God Is Beautiful
For many years (a phrase which seems to introduce almost everything I say or write these days), I have thought about and preached on the subject of the beauty of God. I have never heard anyone teach on the subject, but I did through the decades come across two written sermons on the topic, “The Beauty of the Lord” by J. D. Jones and “Are There Shortcuts to the Beauty of Holiness?” (the short answer is “No!”) by A. W. Tozer. More recently, I read a review of a scholarly article about the American preacher Jonathan Edwards (of “sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” fame) that mentioned in passing that the beauty of God was one of the great themes in his preaching. I was thus encouraged that I have not headed off on an unprofitable tangent. In simple terms, beauty is that which attracts, causes a favorable interest, and creates an affinity. Such real, eternal beauty is found in our God. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In Psalm 27:4, David, the sovereign songwriter of Salem, focuses our attention upon God’s beauty: “one thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire [meditate] in His temple.” David grasped that the presence of God in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle was not something to be casually and cavalierly credited; no, “the beauty of the Lord” is majestic and monumental, worthy of much meditation. In Psalm 29:2, David exhorts, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” Obviously, this holiness is His, not ours! Holiness is a challenging subject, no doubt. Isaiah 6:3 records the prophet’s vision of God enthroned: “And one [angel] cried unto another, and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.’” The absolute holiness of God stands starkly in separation from our sinfulness, as Isaiah’s response in verse 5 reveals: “Woe is me! For I am undone [ruined]; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” God’s holiness is beautiful because it is so utterly distinctive, but it presents a dilemna. How do we, being attracted to God’s holiness, approach the Unapproachable? The Gospel message provides the answer to the unanswerable: God the Son, Jesus Christ approached us in human flesh, fully man and fully God. He paid the full penalty for our sins on the Cross, replacing our full failure with His holiness. May we then “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” – His holiness.