The Beauty of God

“MP3 file
The song ‘You are beautiful beyond description’ was not written as an excuse not to try! My intention this morning to deepen our understanding of beauty and so deepen our understanding of God.

Under great pressure with enemies on all sides the psalmist declared in Psalm 27:3-5

Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident. One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: 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 meditate in His temple.(NAS)

What is the beauty of the Lord?

Hebrew words for Beauty
• Yapeh – beautiful, handsome person
• Tsebi – little unused word for beauty, honour, glory
• Yophi – beauty of a person or of a city – splendour given by God
• Noam – pleasantness, favour, grace
• Tipharah – glory, clothing, majesty, strength

Its the last two that are most often used to describe the beauty of the Lord.

What is is that takes your breath away? Make you go wow!
• Niagara falls
• Views from top mountain
• Expressions of love from friends & family
• Hot curry
• Newborn child

(My wife still takes my breath away)

1) the Beauty of creation prepares us for the beauty of the Creator

There are many kinds of beauty,
There are times and experiences of the beauty of creation that make us want to freeze time and remain in that place. I remember witnessing a sunset in Russia and being so overwhelmed by the beauty of it that the only way I could express how I felt was that I wanted to somehow become part of it.

And the experience of Gods beauty in creation, prepares us for an encounter with the beauty of the Lord himself. ‘The heavens declare the beauty of The Lord’

As a teenager I was invited to a healing meeting full of elderly and sick people. Apart from really respecting the person who had invited me, culturally I had nothing in common with anyone in that room. But I walked into the presence of the Lord and it literally took my breath away.
In that place for the first time I saw people worshipping in the beauty of holiness and experienced the Glory of God – and my response to the creator was the same as my response to his creation – I want to be a part of that.

These old folk were worshipping God with such joy that my defences were completely down.

And whether it is the beauty of God in his creation (John Mcarthy – experienced God in prison in Lebanon by looking at an orange), or beauty of God in his people…..beauty always elicits a response.

What is it that draws us to Christ? – It is his beauty and perfection.

If you have never seen the beauty of the Lord then you have not yet been fully converted, because our hearts simply cannot respond to God without a glimpse of his beauty.
Nobody could make up someone as good, as wonderful, as wise or as beautiful as our Lord Jesus Christ – in fact his wisdom confounds the wise and keeps scholars in a lifetime of study.

There is a fresh interest in Trinitarian theology -
Not to revisit ancient creeds or doctrines, but to explore the implications of Trinitarian theology as it applies to ministry, church life and our mission into the world.

Swiss theologian Balthazar was one of first in reemphasising the theological importance of beauty and referencing it to the Trinity. He wrote seven volumes on the subject, published under the title ‘The Glory of the Lord’
“”The Son is the focus not only of truth, but also of beauty in God, He is the Fathers art. The Father has given expression to his own being in the Son. Jesus is indeed beautiful, both as the perfect resemblance of the father and in relation to all the created beauty that is in his image. The world possesses its full goodness and beauty only in the Son”"

2) Beauty creates a response ahead of our intellectual barriers, fear or prejudices

Elaine Scary; “”beauty causes us to gape and suspend all thought”".. It has the capacity to slip past our cognitive defences and pierce the heart.

Like me as a teenager walking into a meeting full of old dears and getting saved – It breaks every convention of contextual evangelism, but the beauty of Jesus in his people was more than enough to persuade me that God was, and what he was like.

My experience of God didn’t make me a Christian. Still needed someone to explain the gospel message to me so that I could make a choice, but as soon as someone did explain it, I was right up there. Because to explain to someone what they have just experienced is much easier than describing something they have never experienced.

And that’s the challenge we have with the Gospel. Our task is to reveal the gospel and our theology in such a way that it impacts somebody like a great painting by one of the masters, or a symphony by Mozart. It hits us without any cognitive mediation.

When we do explore it intellectually its greatness seems inexhaustible. This is true of great art and music and even more so of course of the gospel.

CS Lewis in his books speaks of the ‘dragons’ that guard our hearts from truth and beauty. The dragons are the fear, greed, lust or envy that cannot see beauty for what it is, and what it does see – it must either possess or control.

CS Lewis saw that his goal as a Christian writer was to somehow ‘creep past these watchful dragons.’ To steal beauty back from dragons is our task! – Are you up for it?

This is of course how the four gospels operate – they don’t set out to prove anything, but to simply present the beauty of the word made flesh. And if we do the same by allowing the Holy Spirit to live in and flow through us, people will be captivated by the loveliness of Jesus before their argumentative intellect kicks in and their hermeneutic of suspicion is aroused.

3) Beauty acts as the guardian to Truth and Goodness.
Beauty is not sentimental; it guards the value of human life.

Its interesting that recent video footage of babies in the womb has softened the hearts of those who have for years said that a life is not a life until it can survive outside the womb- and can therefore be treated without regard until then. – This is supposedly for the good of the mother. But it is neither true nor beautiful to think that way.

Balthazar has a lot to say about truth and goodness, but believes that Beauty has become the Cinderella of the trio.
“”Owing to the interconnection of the three transcendentals; the truth, the good and the beautiful, neglecting the third member of this trio can only be gravely damaging to the flourishing of the other two. Yet precisely this is what has happened.”"

This means that the good must be guarded by the beautiful – otherwise it will be distorted and simply become utilitarian.

Both Stalin and Hitler believed that their policies were for the ultimate good of their people. The tragedy is that they both rejected and were blind to the true and the beautiful that would have told them otherwise.

Why am I saying this?
Because the good and the beautiful should guard the true and shape our understanding of the word. (our epistemology) We cannot understand the truth of Gods word without an experience of Gods beauty.

After a lifetime of reflection the philosopher Polyarmy believed that it was this detachment of truth from goodness and beauty that gave rise to the two world wars of the 20th century.

4) All Beauty points to the reality that stands behind it.

Gods glory is reflected in the beauty of the created world. As the psalmist said ‘the heavens are declaring the Glory of God.’

The beauty of a butterfly, a flower, a baby, a sunset or an Everest, are all theophanies (expressions of God) that manifest the beauty of the creator of creation. All beauty is a signpost pointing away from itself towards a deeper reality.

We need to have a theology of beauty (a beautiful theology) if the gospel is going to effectively penetrate a post modern culture.

Our cities, our politics, our relationships, and even our church buildings and theology are often ugly, while our message is one that should radiate the Glory of the Lord.

Clark Pinnock in his book ‘The Flame of Love’. “”Hindrances to faith in God seldom have to do with a lack of proofs. Hindrances to faith have more to do with the quality of our theism. Theology has to do not with whether God is, but with who God is. Theology gains credibility when we have a doctrine of God that one can fall in love with

5) Because of this Satan hates all beauty

The destruction of Beauty – the ugly and the evil – point to the need for the Cross.
Beauty makes the heart beat faster, it make life more vivid, animated and worth living. Perhaps this is why the demonic always seeks to deface and debase the beautiful, simply because it is so life affirming.

We are told Satan was made beautiful – as the pinnacle of creation – but since his fall he can only parody beauty and destroy it..

Which is why we need the cross

Balthazar; “”But what of the Trinitarian Son made man? Is he, even in his passion, to be called beautiful? Christ’s veiling of his beauty was inspired by a desire to make the ugly beautiful by his love. The Church – moved by the deformity of the crucified, confesses her guilt and becomes beautiful. Christ is the ugly root from which the beautiful tree of the church arises…..all beauty belongs to Christ in whom all truth is grounded. More particularly, its related to his eternal sacrifice, that total self giving love from which the creation of the world proceeds”".

God first emptied himself by lavishing his love on the creation
Then he emptying himself again by lavishing his love in incarnation.

And as he is the Lamb slain before the creation of the world, then the creation itself must be generated out of this same self giving love.

The only appropriate response to the beauty of the Lord is by reciprocating and pouring ourselves out in sacrificial love towards God and neighbour.

Beauty is not sentimental or cosmetic. Its deepest manifestation is that of self giving love.
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