Here is the second picture based on John 3:16. This one was also for a monthly supporter of FOE. Description is below!
In this image, the women represents the Bride of Christ, that is to say all of God’s people throughout time and space. “Eternal Life” is depicted here using John’s definition of knowing God in Jesus Christ (from John 17:3). I tried to show this in that the Bride has seen the glory of God in Christ, crucified and risen (note the raised and wounded hand, representing both His death and resurrection). And having Seen / known God in Christ, she is alive to Him and freed from the death of her sin (represented by the dark, tar-like substance all around her).
The cross is visible in the background as another reminder of the centrality of Christ’s death for God’s revelation of Himself to His people in love. From the cross both blood and water are flowing (a reference to John 19:34). Though it isn’t made explicit in the text of John, I’m taking the blood to represent the wrath-absorbing work of the cross while the water points to both the immediate purification and the ongoing sanctification that it achieves on our behalf (Hebrews 10:14).
At the right hand side of the picture the skull represents two things: For the believer it is a reminder of the defeat of death–both physical and spiritual, temporal and eternal–that God’s love in Christ has achieved. For the unbeliever it is a warning that the alternative to receiving God in Christ is eternal death.
Lastly, in the far distance the shadowed human figures represent those who will finally reject the the beauty of Christ and instead choose to love darkness and the fleeting anonymity that it gives them as they cling to sin (John 3:19-21)…..may no one who sees and considers this image refuse the soul-satisfying love of God in His Son, crucified and risen!
