Art is Not Redemptive

When ever you see Christians looking to the arts for redemptive value, you can be sure they have lost the cross. God couldn't have been clearer - the cross is offensive. On it the Holy Son of God died a death of blood and grossness. In it, God displayed Himself in art that offends, and is offensive to look at.

The cross when properly seen also shows the ugliness of human pride, which is another way of saying it shows how ugly humanity is. And its far uglier than any human artist will ever be willing to show. Art can't reach human rebellion. Which is why it is worthless to redemption.

Those who are trying to reach the present generation through the arts leave the grossness God behind - the cross of God - and leave God behind. Art has never, ever, been a drawing tool used by the Holy Spirit The written and spoken word is. Even in the OT, all that was made in the tabernacle had to reflect symmetry and nature, not man's artistic aspirations. Nor did it ever identify with man's fallenness, as so much art does today. All of the tabernacle reflected heaven, Exodus 25:40. Art is fine for art's sake. Let's just not confuse it and make it more than it is.