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.)
Jesus said in John 6:44 that “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.” Remember, Jesus died to take away our sins, not our minds. Thus, it should be no surprise to us that God appeals to us through logic. Of course, logic alone cannot prove the existence of God but it is a compelling component of God’s concerted effort to attract us to Himself. In addition to the cosmological and teleological (including irreducible complexity) arguments, I ,mention in passing the anthropological (or moral) argument, which postulates that man’s existence as a moral and intellectual being requires a Maker Who is moral and intellectual, and the ontological argument, which states that man’s idea of God as a Most Perfect Being must include existence, for otherwise He would not be perfect. (Obviously, there is far more to both of these arguments.) Especially convincing to me is the transcendental argument. Any view that excludes the possibility of God is naturalistic; that is, only physical things exist. According to this philosophy, such things as morality, the mind, and the soul do not exist. However, we are certain that there are things that transcend the physical. Even a strident naturalistic philosopher would have to admit the reality of numbers. None of us will find a number growing in the garden, nor will one soar through the skies in plain view. We cannot hold a number; we can hold only a representation of that number. Numbers are not physical, but everyone admits their existence. The same can be said of logic itself. Logic cannot be purchased at the grocery store or even at Amazon. However, it undeniably exists. The fact that non-physical things demonstrable exist is consistent with the existence of God. These things that transcend the physical point us to our transcendent God; as we have seen previously, physical things in their order and complexity also direct us to God. Thus, rightly understand, all things – unseen and seen – are used by God to draw us to Himself. Let us then join in Paul’s praise of Romans 11:36: “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.”