True Beauty

 

 

My sister and I were looking at an old high school yearbook at pictures of old friends. At one photo she remarked, “He is not good looking at all, but because he was such a nice guy, everyone thought he was handsome.”

This reminds me of a saying that often proves true: “Beauty is as beauty does.”

In the Bible, BEAUTIFUL usually describes something or someone that is appealing to the eye, a person or object that delights the senses or excites intellectual or emotional admiration. However, the same words are also translated “good” and are connected to that which pleases God.

Actually, in the OT this idea of goodness is inseparably linked with personal faith in God. Any idea of ‘good’ being personal and separate from God is inconceivable. In other words, goodness is always a gift from God and outside the prerogative of human beings in our own strength. It was this concept of goodness in God that Adam and Eve tried to gain by sinfully eating from the forbidden tree.

Later God gave the Law and said in Deuteronomy 30:15, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” Putting this in terms of today’s word to describe God and His character, He was telling them that life with Him or living life His way would be a beautiful life.

Proverbs 28:10. Whoever misleads the upright into an evil way will fall into his own pit, but the blameless will have a goodly inheritance.

Psalm 84:11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

This truth about essential goodness or beauty of life is further explained in the NT as only realized in a personal relationship with God. All true goodness and moral beauty comes from Him.

NT Greek uses three word-groups, each with its own separate emphasis, to describe what is good and beautiful. Agathos is used generally for what is good and useful, especially moral goodness in relation to God who is perfect. Kalos can be used as a synonym, but in comparison with the ethical and religious emphasis of agathos, it stresses more the aesthetic aspect, and stands for beautiful, fine, free from defects. When applied to acts, it means noble, praiseworthy. Chrēstos expresses the material usefulness of things with regard to their goodness, pleasantness and softness. Sometimes these terms are translated into ‘good’ and sometimes ‘beautiful’ showing the link to God who is the only Good One, the only Beautiful One.

Luke 18:18–19. And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

This concept of good coming from God alone is used in verses like John 5:28–29.

“Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

This fits with the gospel that says only in Jesus Christ am I given the opportunity to be truly good, truly beautiful, not in appearance but in moral and spiritual goodness. This is the beauty of God, not my own, and salvation is a share of His goodness that I can pass on to others by doing good, not in my own ability or being but in the power of God’s Holy Spirit and in the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ who lives in me.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The OT prophet said of Jesus that “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him” yet for those who love Him, Jesus is the most beautiful person who ever lived. The Bible also says that the more I look into the life of Christ and the goodness of God, the more He changes me to be like Him, but that is not about physical beauty. Instead, He uses “all things” to transform me, even trials and troubles and as James 1 says, I’m to be joyful because they are building in me the beautiful virtue of patience. When I look in the mirror, I might see freckles, wrinkles, and signs of aging, but in the mind of God, beauty is not about that. Instead, His beauty is far deeper, lasts forever, and is utterly precious:

1 Peter 3:3–4. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.