Are We Making God in Our Own Image?
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We live in a culture that increasingly tells us we can define reality for ourselves. We can decide what makes a man a man, what makes a woman a woman, what truth means, and even how we should understand God.
But there’s a problem with that approach.
God doesn’t ask us to create Him according to our preferences. He has already revealed Himself to us.
That raises a serious question for every follower of Jesus Christ: Are we worshiping the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture, or have we created a god who looks more like the culture around us?
That isn’t merely a theological question. It reaches right into the heart of what it means to worship God.
In my recent post, One Shocking Way Our Culture is Mocking God, I share the following details.
According to The Telegraph, in an article dated July 10, 2022, the Church of England has officially declared there is no clear definition of “woman.”
One year ago on July 1, 2021, Breitbart News reported, “The Church of England’s first-ever transwoman priest has declared that ‘God is non-binary’ and questioned whether He is ‘just genuinely like a guy?’”
Wait a minute, on one hand they say, “’There is no official definition’ of a woman,” but can definitely declare God is non-binary?
One Shocking Way Our Culture is Mocking God
Referring to God as non-binary or cisgender is a mockery, if not blasphemy.
God Has Revealed Himself
When we want to know who God is, we don’t have to guess.
God has revealed Himself through His written Word, and He has revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ.
John begins his Gospel by taking us directly to Jesus:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John goes on to explain that all things came into being through Him.
Jesus wasn’t simply a teacher who appeared in history. He is the living Word of God, and through Him we see the character and nature of God.
That’s why Jesus could tell Philip in John 14, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.”
Philip wanted Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus answered by pointing Philip back to Himself.
If you want to know what the Father is like, look at Jesus.
If you want to know what God has said, look to His Word.
God has not left us without revelation.
Jesus Called God His Father
Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus consistently referred to God as Father.
When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He began with, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
In John 14, as Jesus prepared His disciples for His death, He spoke repeatedly about His Father and the Father’s house.
Then He made this remarkable statement:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Jesus didn’t present God as an undefined spiritual force. He didn’t tell His disciples that they could decide for themselves what God should look like.
He spoke of God as Father.
At His baptism, the Father spoke from heaven and declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father again spoke concerning Jesus and told the disciples to listen to Him.
Scripture gives us a consistent picture. The Father is Father. The Son is the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
God has chosen to reveal Himself in this way.
We don’t get to rewrite that revelation because our culture has changed.
We Don’t Have the Authority to Recreate God
This is where the issue becomes much bigger than a debate over terminology.
The real question is whether God has the authority to define Himself, or whether we believe we have the authority to redefine Him.
God gave Israel this command in the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
That command doesn’t merely prohibit worshiping statues. It establishes something fundamental about our relationship with God.
God determines who He is.
We don’t.
We don’t get to take the God revealed in Scripture and reshape Him until He becomes acceptable to our culture.
We don’t get to say, “This is the God I prefer to worship,” and then expect God to approve our version of Him.
I’ve heard people say, “I worship God in my own way, and He knows that I love Him.”
God does know whether you love Him.
He also knows whether you are worshiping Him according to His revelation.
Those two things aren’t the same.
God’s love for us doesn’t mean that He approves everything we believe about Him. His love doesn’t give us permission to redefine His character, His nature, or His identity.
A parent can love a child deeply while still correcting that child’s behavior. In the same way, God’s love doesn’t mean He accepts every idea we have about Him.
Love Doesn’t Mean Approval
We need to recover this distinction because our culture has confused love with approval.
God loves us. Scripture makes that abundantly clear.
But God’s love doesn’t mean that He approves whatever we choose to believe or do.
Think about the phrase, “God knows my heart.”
That’s true.
God knows your heart better than you know your own heart.
But knowing your heart doesn’t mean God approves everything that comes from it.
The same principle applies to worship.
You can sincerely worship and still worship incorrectly.
You can be sincere and still be wrong.
Sincerity doesn’t transform falsehood into truth.
That’s why Scripture matters so much. God’s Word gives us an objective revelation of who He is. We don’t have to build our theology from personal preference, cultural pressure, or whatever ideas happen to dominate society at the moment.
We go back to the Word.
We Were Made in God’s Image
Genesis tells us that God created humanity in His image.
Notice the direction of that statement.
God made us in His image.
It doesn’t say that we get to make God in ours.
That’s where we get into trouble.
When we begin creating God according to our own preferences, we reverse the relationship between Creator and creation.
Instead of allowing God to tell us who He is, we tell God who He needs to be.
Instead of allowing Scripture to correct our thinking, we begin correcting Scripture according to our thinking.
Instead of allowing God’s revelation to shape our worldview, we allow the world’s worldview to reshape our understanding of God.
That’s backwards.
God is the Creator. We are His creation.
He has the authority to define Himself.
We have the responsibility to humble ourselves before Him.
The Danger of a God We Create
The danger isn’t simply that we might use the wrong terminology.
The deeper danger comes when we construct a God who agrees with everything we already believe.
Once we make God in our own image, we no longer have to repent because our God always agrees with us.
We no longer have to surrender because our God never asks anything uncomfortable of us.
We no longer have to submit our thinking to Scripture because we’ve already decided that our thinking carries the final authority.
That kind of religion can feel comfortable, but it doesn’t produce biblical discipleship.
Jesus didn’t call us to create a God who makes us comfortable.
He called us to follow Him.
Following Jesus requires humility because it means accepting that God knows more than we do. It means allowing Scripture to challenge our assumptions. It means accepting God’s revelation even when it conflicts with cultural expectations.
That’s part of what it means to worship.
Worship the God Who Has Revealed Himself
The answer isn’t complicated, although it does require humility.
We go back to Scripture.
We don’t begin with what society says God should be. We begin with what God has said about Himself.
We don’t begin with our feelings. We begin with His revelation.
We don’t ask, “What kind of God would I prefer?”
We ask, “Who has God revealed Himself to be?”
Jesus Christ gives us the clearest picture of that revelation because He is the Son of God and the living Word.
Scripture reveals His character, His nature, His purposes, and His truth.
That gives us solid ground when the culture around us changes.
The Christian doesn’t need to reinvent God every time society changes its definitions.
God remains God.
His Word remains His Word.
And our responsibility remains the same: to humble ourselves before Him, love Him, obey Him, and worship Him with all our heart, soul, and strength.
Don’t Make God in Your Image
There’s a temptation in every generation to reshape God into someone who agrees with us.
We need to resist that temptation.
The question isn’t whether we can create a version of God that fits comfortably into our culture. The question is whether we will accept the God who has already revealed Himself.
God doesn’t need us to redefine Him.
He calls us to know Him.
He calls us to worship Him.
He calls us to love Him.
And He calls us to surrender our own ideas when His Word tells us something different.
The direct takeaway is this: don’t make God in your image. Let the God revealed in Scripture reshape your understanding of Him, reshape your thinking, and reshape your life.
