Last week we saw that, besides the vital propositional Truth given us in Scripture, God has also revealed Himself to man by means of Creation, which is designed by God to be a Symbol of Himself (each part of Creation as well as all of Creation together).  We saw also, that the Fall blinded men to a large extent, so that we will not, in our sinfulness, allow ourselves to see the Glory of God revealed in His Creation-Symbols (Rom 1:18-32).  We saw, as well, that God has acted through Christ to save sinners and to heal our sin-blinded vision by effecting a spiritual re-birth in those who turn to Him in faith and repentance, causing us to begin to clearly see His Glory reflected in Creation again, as we gaze at Reality through the corrective lens of the Bible (John 3:1-21; etc.).  We saw finally that the reborn Christian also begins to learn by his Scripture-corrected vision how to help others see God’s Glory at the Heart of Reality (the primary task of the Christian artist).

How is it that we learn to help others see God’s Glory in Reality?  Well, remember that Creation itself is a Symbol (composed of myriad smaller symbols) that reveals God (Rom 1:18-22; Ps 19:1-4), and let us first look to see how the infallible Scriptures use symbols for this purpose.

The Lord Jesus calls Himself “the Door” (John 10:7), “the Light of the World” (John 8:12), “the True Vine” (John 15:1-27), “the Bread of Life” (John 6:32) and “the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11).  In other places in Holy Writ, He is called “the Branch” (Isa 4:2), “the Sun of Righteousness” (Mal 4:2), “the Word” (John 1:1), “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), the “Rock” (1 Cor 10:4), “the Root of David” (Rev 22:6), “the Rose of Sharon” (Song 2:1), and on and on.

Each of these symbols reveal something about the Lord Jesus’ Nature, Character, or Actions.  Because we know what a door is, we can understand that Jesus is a Way, the Door to God the Father.  Because we know what light is, especially in its relationship to darkness, we can understand that He is the Light Who drives the world’s darkness away.  Because we know the beauty of a rose, we understand what it means to call Christ Jesus the Rose of Sharon.

These usages illustrate the primary or main purpose of all symbols: to reveal God.  This purpose gives the primary meaning to everything that exists.  This is not, however, the only meaning of symbols; they also mean themselves.  For example, a man is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27)—he images God to the world.  But that man also images himself for what he is, a man.  That man also may be a husband.  He is also a son.  He may also be a brother, and a father, and even a king.  All of these various functions mean various things, but this man can mean all of them simultaneously.  These are all (except for the image of God) secondary purposes of symbols, and they are important (just not as important as their primary purpose).

Thus, all symbols have multiple meanings, with the primary meaning (that of revealing God’s Glory) as the most important one.  These meanings all interlock and interact to give nuance and depth to Creation, glowing from inside with the transcendence of God’s Glory (the reason why a sunset or a mountain or a rose is beautiful).  The problem is that because of the Fall sinful man attempts to suppress the knowledge of Creation’s primary purpose (the Revelation of God) that God has put in every man’s heart (Rom 1:18-23), confusing Creation’s secondary meanings with the primary one, and thus escaping responsibility before God to live as God demands.

One of the reasons Scripture was given was to clearly restore to men the objective, Spirit-inspired Knowledge that all things primarily symbolize God, indeed, that all secondary meanings are ultimately meaningless unless they do ultimately show forth God.  Christ came to restore men to fellowship with God so that men could see God as fully as possible, glorifying Him in all things.

Thus, part of the calling of all Christians is to restore the true, primary meaning of Creation to men so that they might see His Glory, and turn to Him and serve Him.  This is especially true for Christian artists, whose main mode of fulfilling their callings is through the use of symbols (whether visual, such as in painting, poetry, prose, photography, or dance; or aural, such as in music or speaking, etc.).  Next week, by God’s Will, will be an exploration of how Christian artists should help to do just this.

For additional teaching on Worship and the Arts go to patreon.com/kempercrabb