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Writer's pictureReuben

Are Images of Jesus Christ Forbidden by Scripture and Did Jesus Have Long Hair?

Updated: Jun 13, 2023


1. To have a picture or anything resembling Christ on your wall or anywhere in your home or watching it on a video is idolatry. And that is transgression of the second commandment.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Ex 20:4-6; cf. De 4:23-25)

God forbids any to worship Him with “pictures . . . [or] images” (Num 33:52). This prohibition forbids the making of any pictures of God Himself, as well as practices such as bowing down before statues or pictures (Ezk 8:10), even with the intent to worship God, not the pictures or statues. Jn 4:24 says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” All physical images of God necessarily misrepresent Him — as an invisible Spirit He is immaterial and cannot be pictured. The Lord commands mankind to offer Him spiritual worship as commanded in His Word, not worship with images. Since Jesus Christ is God, no images of Him should be made.


The Trinity is undivided, and prohibitions of images of God include not God the Father and God the Holy Ghost only, but also God the Son. Furthermore, no image could be made to represent Jesus Christ’s Divine nature, since that is invisible and spiritual. Nor can any image correctly represent the awe-inspiring glorified body He received after His resurrection. One who saw His glorified humanity fell at his feet as dead (Rev. 1:10-18); no image can make this happen. No image correctly represents His human nature during His earthly ministry, for the Bible records nothing of His appearance at that time (cf. 1 Pet 1:8; 2 Cor 5:16).


Besides, Christ’s human nature is not divided from His Divine nature; He is one Person with two natures, and no image can, therefore, correctly represent Him as the Person He is. If you have attempted to worship God using images, including images of Christ, you have broken the second commandment (Ex 20:4-6). And worship with an “image . . . the LORD thy God hateth” (De 16:22). Rather than making pictures of Christ or having pictures of Christ in your home or watching movies that present Christ, view Jesus Christ in His ineffable glory by faith through the Word—for then the Holy Spirit will progressively change you into His moral likeness (2 Cor 3:18).


2. The common practice of having pictures of Jesus with long hair is even worst — indeed, it is a Satanic attempt to imply that He was sinful, since, “if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him” (1 Cor 11:14) In the act of having pictures portraying Jesus with long hair, the person is implying Jesus was a sinner, whether wittingly or not, since the implication is made He broke His own law where it states,

“Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” (1 Cor 11:14).

But Jesus, God the Son, is not a sinner, He was perfect and “without sin.” (Heb 4:15).


3. Don’t degrade Christ by having images of Him or watching videos that portray Him. Don’t degrade Christ by thinking He had long hair, but rather conform your thinking to Scripture and understand that you are treating Jesus as a common sinner. If you haven’t thought about whether what you were doing was right, now is the time to confess your sin (1 Jn 1:9) and stop. From this point forward, you should not make, use, condone, promote, or contribute in any way to the use of images of the Son of God,

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” (Heb 1:3).

“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” (1 Cor 10:14).


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