Sin as Idolatry

AN ESSAY BYBenjamin L. Gladd

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OTHER ESSAYS
The Nature of Sin
The Forgiveness of Sin
The Obedience and Sinlessness of Christ
DEFINITION
Idolatry, the worship of something other than God, is at the root
of all sin because sin seeks to steal glory from God, to whom
alone it is due, and take it for the sinner.

SUMMARY
Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden to rule as
kings, priests, and prophets, bringing glory to God their maker.
Their sin, then, was a determination to bring glory to themselves
rather than God; in short, they worshipped themselves rather
than God. Israel continues this idolatrous pattern, desiring to
worship a god, the golden calf, who would give them what they
desired rather than waiting for the true God to tell them what he
desired. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, they deemed
God’s word insufficient. Jesus came and restored humanity to
their roles as obedient kings, priests, and prophets through his
faithful life, which ended by taking the punishment for our
idolatrous failure to do the same. Now, Christians live in the
overlap of these two ages, still suffering under the curse of sin
and fighting against the tendencies of the old Adam while
having our minds renewed by the Spirit into the image of Christ.
Adam and Eve: The Beginning of the
Story
Genesis 1–2 narrates God creating the heavens and earth to be
his cosmic house, so that he may rule over and dwell with the
created order. On the sixth day, God created Adam and Eve to
image him on the earth—to rule as kings, priests, and prophets
(Gen. 1:27–30; 2:7–24). Being created in God’s image means
that Adam and Eve represent him on the earth in all their
thoughts and actions. It is the divine imprint of God in humanity
that reflects his divine attributes and functions. As kings, the
first couple is to rule as God rules. The earth, while it is “good,”
still requires management and subjection (Gen. 1:28). As priests,
Adam and Eve are to spread God’s glory to the ends of the earth
by transplanting Eden (Gen. 2:15). God dwells with Adam and
Eve in the garden, so where the garden goes, his glory follows.
As prophets, they must learn and apply God’s law to every facet
of their lives (Gen. 2:16–18). God therefore creates humanity to
remain wholly dependent on him and represent him faithfully on
the earth.
As we turn our attention to Genesis 3, we must not lose sight of
Adam and Eve’s responsibility to image God on the earth. The
serpent strategically challenges their threefold office as kings,
priests, and prophets, cajoling them to cast off God’s image and
become independent of God and function at his level. The
temptation, at the heart of it, is to become “like God” (Gen. 3:4)
—to rule and think like God. The serpent’s trickery proved too
much for Eve and she succumbed. Adam, too, did not hold fast
to God’s promises, and he quickly followed suit. As the
Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, “Sin is any lack of
conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God” (14). That
is, any thought, action, disposition, etc. that does not fall into
conformity with God’s commandments and glory is “sin.” What
lead Adam and Eve astray is their unfounded belief that they
should bring glory to themselves, to enjoy what God alone
enjoys. At the root of all sin is idolatry—the worship of
something other than God. Fundamentally, created things should
not worship any part of the created order; images should not
worship other images, one’s self or otherwise. The first instance
of idolatry recorded in the Bible resulted in a “cosmic tragedy”
(see Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty, 65).

The first couple’s sin sent shock waves throughout the cosmos.
We immediately see the effects of their actions: they “realized
they were naked” (Gen. 3:7). The word here for “naked” is
related to the Hebrew word for “crafty” (Exod. 21:14; Josh.
9:4; Job 5:13). Recall that a few verses earlier in 3:1, the serpent
is considered “more crafty than any of the wild animals” (3:1).
The couple is, as a result of the fall, resembling characteristics
of the serpent (see Meredith G. Kline, Genesis: A New
Commentary, 22). Instead of representing God on the earth,
Adam and Eve are now beginning to represent the serpent.
Worship inevitably leads to transformation, good or ruin (see
G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship, 16). Their allegiance
has shifted, and now their threefold office will be used a weapon
for destruction. Humanity, outside of God’s grace, will abuse
one another, defile God’s earth, and promote lies and deception.
But this isn’t the final word. Later on in chapter 3, God promises
that a descendant of Eve will arise and accomplish what Adam
and Eve failed to accomplish (Gen. 3:15). They failed to rule
over the serpent and rid Eden of it, so now a faithful image
bearer of God will obey where they disobeyed. Through the
faithfulness of one, sin and idolatry will be undone and God’s
people will one day possess a restored image.

The Nation of Israel: More of the Same

As we now consider the nation of Israel, much of what we will
see corresponds to Adam and Eve in the garden. We should
regard Israel as a corporate Adam. What is true of Adam is
generally true of Israel. Like Adam, God commands the nation
to be kings, priests, and prophets (Exod. 19:6; cf. Isa. 43:1). But
also like Adam, Israel sinned against God by committing
idolatry. The serpent deceived the first couple by enticing them
with the offer to become gods and function outside of God. The
same can be said of Israel’s failure.

While Moses is atop Sinai communing with the Lord, Israel

grows impatient. They wonder if Moses has forgotten about
them, so, instead of waiting patiently on the Lord, they take
matters into their own hands (Exod. 32:1). Instead of acting as a
faithful imager bearer and encouraging the nation to trust God,
Aaron fashioned a golden calf with gold earrings (Exod. 32:2–
5). Israel explicitly then breaks the first two commandments
(Exod. 20:3–4). But the breach of the commandments revealed a
fundamental issue in the hearts of the Israelites—a lack of trust
in God’s word. God promised that he would dwell his people
and that his life-giving presence would nourish and protect them
(Exod. 19:5–6). Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, they
deemed God’s word insufficient. The Israelites wanted to dictate
the terms of their preservation. They wanted to be in charge of
their destiny. They wanted to be gods and worshiping the golden
calf was a means to that end.

Recall that after the fall, Adam and Eve saw themselves “naked”
(Gen. 3:7), an incident that reveals their transformation into the
image of the “crafty” serpent (Gen. 3:1). Remarkably, Exodus
32 portrays Israel’s idolatrous worship of the molten calf in
language describing rebellious cattle to convey the idea that
Israel had become like the object of its worship. Israel is called a
“stiff-necked people” who were “running wild” and “out of
control” (Exod. 32:9, 24–25). Sinful Israel is mocked by being
depicted metaphorically as rebellious cows running amuck
because the nation had become as spiritually lifeless as the
inanimate golden calf. Worship always leads to transformation,
so false worship, which is idolatry, will result in self-destruction
incurring God’s judgment.

Despite Israel’s treacherous behavior, hope remains. The

promise of a coming deliverer is an integral part of God’s
covenant with Israel. God’s ultimate intention, to populate the
earth with his faithful images, will be accomplished. Embedded
within Israel’s law, hope remains for a future individual to fill
Adam and Israel’s shoes but obey where they failed. Within the
sacrificial system, too, there’s an expectation that God would
one day send the ultimate sacrifice who would bear the sins of
God’s people. Sin will not have the final word.

Jesus: The Faithful One

One of striking element of Jesus’s earthly ministry is his
prerogative to retrace the steps of Adam and Israel. He must
succeed where they fail. His chief responsibility is to save
humanity from their sin and idolatry. This is why the angel
instructs Joseph to name him Jesus, “because he will save his
people from their sins” (Matt. 2:21). Because of the fall of
Adam and Eve, humanity’s greatest problem is estrangement
from God. Sin drove a wedge between God and those in his
image. So, God sends his Son to come into the world to solve
humanity’s sin problem by bearing the Father’s wrath and
reconciling us with him.

The Synoptic Gospels claim that the devil tempted Jesus over a
period of forty days (Matt. 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:1–2). The
qualification that this occurred in the wilderness together with
the forty days recalls Israel’s temptation in the
wilderness. Numbers 14:34 states why God’s punishment of
Israel lasted forty years in the wilderness: “For forty years—one
year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will
suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against
you.” Each day of unfaithfulness corresponds to one year of
punishment. Jesus’ forty-day wilderness experience of
faithfulness is a typological microcosm of Israel’s forty-year
experience of unfaithful wandering in the desert and Adam and
Eve’s temptation in the garden.

The Apostle Paul explains that God “in his forbearance he had
left the sins committed beforehand unpunished” (Rom. 3:25).
According to the Old Testament, God promised to punish sin at
the very end of history (e.g., Isa. 40:2; Ezek. 44:29), and God
did so in judging his son on behalf of his people. Christ’s death
is an eschatological event, offering life to those who trust him
(John 3:16; Eph. 2:8–9) and judgment upon those who don’t
(John 3:18). Sin and idolatry were undone through Christ’s
faithfulness.

The Church: Saints in the Overlap of the

Ages
Believers live now in what is often called the already-not yet, or
the “overlap of the ages.” For the most part, the Old Testament
anticipated that the messiah would come, vanquish Israel’s
enemies, suffer on behalf of God’s people, establish the eternal
kingdom, and usher in the resurrection of believers. All of these
events were to occur together at the very end of history. While
the coming of Christ began to fulfill these expectations, it did
not bring them to their final and full fulfillment. Old Testament
promises have “already” begun to be fulfilled here and now but
remain to be fully fulfilled at Christ’s second coming—the “not
yet.” Therefore, God’s people, though justified and spiritually
resurrected on account of their union with the Last Adam (Rom.
5:19; Eph. 2:5–6; Col 3:1), still sin and commit idolatry. The
saints are caught living in the overlap of two ages. Though
believers are spiritually resurrected, they still possess indwelling
sin and, until their bodily resurrection, will continue to sin. All
of our thoughts and actions are, at some level, tainted with sin.
The old Adam still lives within, though he is no longer
dominant.

Such eschatological dissonance affects how we understand sin

and idolatry in the present. Since we have a new birth in Christ,
or, as Paul claims, we are a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17), we
have power over sin, for it is no longer our master (Rom.
6). Romans 12:2 states, “Do not conform to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In
contrast to unbelievers who are transformed into the images of
their idols (Rom. 1:21–32), believers are to be transformed into
the image of Christ. God has begun to restore our image through
Christ. In him, believers are true kings, priests, and prophets,
who consciously and continually worship Christ through reading
the Bible, prayer, participating in a local body of believers, and
so on. That is what believers are called to do, but now we must
consider what they are not to do.

Idolatry is more than bowing down before a physical idol. It is,

as we have seen, any worship outside of God. The New
Testament often weds idolatry with unrighteous behavior. First
Corinthians 6:9, for example, reads, “Don’t you know that the
unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be
deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or
anyone practicing homosexuality” (HCSB; cf. 1 Cor. 5:10–11;
8:1–10; 10:7, 14, 19; Gal. 5:20; Eph. 5:5).
 One of the most difficult passages in the New Testament to
swallow occurs in James 4:4 where he labels some within his
congregations as “adulteresses” (4:4; NASB). The term
“adulteresses” seems odd and gives the reader pause. The term
recalls several key passages within the book of Hosea where the
prophet castigates the “adulterous” Israelites for breaking the
covenant (Hos. 2:4; 4:2, 13–14; 7:4). Instead of clinging to the
Lord in obedience like a faithful bride, the Israelites have
embraced the false gods of the pagan nations (Hos. 1:2; 2:2–13).
The point of the allusion is that James’s audience is “in danger
of the same kind of covenant unfaithfulness” that was pervasive
in Hosea’s day (see Karen H. Jobes, “The Greek Minor Prophets
in James” in ‘What Does the Scripture Say?’: Studies in the
Function of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity, vol. 2,
147–58).

Therefore, believers today are called to faithful kings, priests,

and prophets, exclusively devoted to the triune God. Those who
hold fast to Christ and renounce the allurements of this world
will live forever in the new heavens and earth where God will
perfect our worship and rid us of sin and idolatry (Rev. 21:1–
22:5).
FURTHER READING
 Anthony Hoekema, Created in God’s Image
 Benjamin L. Gladd, Adam and Israel: A Biblical Theology
of the People of God
 Daniel I. Block, For the Glory of God: Recovering a
Biblical Theology of Worship
 G. K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical
Theology of Idolatry. See Author Interview here.
 G. K. Beale, “We Reflect What We Worship.”
 Meredith G. Kline, Genesis: A New Commentary
 R. C. Sproul, “Sin is Cosmic Treason”
 Richard Lints, Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and
Its Inversion
 Stephen Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of
the Hebrew Bible
 Tony Reinke, “We Become What We Worship”
This essay is part of the Concise Theology series. All views
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