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.)
Our infinite God draws us to Himself in a myriad of ways. As John 6:44 says, “No man can come to Me, except the Father Which hath sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” One means that God employs to attract us is logic. For me, logic is gripping, compelling, irrefutable. I took a college philosophy course in symbolic logic just for the fun of it (really, I am not joking) and for several years taught a philosophy class that included a unit on dangerous logical fallacies (some of which, sadly, find their way into the teachings of the Church). The cosmological argument (an argument is supported by facts; an assertion is not) for the existence of God has always convinced me. First, does the universe have no beginning or a beginning? If the universe has no beginning (the so-called Endless Universe hypothesis), then there is no reasonable explanation for its existence. To postulate a beginning for the universe certainly is more logical. Second, is this beginning uncaused (something from nothing) or caused? If the universe were uncaused, then it would have always existed, leading us right back to the unreasonable assertion of a universe with no beginning. A caused universe is logically consistent with what we observe every day: someone or something is behind each item or action that we see or experience. Third, is this caused beginning impersonal or personal? If it is impersonal, there is no basis for active intelligence. However, if it is personal, we would logically observe order and creativity instead of randomness and chaos. We do see intelligent design; in fact, the Intelligent Design concept is thoroughly reasonable when applied to what we observe moment by moment. If we drive by a house, we draw the logical conclusion that someone with intellect constructed it. Moreover, we trust the car that we are in to safely drive by that house because we know that intelligent people designed, engineered, and manufactured that car. On a larger scale, the beautiful orderliness of the entire creation argues for a personally caused beginning. This knowledge does not save us from our sins. No, we need to know personally about Jesus, God the Son, and His finished work of salvation. However, the logic of God’s existence as Creator draws us to His beauty – to His beautiful, logical mind – and prepares us for a personal relationship with this Person Who is God.