Do the commandment against images and Jesus fulfilling the Law forbid statues?
Robert Sungenis holds that the Mosaic Law is abrogated as a legal code under the New Covenant, and that the Old Testament bans targeted idolatry among the nations rather than images as such. He argues Christ is the image of the invisible God in Colossians 1:15, that veneration is not worship, and that the Church which settled the canon likewise regulates sacred images.
Exodus forbids images. Even if God later ordered some, those were special cases. Why does the Church require veneration of images?
Answer
The Mosaic Law is abrogated as a legal code under the New Covenant. The Church, by Christ’s authority, judges which moral principles to carry forward. OT bans targeted idolatry among the nations. In the New Covenant, Christ is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Col 1:15). Images now serve a sacred, not idolatrous, role. Veneration (dulia) is not worship (latria). The Church, which determined Scripture’s canon and sacraments, likewise regulates sacred images.