The Beauty of God in His being God
In the previous article, we introduced this subject from Psalm 27 v 4, where David expresses his desire to “behold the beauty of the Lord”. He tells us that it is the “one thing” that he longed for. We likened such desire to the “seeking” of the merchant in the Lord’s parable in Matthew 13 v 45 – 46, and the determination of the Apostle Paul in Phil 3 v 7 – 9. We will know little of the beauty of God unless, like David, the merchant, and the Apostle, we are wholehearted in our desire to know Him more fully.
The ultimate fulfilment of the desire of David in Psalm 27 is clearly the heavenly view that we will have of the Lord eternally. But, is there a “beholding” that the Christian may enjoy before then? I think that there certainly is! There are a number of aspects that we may perhaps investigate further in future articles, but let me suggest one theological truth that we can easily pass by; the fact that God is beautiful in His being.
What I mean is, that God is beautiful in His “being God”! God is the archetype of beauty! All other beauty flows from His own beauty alone. Nothing else can be beautiful unless God had been eternally beautiful in Himself. Augustine wrote that “God is supremely good, beauty of all things beautiful” (Confessions book 3 ch 6). These are all statements well worthy of our careful thought.
The great Reformed Confessions of the church contain descriptions of God that are truly awesome. Here is a flavour from Paragraphs One and Two of Chapter 2 of the 1689 Baptist Confession: “Of God and the Trinity”
The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of Himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself; a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth…
God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself, is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them; He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, and He has most sovereign dominion over all creatures…
We are to meditate on, and carefully consider such a description. Doing so will surely cause us to exclaim in response, with the hymnwriter, Frederick Faber
My God, how wonderful Thou art,
Thy majesty how bright,
How beautiful Thy mercy-seat,
In depths of burning light!How wonderful, how beautiful,
The sight of Thee must be,Thine endless wisdom, boundless power,
And aweful purity!
But now let us add some additional content from Paragraph Three of the Confession: In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being… which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him.
Here we must expand our thinking about God’s beauty even further. Here is beauty in harmony, in symmetry, and in perfect relationship. Here is individuality in each person of the Godhead, but, at the same time, here is unity. Here is “Trinity”. As famously articulated by Reginald Heber; “God in three persons, blessed Trinity”.
So often in our world, something is of greater beauty because of the sum of its parts. We appreciate this particularly in music. If you have had the privilege of seeing, as well as hearing, a great orchestra in full flow, you will no doubt have wondered at the beauty of the music that the combination of instruments produces. Each instrument, of itself can make a lovely sound, but the symphony that is made by the whole is simply thrilling!
So it is with God! There is a glory and wonder in the Father; in the Son; in the Holy Spirit, but as Heber says, together, being God they are “perfect in power in love and purity”. The Hindu, the Moslem, the follower of the teachings of the cults can tell you nothing of the beauty of their God. Only the Christian, rooted in the Bible, worshipping the triune God can begin to
exclaim with Faber, “My God…”, and speak of the wonder of divine beauty. When we personally come to know this beautiful God, through salvation in Jesus Christ, our lives as well as our words, will give witness to it.
Not only is God the origin of beauty because He is God, but He is beauty in every aspect of His being. No wonder then, He is the source of all beauty in heaven above, and in earth beneath!
Like David, we are to desire to know Him more and more!
This article was first published by the Evangelical Times