God is Beautiful

Have you ever thought about the beauty of God? Splendor and glory can also describe the radiant beauty of God in the bible.God doesn’t have to adorn Himself with beautiful things to make Himself beautiful. He is beautiful and He is the one who makes something beautiful. Apart from God there is no true beauty. Only the beauty that comes from God is eternal and lasting and true.

A place God dwells is spoken of as beautiful. Psalms say splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary. From Mt. Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. In Rev 21, John saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with precious stones—jasper, sapphire, emerald, topaz, amethyst, pearls, and pure gold. Royalty mesmerized us and the King of kings is going to dwell in this new Jerusalem. Royal palaces maybe just a taste of what heaven.

How does God reveal His beauty in creation. Isn’t His beauty displaying in creation for all to see? I love the beauty of a flower. So much variety, sizes, and colors. Only a beautiful God could create so many beautiful things. In Matt 6:29, Jesus say, consider the lilies, not even Solomon in all His splendor as king was dressed like one of these. God shows beauty in the biggest things and in the smallest things.

Consider sky filled with the moon and the stars shining their light all the way to earth. A rainbow makes you want to stop and follow its track across the sky. Lightning displays beautifully power. We love beauty and will spend a lot of money to travel and visit beautiful places. In Hab 3:3-4 it says that His beauty was like the sunrise, rays flashed from His hand where there His power was hidden. 

How does God reveal His beauty through Jesus? One of the prophetic verses in Isaiah, talking about the Messiah who is Jesus, that he had no beauty (as a man) or majesty to attract us to Him. Jesus was God but He laid His physical glory aside when He came to earth. Three disciples were fortunate to see His true glory displayed up in the mount of transfiguration. Luke 9:29 said that, as He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Moses and Elijah appeared in all glorious splendor (radiant beauty).

Jesus mentioned once about a beauty done for Him. After a woman poured perfume on his body to prepare Him for burial, Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” If you pause a minute and think of Jesus on the cross, you will see sacrificial beauty. After He died and rose again, He visited the earth with His new body and then ascended into heaven and promised to return again. Another verse in Isaiah 42 says that, In that day, The Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious. He will come back in the skies. 

Finally, how does God reveal His beauty to us in our hearts. Since God’s presence makes things beautiful, how about us? The bible says we are formed in His image. And if you are a believer, His Holy Spirit’s presence dwells in you. He made you beautiful and He gives you beauty. God gives beauty from ashes and he makes all things beautiful in its time. God can give you beauty in your life. He gives beauty to those He loves and He definitely loves you.

Our beauty should not come from outward adornment but from your inner self says Peter, an unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God’s sight. How do you become beautiful on the inside? When Moses came down from the mountain with the ten commandments, his face was radiant because he had spent time with God. The more time you spend with the Lord, the more beautiful you become.

Ps 27:4, One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I see, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

Transcript

Episode 12 – God is Beautiful

We hope through this series on the attributes of God that your knowledge is expanding and increasing and drawing you into a deeper relationship with God. The quote for the series is by AW Tozer and he says what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. I pray as we study that this will radically change your view of God as it did mine.

This episode is about the letter B, the attribute that God is Beautiful. Have you ever thought about the beauty of God? Let’s see how God reveals Himself as beautiful through the word, through creation, through Jesus and in our hearts.

Depending on what version of the bible you have, and I normally use the New International Version (NIV), you will see the word beauty when God is described but when you see the words splendor or glory in describing God, that can mean beauty also but in some cases glory means radiant beauty.

If God is a certain attribute like beautiful, then you must apply it all His other attributes. Since we talked about God Almighty then we can also view His power as beautiful. In Is 3:1 is says, Who is this robed in beauty, striding forward in the greatness of His strength? This verse shows God’s beauty and power together.

It should be no surprise that when we talk about the beauty and glory of God that there are a lot of references in the Psalms. Ps 96:6 says, Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory (radiant beauty) are in His sanctuary. Strength and beauty are here again but this time in His sanctuary. When the bible is describing a place that God dwells it often speaks of beauty. There is a song from another Psalm that says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness; beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mt. Zion on the side of the north, the city of the great king. Beautiful is the city’s loftiness, because it is high and lifted up. That gives the city beauty.

The bible often talks about the beautiful holy mountain. It says, From Mt. Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. Also in the temple of Jerusalem there is a gate called beautiful. So it seems God’s dwelling places have beauty in them.

When you put All in front of the word mighty, it shows that God has all might. We should be able to do the same with the word beautiful. We should put All in front of it too because any beauty that you see comes from God. There is nothing more beautiful. He is the all-encompassing beauty in the world.

God doesn’t have to sit around or adorn Himself with beautiful things to make Himself beautiful. He is beautiful and He is the one who makes something beautiful. Apart from God there is no true beauty. Some things might appear to be beautiful. I think of the movie, The Raiders of the Lost Ark. When the ark was open spirits emerged that seemed beautiful at first but then turned hideous and destructive. Be careful when you see beauty, don’t be enticed or fooled by false earthly beauty. That is not eternal beauty. Only the beauty that comes from God is eternal and lasting and true.

Another dwelling place of God is described in Rev 21. John said he saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. What is more beautiful than a bride and Christ describes the church as His beloved bride.  It says later in the chapter that the foundations of the dity walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone—jasper, sapphire, emerald, topaz, amethyst, pearls, and pure gold, like transparent glass.

When we think about royalty, aren’t we just mesmerized when we think of the beauty in royalty. The King of kings is going to dwell in this new Jerusalem and He is royalty. Royalty has beautiful clothes and things in their palace and when we see that on earth, it is a taste of heaven.

One verse on beauty intrigued me and made me think of a place that God visited and walked around. It comes from Eze 31:1-9. Speaking metaphorically it says, a beautiful cedar of Lebanon (so a tree and God said), I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God. So consider the garden of Eden where God walked. I can’t imagine how beautiful that garden was. In my imagination, all the trees had luscious fruit on them and all the flowers were in bloom all year round filled with beauty, color, and fragrance. The breeze and sunshine were everywhere. It was probably the most beautiful garden ever. I think of the song, “I Come to the Garden Alone” as I picture myself in a setting of a garden walking with God. It really makes me happy when I think of the beauty of God. It just makes me want to praise Him and talk about this beauty. Beauty makes you feel good and it is inspiring. And that is what God is, beautiful, wonderful, praiseworthy, and inspiring.

How does God reveal His beauty in creation. Isn’t His beauty displaying in creation for all to see? There is a special place in California that I liked to go in the woods. It is quiet, shaded but with streams of light shining through. To me the whole atmosphere brought together was extremely beautiful. I love the beauty of a flower. So much variety, sizes, and colors. Only a beautiful God could create so many beautiful things.

I took a Japanese flower decorating class, Ikebana, and this was really creating works of art with flowers and leaves. It taught you how to see the beauty of a flower not just in the petals but in the curve of the stem and shape of the leaves. You would display the flower in such a way to enhance its perfect and natural beauty. In Matt 6:29 Jesus say, consider the lilies, not even Solomon in all His splendor as king was dressed like one of these. God shows beauty in the biggest things and in the smallest things.

I also love the sky and everything in it, especially the moon and the stars shining their light all the way to earth. I love a rainbow and you just want to stop and follow its track across the sky. Lightning displays great power but it is beautiful to me. In creation we love beauty and we will spend a lot of money to travel and visit beautiful places. Beauty is priceless. In Hab 3:3-4 it says that His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth. His beauty was like the sunrise, rays flashed from His hand where there His power was hidden. I was amazed as I studied His beauty how over and over again we find God’s beauty and power together.

Now how does God reveal His beauty through Jesus? One of the prophetic verses in Isaiah, talking about the Messiah who is Jesus, that he had no beauty (as a man) or majesty to attract us to Him. Nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Since Jesus was all God and all man, we know that Jesus is beautiful too. But Jesus laid His physical glory aside when He came to earth. We saw His beauty in the things He said and the things He did. Three of the disciples were very lucky to see His true glory displayed up in the mount of transfiguration. Luke 9:29 said that, as He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Moses and Elijah appeared in all glorious splendor (radiant beauty).

Jesus mentioned once about a beauty done for Him. After a woman poured perfume on his body to prepare Him for burial, Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” If you pause a minute and think of Jesus on the cross, you will see sacrificial beauty. Love is beautiful.

After He died and rose again, He visited the earth with His new body and then ascended into heaven and promised to return again. Another verse in Isaiah 42 says that, In that day, The Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious. He will come back in the skies. In Phil 3:20-21 it says, And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious (beautiful) body. That should give you great comfort that we are going to have new glorious beautiful bodies too.

Finally, how does God reveal His beauty to us in our hearts. How do you feel when you see something beautiful? How about when you see something revolting? For me, my whole body reacts against it and chills go up my spine. You want to get as far away from ugliness as possible. In contrast, beauty is so appealing and you can’t keep your eyes off it. You want to be near it. Normally beauty is seen but in many cases we use our other senses too. It is like smelling a rose or listening to beautiful music or stroking a cat’s fur and eating a piece of caramel chocolate seems pretty beautiful to me! It might not necessarily be described as beautiful but our other senses are engaged in the process.

We were created to recognize beauty. We know it when we see it. Some will say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me that just means that if you see as much beauty in a flowering weed as you do in a rose, then good for you because there is beauty in all of God’s creation, not just the obvious ones that most people describe. You are blessed when you can see beauty in the small and simple things.

Now think about this, we talked about see God’s beauty in the dwelling places of God. They are beautiful because of God’s presence in them. Well, how about us? The bible says we are formed in His image. And if you are a believer, His Holy Spirit’s presence dwells in you. He made you beautiful and He gives you beauty. God gives beauty from ashes. I know first hand that God can take a life that is grieving and in sorrow and give it meaning and purpose and life. God gives beauty from ashes. In Ecc, it says, God makes all things beautiful in its time. You need to believe in this beautiful God. God can give you beauty in your life. He gives beauty to those He loves and He definitely loves you.

Our beauty should not come from outward adornment but from your inner self says Peter, an unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God’s sight. Have you ever met a person who was very attractive on the outside but on the inside they were cold, manipulating, or maybe just desperately unhappy, not beautiful. Or have you met anyone with plain looks and poor but they were so beautiful with a kind a generous spirit. 

So how do you become beautiful on the inside? You start with having the Holy Spirit inside of you. It says when Moses came down from the mountain with the ten commandments, his face was radiant because he had spent time with God. In I Cor 3:18 is says, We who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, we are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is Spirit. The more time you spend with the Lord and make Him the center of your life, the more beautiful you become. It is nothing of yourself and people will be attracted to that kind of beauty.

From this place of beauty with God in your life, you can begin to do beautiful things for the Lord. Is 52:7 says, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation. When you bring the gospel of peace and salvation to someone, that is a beautiful thing. 

My prayer is that we will all reflect the beauty of the Lord and do beautiful things for Him. Let’s pray Ps 27:4, One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

What things do you think show God’s beauty?

Living a radical life for Jesus means believing that God is Beautiful.