Repackaging God (part 4) - Truth vs. Beauty
This post is part of a series of posts. Be sure not to miss part 1, part 2, part 3, part4 and part 5.
Augustine said, “All Truth is God’s Truth.” If this in fact is the case, is all beauty God’s beauty?
Should we use God’s beauty to attract seekers to God? What is God’s beauty?
In philosophy, the quest for truth and the quest for beauty are both highly regarded quests. In society today, it seems like the quest for beauty is more highly regarded than the quest for truth. In some circles, there is no such thing as truth, but there is such thing as beauty.
The bible seems to emphasize truth over beauty. Did God value truth far and away above beauty? After all, Jesus “…had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but through me” but he did not mention beauty. And if we’re to look to Christ in order to see God more fully, physical beauty is not to be valued very highly. Yet at the same time we are to “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple.” God is beautiful and majestic, yet Jesus “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him” Isn’t that strange?
So practically when we are looking at the true spirituality of a church and how to reach unbelievers, it seems like we should not emphasize God’s beauty and majesty because for some reason God himself did not emphasize it with Jesus. Why? Why is it that God didn’t want us to see Jesus as so beautiful and majestic that we couldn’t help but drawn to him? God is not about physical beauty, because it’s not the core of who he is? But he made so many things physically beautiful in his creation. I don’t believe humanity’s appreciation of beauty is a result of sin. Rather humanity’s appreciation of beauty reflects our desire for God. Obviously, God is about physical beauty in some sense… but maybe it’s not the essence of who he is. Does that mean that his majesty is not the essence of who he is either?
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KingdomSheepDog
Truth is beauty. When the bible says, Jesus “…had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him,” it is obviously referring to physical appearance in human term.
Truth is ultimate beauty. Beauty is just an attribute of Truth. It is not a separate entity. Without Truth, there is no beauty. Now I am not talking about physical beauty.
Apr 19th, 2007
Twin_Mustang
well..the christian walk isn’t always beautiful..as in, there’s a cost too..?
Apr 19th, 2007
searchingfortreasures
“to gaze upon His beauty” = a kind of beauty beyond physical
Chirst had “no beauty and majesty” meaning physical beauty - the normal surface stuff that people are drawn to.
just as God said to the prophet samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
in terms of what we’re talking about, i DO think that we should emphasize God’s beauty and majesty… because of such verses as ps 27 again “to gaze upon his beauty” or such thoughts as Ecc about standing in awe of God. in fact, the psalms frequently speak of God’s beauty & majesty, eh? but in correlation with his not making Jesus “beautiful and majestic”, perhaps that means we don’t have to have the most beautiful and ornate church buildings with everything glittering with gold or shiny with marble and diamonds.
i think the “majesty” that this verse refers to when it says Christ didn’t have is the grand MAJESTY that is the essence of God Almighty — the BOOM!!-POWerful-so-powerful-that-it-would-bring-us-to-our-knees-in-an-instance majesty. When He came upon this earth, He chose not to retain ALL the majesty that is His…
Apr 19th, 2007
J_Pole
I’d like you to look at John 12. In verses 1-10, Mary poured expensive perfume onto Jesus feet. When Judas objected, Jesus said, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” So, Jesus was telling Judas to let the woman honor him. The following verses 12-19, section titled The Triumphant Entry, show people worshiping Jesus and honoring him yet again. And, in verse 23, we see Jesus himself reference his own glory, being crucified to redeem the world. Finally, in the last section title, starting at v. 37, we see Jesus performing miracles after an angel addresses him and calls attention to him. In my opinion, the reason the people in this chapter behaved this was was in response to Jesus majesty and beauty; but, it was not majesty and beauty in a simple sense. What Jesus represented deserves glory and shows that he is majesty and beauty. Why else would an angel call attention to his glory if people were not to look at the beauty of what he was doing? I don’t think that majesty and beauty define who Jesus is, just as saying I am a hard worker and sometimes am very kind to people is not the definition of who I am. It’s just a description and character trait. However, it is part of understanding the person as a whole.
Apr 19th, 2007
randplaty
Truth is beauty? Why do you say that? I would think truth can be beautiful but they are not necessarily the same thing. Erwin McManus said the most beautiful thing he ever witnessed was the birth of his child. I would say that is beautiful, but is it necessarily true? There’s nothing true or untrue about the birth of a child.
Apr 20th, 2007
KingdomSheepDog
I think you are still thinking about Truth in term of logical truth, which is a limited (and very sad) western notion of Truth . Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” My understanding of that is: Truth is all these things (way, truth and life) in one, in Jesus. Therefore, when I see a baby born, a beautiful event, I think of Jesus, the Truth, the source of all life, and I worship Him.
Apr 20th, 2007
Debbie3
Interesting series of posts. When I think of God’s beauty, I think of all His perfect qualities — how he can be perfectly just and perfectly compassionate at the same time. Anything less, and He would be less than God. It is beautiful that He is tender and gentle (how often we have grieve His Spirit), and He has the power and foresight to back that up, too (He knows where we’ve been and where we’re going). I think the beauty of the creation, even in its fallen state, points back to the essential beauty of the Creator: “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, having been understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
Additionally, I would venture to argue that beauty, as truth, is to be prized, and is not easily comprehended in our fallen world. I find in the Bible admonition to dig deeper, to look past the surface of things — if the creation is beautiful, what of the Creator? One beautiful thing that I love about God is that He promises to be close to the broken-hearted and saves those crushed in Spirit (Ps. 34:18); He totally identified with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, those in prison (Matthew 25:31-46), and on the Cross, the sinful. He is beautiful and majestic, and to an infinite degree — but in my limited understanding, His beauty and majesty (and all His other perfections) are in many ways mysteries to me.
Apr 23rd, 2007
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