane with this the reason why is because Jesus is the God man.
Jesus, he is God in the flesh.
Right, John chapter 1, verse 1 in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And then, verse 14, it says, And the Word took on flesh and tabernacled, dwelled among us.
So, this Word, this eternal Logos, the Word who is God, the second member of the Trinity, and was with God from the beginning, without beginning, he is the eternal second member of the Trinity, the Son of God.
This God did, in fact, take on flesh, but when Jesus took on flesh, he did not rid himself of his divinity.
So, who Jesus currently is at the right hand of the Father, the majesty on high, is the God man.
He is fully man, but he is also fully God.
And a picture, a physical image of Jesus, would only be able to capture, as it were, the man, but not the God man.
It could capture his flesh, his humanity, it could not capture his divinity.
In other words, it's not Jesus.
Because Jesus is not merely a man.
He is the God man.
He is the God man.
So, any depiction of Jesus, physical depiction of Jesus in his flesh, is depicting for us someone other than Jesus.
It is depicting the flesh of Jesus apart from the divinity of Jesus, which ultimately misses the whole person of Jesus.
The person of Jesus is fully God and fully man.
Witness Jesus, to see Jesus as the disciples did, and as we will.
1 John says, When we see him, we will be like him.
So to stand before him on that final day, we will be witnessing, we will be observing, physically seeing Jesus, both his divinity and his humanity.
We will be seeing the whole God man, not half of Jesus, but all of Jesus.
When we see him, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is, 1 John goes on to say.
We're not going to see half of him or part of him, we're going to see all of him.
For now, we see, you know, Paul writes to the Corinthians, we see dimly as in a mirror, but soon we will see fully, you know, we will fully know even as we are fully known.
And so that's the problem with depicting Jesus.
So certainly we shouldn't have images of God the Father because God the Father is not visible.
The Bible is clear that He is the invisible God.
He is a most pure spirit without body parts and passions as it pertains to the third member of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is, of course, a most pure spirit without body parts and passions, and He proceeds from the Father and the Son.
So, both the Father and the Spirit are spirit without body, without parts, without passions.
Jesus has a body, but for it to be truly the person of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, it has to be his whole person.
So, Jesus has a body, but Jesus does not only have a body.
He is not just man, he is the God man.
It is full divinity and full humanity.
And there is no way to depict Jesus.
As he is, a true depiction of Jesus without literally standing before him and actually seeing him in the flesh.
Any illustration of Jesus, a statue or an image or a painting, any image of Jesus would only convey his humanity and not his deity, which means, all that to say, which means it's not an accurate image of Jesus.
And so the reason why we would ban, we would.
Have a prohibition against images of God, even the second member of the Trinity who does have a body, we would ban images of even Christ, is because we're banning inaccurate images.
Banning Inaccurate Images00:03:01
Let me say that again, because I think that's what people miss.
What we're banning is inaccurate images of God, including inaccurate images of Jesus.
And any physical image of Jesus is inaccurate because it is incomplete, it is only half, as it were, of Jesus.
It is his humanity, but not his divinity.
So, yes, I would agree with J.I. Packer.
I would agree with R.C. Sproul.
I would agree with the Westminster Confession, the 1689 London Baptist Confession, and certainly would agree with the church fathers going back.
This was never really an issue until more so recently.
And when I say recently, I mean a few hundred years or so.
I would not advocate for images of Christ.
And then, in general, to your question, Catherine, what about things that don't have an image of Christ, but it's still a Bible story?
You know, an Old Testament Bible story about Moses or something like that.
I'm not horribly against it, but again, I just, in the same way, this is what I would say in the same way that you should be discerning and selective about what theological books you read and what YouTube channel you watch, you know, what podcasts you listen to, I think those same measurements, whatever you're using to select what content you consume about God.
Theology, theological content, you should have those same measurements in place for videos about the Bible.
And so for me, I don't know a lot of sources that make videos about the Bible, about biblical things that have good doctrine.
That's what I mean.
I don't listen to every podcast that claims to be Christian, I don't listen to every preacher that claims to be Christian, I don't read every book that's written by someone who claims to be Christian.
I'm very selective.
In what sources I deem as credible.
I will listen to this guy's podcast because he's proven himself to be sound in the faith, sound in doctrine.
I will read this guy's book.
I will go to this person's conference.
You know, in the same way that we're really selective, and I'm sure you are, Catherine, and most of our listeners are probably very selective about who they listen to.
I just would say that if it's about the Bible, it is theological.
All things are theological, but especially something about the Bible.
And so, whatever kind of measurements you have put in place, guardrails for selecting your theological content for podcasts or books or conferences or this, that, and the other, you should have that same kind of discernment when it comes to video.
Thanks so much for listening.
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