The art we create can give us great joy.
The art we create can provide peace.
The art we create can demand our entire focus, over a long period of time.
The art we create can be frustrating.
The art we create can point toward something deeper, stir something uncomfortable, or introduce something unknown.
But there’s one thing our art cannot create. And we need to be extremely careful here. The art we create cannot save. And when we ask our art to save us in any manner, we’ve created something more than art.
We’ve created an idol.
Artists have crossed the line into idolatry when they attribute salvation to their art.
Do you remember the story of the Golden Calf in the Exodus narrative? The people grew weary of a God who refused to show up, so they created something physical. When any of us create art, we’re trying to bring something invisible into existence. But they took it a step further.
They gave the Golden Calf credit for liberating them from bondage in Egypt. In so doing, they worshipped the created rather than the Creator, attributing their salvation to a calf, not to an all-saving God.
So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
(Exodus 32:3-4)
As artists, we walk fearfully close to this line with every piece of art we create. It’s so easy to jump from God-worship to art-worship. Whenever I create a piece of art, there’s something in my heart that comes alive. I can feel it at my core. And there’s nothing wrong with that feeling.
But the giver of the life I feel isn’t the art I created, nor is it the creative process I submitted to. The Giver of the life in my heart is the Giver of all life. And I bow down to artistic idols when I thank the art for giving me life.
Can our art be involved in salvation? Absolutely. God uses art in salvation every day. But can our art become salvation? Not a chance. The price paid for our saving was far more than a video, or a painting, or a sculpture, or a song.
Look at the last piece of art you created. When you were finished, did ever secretly ascribe the life you felt to the art itself?
