Beauty in the Eyes of God
“The beautiful people at the Oscars,” giggled the commentator. I was struck by her comment. She was so excited about all the physical beauty that was displayed on the red carpet last night. Now put this in contrast to another comment I heard the day before. An elementary age boy called a girl of the same age “a fatso.” This unkind statement took place at a Christian basketball program where many children confess a faith relationship with Jesus. Why am I bringing this up? I feel that they are connected.
In many ways, we have allowed others to influence our understanding of beauty and they have redefined it for us. What do I mean? If you ask the typical person in the church to define beauty, what do you think they will say? I bet 8 out of 10 (I didn’t do a survey so please don’t take this as authoritative) would define beauty first as physical (tender blue eyes, glowing complexion, perfect skin, thick lips, six-pack abs, chiseled chin, tight thighs, etc.). Do we every wonder why so many of our young people struggle with their identity, with cutting, and with eating disorders? Do we every consider why so many people, men and women, have plastic surgery or taking diet pills to “remain” youthful? How about the whole epidemic in professional sports where steroid use and other types of enhancements are common to get the edge on others?
This kind of pursuit for physical beauty will leave us empty and enslaved. I know that it will because physical beauty is an idol for me. I want to look good to others and not just in my performance but how I physically look. Ask my wife. I regularly comment to her that I am getting fat. Or, on the opposite extreme, I often remind her, “I am the best looking guy around.” (Yes, I confess that I am very arrogant and self-consumed, but you have to love me because God tells you so). My whole life I was told that physical beauty and strength was important. In High School, I almost campaigned for the superlative, best dressed. When I didn’t even get nominated for it, I was crushed. I often get my life, my contentment, and my satisfaction in how I physically look. I bet some of you do as well.
I bring this all up because we need to be reminded of another beauty—a beauty that only God created and provides. The below verses are just a few of the many verses that talk of the beauty of God.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
“Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” (Ps. 96:6)
“…but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4)
Albert Mohler writes: Augustine understood that beauty was a key Christian category. Indeed, Christians cannot properly think as Christians without understanding the power of beauty. In his Confessions he said this: "I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new! I have learnt to love you late! You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself. I searched for you outside myself and, disfigured as I was, I fell upon the lovely things of your creation. The beautiful things of this world kept me from you and yet, if they had not been in you, they would have had no being at all." In that confessional statement, Augustine is saying that it was beauty that was calling him. It was his Creator that was calling him, and yet the things of apparent beauty in the world distracted him. And yet he does not despise those things; he remembers that their beauty is merely a reflected beauty, derived from the fact that God is their Creator.
Augustine continues: "It was you then, O Lord, who made them. You who are beautiful, for they too are beautiful. You who are good, for they too are good. You who are, for they too are. But they are not beautiful and good as you are beautiful and good. Nor do they have their being as you the Creator have your being. In comparison with you, they have neither beauty nor goodness nor being at all." Augustine realizes that in order to see true beauty, he has to go to his Creator, and then, knowing the Creator, he may observe the creation and see that it does indeed bear the mark of its Maker. There is undeniable beauty in creation, but in comparison with the infinite beauty of the Creator, such finite beauty no longer has the seductive allure it once had. All earthly beauty is simultaneously validated and relativized by the contemplation of the beauty of God.
Jonathan Edwards, who said this, picked up the same theme: "True holiness must mainly consist in love to God, for holiness consists in loving what is most excellent and beautiful. Because God is infinitely the most beautiful and excellent being, He must necessarily be loved supremely by those who are truly holy. It follows from this that God's own holiness must consist primarily in love to Himself. Being most holy, He most loves what is good and beautiful, that is Himself. To love completely what is most completely good is to be most completely perfect. From this, it follows that a truly holy mind, above all other things, seeks the glory of God and makes the glory of God His supreme governing and ultimate end."
Another word in the Bible for beauty is glory. God manifests His wise, holy, compassionate, loving, and just character to all humanity. We see his ultimate glory in Jesus Christ. It is not the physical beauty of Jesus that we see God’s glory. Isaiah, a OT prophet, describes the coming Messiah, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Is. 53:2).
We see the beauty of Christ in his perfect life, his sacrificial death and his supernatural resurrection and kingly ascension. If you want true beauty, fix your eyes on Jesus and put your trust in Him and his work. What’s so radically amazing is that as we put our faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and King, he makes us inwardly beautiful, and now the One and Only Glorious and Beautiful God sees us as beautiful and glorious. We have Jesus’ holiness, his love, his mercy, his compassion, his joy, his hope, and his power—his heart for God and others!
As we turn our focus more and more on Jesus and the beauty he has provided us completely and thoroughly, our souls will find our satisfaction, our contentment and our life in Him and not in the pursuit of physical beauty. The Spirit will enable us to confess and repent of our vain pursuit of physical beauty, to believe and rest that we are beautiful in his sight, and to accept others just as God has created them and not to call others names that hurt or destroy. God has given us new eyes to see as He sees.
What are your thoughts?
Warmly,
Jeff
In many ways, we have allowed others to influence our understanding of beauty and they have redefined it for us. What do I mean? If you ask the typical person in the church to define beauty, what do you think they will say? I bet 8 out of 10 (I didn’t do a survey so please don’t take this as authoritative) would define beauty first as physical (tender blue eyes, glowing complexion, perfect skin, thick lips, six-pack abs, chiseled chin, tight thighs, etc.). Do we every wonder why so many of our young people struggle with their identity, with cutting, and with eating disorders? Do we every consider why so many people, men and women, have plastic surgery or taking diet pills to “remain” youthful? How about the whole epidemic in professional sports where steroid use and other types of enhancements are common to get the edge on others?
This kind of pursuit for physical beauty will leave us empty and enslaved. I know that it will because physical beauty is an idol for me. I want to look good to others and not just in my performance but how I physically look. Ask my wife. I regularly comment to her that I am getting fat. Or, on the opposite extreme, I often remind her, “I am the best looking guy around.” (Yes, I confess that I am very arrogant and self-consumed, but you have to love me because God tells you so). My whole life I was told that physical beauty and strength was important. In High School, I almost campaigned for the superlative, best dressed. When I didn’t even get nominated for it, I was crushed. I often get my life, my contentment, and my satisfaction in how I physically look. I bet some of you do as well.
I bring this all up because we need to be reminded of another beauty—a beauty that only God created and provides. The below verses are just a few of the many verses that talk of the beauty of God.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
“Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” (Ps. 96:6)
“…but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4)
Albert Mohler writes: Augustine understood that beauty was a key Christian category. Indeed, Christians cannot properly think as Christians without understanding the power of beauty. In his Confessions he said this: "I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new! I have learnt to love you late! You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself. I searched for you outside myself and, disfigured as I was, I fell upon the lovely things of your creation. The beautiful things of this world kept me from you and yet, if they had not been in you, they would have had no being at all." In that confessional statement, Augustine is saying that it was beauty that was calling him. It was his Creator that was calling him, and yet the things of apparent beauty in the world distracted him. And yet he does not despise those things; he remembers that their beauty is merely a reflected beauty, derived from the fact that God is their Creator.
Augustine continues: "It was you then, O Lord, who made them. You who are beautiful, for they too are beautiful. You who are good, for they too are good. You who are, for they too are. But they are not beautiful and good as you are beautiful and good. Nor do they have their being as you the Creator have your being. In comparison with you, they have neither beauty nor goodness nor being at all." Augustine realizes that in order to see true beauty, he has to go to his Creator, and then, knowing the Creator, he may observe the creation and see that it does indeed bear the mark of its Maker. There is undeniable beauty in creation, but in comparison with the infinite beauty of the Creator, such finite beauty no longer has the seductive allure it once had. All earthly beauty is simultaneously validated and relativized by the contemplation of the beauty of God.
Jonathan Edwards, who said this, picked up the same theme: "True holiness must mainly consist in love to God, for holiness consists in loving what is most excellent and beautiful. Because God is infinitely the most beautiful and excellent being, He must necessarily be loved supremely by those who are truly holy. It follows from this that God's own holiness must consist primarily in love to Himself. Being most holy, He most loves what is good and beautiful, that is Himself. To love completely what is most completely good is to be most completely perfect. From this, it follows that a truly holy mind, above all other things, seeks the glory of God and makes the glory of God His supreme governing and ultimate end."
Another word in the Bible for beauty is glory. God manifests His wise, holy, compassionate, loving, and just character to all humanity. We see his ultimate glory in Jesus Christ. It is not the physical beauty of Jesus that we see God’s glory. Isaiah, a OT prophet, describes the coming Messiah, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Is. 53:2).
We see the beauty of Christ in his perfect life, his sacrificial death and his supernatural resurrection and kingly ascension. If you want true beauty, fix your eyes on Jesus and put your trust in Him and his work. What’s so radically amazing is that as we put our faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and King, he makes us inwardly beautiful, and now the One and Only Glorious and Beautiful God sees us as beautiful and glorious. We have Jesus’ holiness, his love, his mercy, his compassion, his joy, his hope, and his power—his heart for God and others!
As we turn our focus more and more on Jesus and the beauty he has provided us completely and thoroughly, our souls will find our satisfaction, our contentment and our life in Him and not in the pursuit of physical beauty. The Spirit will enable us to confess and repent of our vain pursuit of physical beauty, to believe and rest that we are beautiful in his sight, and to accept others just as God has created them and not to call others names that hurt or destroy. God has given us new eyes to see as He sees.
What are your thoughts?
Warmly,
Jeff
posted by City of Hope Church at 2:58 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with you Jeff. I think it is very telling that since the first sin, human beings have been attempting to cover themselves up to hide their, typically, inner shame. Sin has so stripped all of us of the esteem in ourselves that we have in Christ - an esteem that God Himself poured into us at Creation. Painfully, it is a daily struggle. As I read your blog, I was reminded of a friend of mine who expressed that her 6 year old was "obsessing about her weight". SIX YEARS OLD! And she is all of 50 pounds soaking wet. What a challenge we have, not only to find our own acceptance of ourselves, physically and otherwise, in Christ, but also to help instill that into our children. Even without the trappings of the media, it is clear to me that it would continue to be a struggle of the ages. Thanks for contributing some words of encouragement to us so that we can arm ourselves for this battle in our lives.
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