Notes on the Nature of Sin, Part Two

Idolatry, Idols and Idol-Clusters.

In our proud unbelief and self-trust we turn away from a worship-relationship with God.  But, when we stop worshipping God as God, we necessarily worship something in his place; we adopt god-substitutes. The first thing we worship in God’s place, the first god-substitute we choose, is ourselves.  In our unbelieving state we dream of being god (Gen. 3).  In other words, we not only rebel against God, we seek to usurp his throne and take his place. This is the first dimension of idolatry produced by the root-complex of sin: the idolatry of self rooted in our desire to be god.

Ezekiel 28.1-3: 

1The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre,  Thus says the Lord GOD: "Because your heart is proud,  and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas, yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god…"

 We all seek to make ourselves gods in certain ways; most fundamentally, we aspire to transcend human limitations and secure God’s glory, his “godness” or transcendence.  Keller suggests that there are four primary aspects of God’s transcendent glory that we strive to secure in our pursuit to be gods: comfort, approval, control, and power. 

Comfort: pleasure, freedom, lack of care/stress, rest, play/fun.

Approval: affirmation, love, acceptance, intimacy, beauty, relationship.

“Glory”              Control: order, security, certainty, discipline

Power: success, winning, influence, responsibility.

These are the self-oriented “heart idols” that generate all other sin in our lives.

In order to attain one or more of these ultimate ‘glory’-goals, we go on to partner with immanent idols (Keyes): some aspect of creation that we think will give us what we’re after (Jer. 2.10-13, Romans 1.18-25).   It’s important to see that we always employ our immanent idols in the service of our ultimate, transcendent idols.  For example, we use sex (an immanent idol) to gain god-like comfort; or we use strict religious performance to gain god-like approval from others; or we accumulate massive wealth to attain god-like power.

Here is an expanded list (partly drawn from Keller) of other aspects of creation that we may worship as immanent idols: physical beauty, body/fitness, image/reputation, safety, work, sex, alcohol/drugs, success, art/creativity, sports, sleep, religion, possessions (car, clothes, house, watch, vacations, etc), morality, performance, other people (spouse, kids, parents, friends, boss), some group (church, guild, peers, club, the ‘inner ring,’ race, culture, city, family), suffering, politics/agendas, knowledge, expertise, technology, information, talents, intellect, emotions, etc. 

Calvin said our hearts are idol factories.  We really can worship just about anything.  And the combination of immanent and transcendent idolatries are almost endless.

It’s possible to group immanent idols into idol sets or clusters.  Broadly speaking, we see two primary idol sets or clusters in the Bible: idols of “religion/morality/duty/order” and idols of “rebellion/immorality/desire/freedom.”  These produce, respectively, the “sins of moral/religious people” and the “sins of immoral/irreligious people” (Keller).  See the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18), the Younger and Older Brother (Luke 15), Simon and the Prostitute (Luke 7), the 2 sides of the flesh in Gal. 3 and 5 (Gal. 3 is the flesh idolizing goodness, responsibility, tradition, duty, law, roles, work and Gal. 5 shows the flesh idolizing pleasure, immorality, freedom, sex, money), pagan type sins in Romans 1 and religious type sins in Romans 2.  (Interestingly, these poles also align with the ancient Apollonian and Dionysian poles in Greek religion and the Gnostic and pagan categories one finds across various world religions and philosophies where either the immaterial/spirit/soul or the material/body is worshiped).

A friend of mine (David Jones) suggests that another pair of contemporary idol sets are idols of achievement (rule) and idols of belonging (relationship) and that each person and culture tends to gravitate to one or the other.