“Your eyes will see the king in his beauty.”
Isaiah 37:17
My pastor recently asked me to share a few words during the worship service about the beauty of Christ. But how can one talk about the beauty and majesty of our great King? To grasp the beauty of something or someone, you have to experience it. Psalm 29:2 tells us: “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
God’s holiness? Beautiful? That would be like staring at the sun with your naked eye, hoping to find its beauty. You can’t! It would blind you. But as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). Scripture invites us to turn our gaze on Jesus, remembering His holiness, and allowing His indwelling life to burn away the doubts and fears, anxieties and worries about the future, or bitterness and resentment. We take up our cross and follow Him. He died for sin, and we die to sin. When that happens, in due time the dark, thick clouds will part and we will see the Savior in all of His full-orbed splendor.
You and I grasp His beauty when we die to the very sins He died for. At that point, the comeliness of Christ strikes a tuning fork in our sanctified souls, and we resonate with His freshness and purity. Jesus said, “Take up your cross daily.” So today is the day to cast your sins aside, embrace the deep-down cleansing of His blood, and seek Him with a life scrubbed clean. It feels beautiful. So beautiful you can’t talk about it — you have to experience it for yourself.
King Jesus, I praise You for removing my sins far from me. I pause to worship You with a purified heart, a clean conscience, and a fresh desire. Help me to stay on my knees until, once again, I catch a glimpse of Your radiant beauty.
