October 24, 2014
Genesis 1:26, 27, 31
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
The following scriptures tell us that God is beautiful:
• Psalm 27:4 – “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I 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 inquire in His temple.”
• Psalm 90:17 – “…let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us….”
• Proverbs 3:13 and 17 – “Happy is the man who finds wisdom…Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Wisdom, especially in Proverbs, is often equated with God the Holy Spirit.
The same Hebrew word is used in the above scriptures for beauty and pleasantness. According to Strong’s A Concise Dictionary of the Words in The Hebrew Bible, it means, “agreeableness, i.e. delight, suitableness, splendor, or grace.”
Hymn writers have seen this characteristic of beauty in the Triune God:
• Last verse of Fairest Lord Jesus – “Beautiful Savior! Lord of all nations! Son of God and Son of Man! Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forever more be Thine!”
• From the second verse of O God Beyond All Praising – “…we’II triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless you still: to marvel at your beauty….”
• First verse of Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting – “Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul, for by Thy transforming power Thou hast made me whole.”
Let’s move on to another idea, this plainly put forth in our scripture, Genesis 1:26, 27 and 30:
Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and
over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on
the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He
created him; male and female He created them….Then God saw everything
that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
The point I want to make is this: If God is beautiful, and we are created in His image, why do we who are Christians so struggle with Embracing Our Beauty? After all, it is recorded in verse 30 of Genesis 1, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Why don’t we see ourselves as very good? It is because we have lost that original goodness and beauty – the result of sin, and we are all sinners! (See Romans 3:10 and 23). When our first parents sinned, God’s image was terribly marred in the human race. Implanted in His place was the image of mankind’s new father – Satan! Jesus plainly said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.” Yes, he was talking to the Pharisees, according to John 8:13, but this truth applies to all of us! John reiterates this in I John 3:8 through 10:
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy
the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for
His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born
of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are
manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is
he who does not love his brother.
So we are not beautiful to God when we are lost in sin (see Romans 5:6 through 8). But Jesus came to redeem us. And that redemption includes being restored to the image of our God! We are beautiful in Jesus Christ, and – according to Ephesians 1:6 – we are accepted in Him as much as the Father accepts His Own Son!
There are times when I am not that happy with myself, because of some failure or blunder. And I might look in the mirror at my reflection and say, “You ugly jerk!” But then I remind myself that I am made – and remade – in the image of God Himself! And since God is beautiful, I can Embrace my Beauty.
If we remember our great redemption and heritage in our Lord Jesus Christ, we can live day by day Embracing Our Beauty!