The Portraits We Paint of the Divine
When was the last time you examined your portrait of God against Scripture?
We all create them. These portraits of God—mental images formed through experiences, teachings, church traditions, and personal interpretations of Scripture—profoundly shape how we worship, pray, make decisions, and understand the world God created.
But here's the sobering truth: our portraits are always incomplete. They're fallen human approximations of the infinite, holy God who transcends full comprehension.
The map is not the territory. The portrait is not the Subject.
And this matters eternally.
Why Our Portraits of God Define Our Faith
Your portraits of God influences everything in your Christian walk:
- What you believe God requires of you
- How you interpret suffering and providence
- What you consider "God's will" versus human responsibility
- How you approach worship and prayer
- What aspects of God's character you emphasize or minimize
This isn't merely academic theology. Your portrait of God shapes how you live out your faith daily.
A Christian who sees God primarily as a demanding taskmaster lives differently than one who understands Him as both perfectly holy and perfectly loving. Both elements are biblical, but neither alone is complete.
Our Fallen Tendency: Creating God in Our Image
Since Eden, humans have been trying to remake God according to our preferences.
We create portraits of God that make us comfortable rather than portraits that transform us. We emphasize divine attributes that appeal to our sensibilities while minimizing those that challenge us.
As C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity: "What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could 'be like gods'... could set up on their own as if they had created themselves... be their own masters."
A Christian recognizes a humbling reality: left to ourselves, we don't naturally seek the true God. We seek a god who serves our purposes.
Three Common Distorted Portraits
1. The Cosmic Therapist
This portrait presents God as primarily concerned with our happiness and self-fulfillment. He exists to help us achieve our dreams and feel good about ourselves.
What's missing? God's sovereignty, His glory as our ultimate purpose, and the reality that He calls us to die to self rather than actualize it.
2. The Distant Watchmaker
This portrait shows God as having created the world but now standing back, uninvolved in its daily operations or our personal lives.
What's missing? God's intimate providence, His moment-by-moment sustaining of creation, and His personal covenant relationship with His people.
3. The Celestial Scorekeeper
This portrait depicts God as primarily tallying our moral performance, ready to reward or punish accordingly.
What's missing? The scandal of grace, the finished work of Christ, and the truth that our standing before God rests entirely on Jesus' righteousness, not our own.
The Source of True Portraits: Special Revelation
How do we correct our distorted portraits? Not through speculation, cultural consensus, or personal preference.
We need the portrait God has revealed of Himself.
Scripture is not merely one resource among many—it's the essential, authoritative revelation through which God has made Himself known. As Calvin noted, Scripture functions as the "spectacles" through which we properly see God.
"No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known." (John 1:18)
Jesus Christ is the perfect portrait of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). In Him, we see God's character in human form—the ultimate self-disclosure of divine nature.
When Our Portraits Become Idols
Here's where spiritual danger becomes most acute.
When we cling to our preferred portrait of God despite what Scripture reveals—when we become more attached to our concept than to the God who has revealed Himself—we've created an idol.
Not one of stone or gold, but of theological preference and emotional comfort.
The most dangerous portraits aren't obviously unbiblical ones. They're the subtle distortions that contain enough truth to appear legitimate while missing crucial aspects of God's self-revelation.
As A.W. Tozer wrote: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
Signs Your Portrait of God Has Become an Idol
How can you tell if you've substituted your portrait for the living God? Watch for these warning signs:
- You ignore or explain away biblical passages that challenge your current understanding
- You're more interested in a God who affirms you than one who transforms you
- Your portrait of God never causes discomfort or conviction
- You emphasize certain divine attributes (like love) while minimizing others (like holiness)
- Your understanding of God aligns perfectly with your political or cultural preferences
Redrawing Our Portraits: A Spiritual Discipline
Examining and correcting our portraits of God isn't optional—it's essential to sanctification.
The Holy Spirit progressively aligns our understanding with Scripture's revelation, transforming us "from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Practical Steps for Biblical Portrait Correction:
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Approach Scripture comprehensively, not selectively. The whole counsel of God, not just favorite passages.
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Study the divine attributes systematically. God's holiness, sovereignty, goodness, love, justice, mercy, and immutability belong together.
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Learn from historic Christian consensus, particularly the creeds and confessions that have stood the test of time.
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Embrace the tensions of biblical paradox. God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Justice and mercy. Transcendence and immanence.
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Submit your understanding to community discernment. Individual interpretation must be tested within the body of Christ.
The Communal Gallery of Biblical Understanding
No single believer comprehends God perfectly. That's why we need the body of Christ.
The church—across time and space—provides guardrails for our theological imagination. The historic, orthodox understanding of God's nature serves as a corrective to our individualistic tendencies.
As Lewis noted, the safest path is usually the "deep middle" of what Christians have generally believed throughout history.
Why This Matters Now More Than Ever
In our preference-driven culture, the temptation to create a customized god has never been stronger. "Design your own deity" might as well be the modern spiritual motto.
But what if we approached God with holy fear and trembling? What if we recognized that He is God and we are not—that our task is not to create Him in our image but to be recreated in His?
This doesn't mean abandoning intellectual engagement. It means subjecting our intellect to divine revelation.
The Ultimate Purpose of Biblical Portraits
The point of having an accurate portrait of God isn't merely theological correctness. It's transformation.
We become like what we worship. If we worship a god of our own making, we simply reinforce our fallen nature. But when we worship the God who is, we're gradually conformed to His likeness.
As Jonathan Edwards understood: right affections follow right understanding. When we see God as He truly is—as He has revealed Himself to be—we cannot help but worship.
Your Portrait, Your Discipleship
Your portrait of God reveals much about your spiritual formation.
What does yours emphasize? What does it minimize? Where might it need correction from Scripture?
Most importantly: Are you willing to let God's Word challenge and reshape your understanding, even when it's uncomfortable?
Because the moment you think your portrait of God needs no further biblical correction is the moment your spiritual growth stalls.
Holding Our Portraits with Biblical Fidelity
The most spiritually mature Christians I know hold their portraits of God with what we might call "confident humility."
They're confident in what Scripture clearly reveals while humble about the depths they've yet to plumb.
They can say with Paul: "Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Your portrait of God should continually deepen as you grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Let it. That evolution isn't theological instability—it's evidence of progressive sanctification.
Keep your portrait always before the illuminating light of Scripture. Test it. Refine it. And remember—the goal isn't just to know about God, but to know Him.
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