Theoretically close your eyes. Imagine that you are standing against the fence that wraps around the Grand Canyon. Or travel to the bottom of Mount Everest. Consider its icy vastness, its overwhelming height. Or travel to the place of your dreams. It could be New York City at Christmas, a baseball game on a hot July day, or even your own living room surrounded by the people you love. There seems to be one thing that comes to mind in all of these places: beauty.
The subjective nature of beauty is as joyful to ponder as the beautiful thing itself. With human diversity comes the ability for people to see beauty in different things; leading everything to be seen as beautiful in some way or another. To some, beauty is seen in the natural. The foggy mountains just before the break of dawn. The foamy blue ocean crashing against a billion grains of sand. To others, beauty is seen in the industrial; in the inventions of man. Eighty stories of glass and office space towering over the bagel shops downtown. A six hundred fifty horsepower engine housed inside a landlocked rocket painted jet black. To others still, beauty is not found in nature or invention, but in the immaterial. A long conversation over medium roast coffee with a friend of seven years. That annual vacation, where everyone leaves their cares in the baggage claim until the trip is over. The bonding of one person to another in friendship, familyhood, or romance.
All of these things are valid perceptions of beauty, but they are all temporary. Watching the sunset over the mountains in Virginia will only last so long until night arrives. Staring at the skyscraper beaming reflections of the sun for miles will only be so breathtaking until your neck starts to hurt. Joking with family and friends will only be so funny until a loved one dies. So, what then?
There is one perception of beauty that will outlast all others; one that will provide true comfort at all times. There is one beauty that will forever remain unstained by the ugliness of this world. Perhaps a better, less subjective word will suffice. Glory. The beauty and glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing upon which you can look and truly live. The breathtaking views, the tear-bringing memories of this life will always be stained, in some way, by sin. The point in which sin entered the world is the very point that the ugliness of death began. The Serpent in Genesis 3 convinced Adam and Eve that God did not mean that they would die when they ate the Forbidden Fruit. People today read that well-known verse and think, “what sort of death came if Adam and Eve continued to live? Surely it wasn’t as bad as immediate death.” Of the many results of sin that can (and should) be talked about, I want to focus on one: sin mars things. By that I mean that sin, in its ugly and filthy existence, has brought ugliness and brokenness to things that were created beautiful. Sin allows for beautiful, once-perfect things to be abused and worse, treasured above God, the Creator of all things. Thus, the lasting nature of beautiful things will always be interrupted by some ugly result of sin.
But there is hope for the one who trusts in God! One of the final promises of God is, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5). The beauty and glory of the Gospel of Christ is that God will bring true beauty and glory to all things again! So, here lies a glimpse into the past and into the future. The common problem of the man or woman is living in the present. As a result of The Fall, we all have intrinsic knowledge of good and evil to some degree. This is what delegates for us what is wrong with mass genocide or thievery. This too, however, is marred. Look at the history of your nation and tell me that the things you see don’t reflect broken, hurting, hateful people. One could argue that the vast majority of people don’t commit suicide or genocide or even steal a pack of chewing gum. I agree with that point, but I recall to mind Jesus Christ’s response to the Pharisees who claimed to be good people by the standards of God. He says concerning lust, “you have heard that it was said, ‘you shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). This is just one example of many that Jesus uses in this passage. The point here is that all are sinful at heart, according to God’s standard, and therefore are bad people whether they believe themselves to be good or not (Rom. 3:23).
So, it is clear that there is vile ugliness in this world as a result of sin. The people who commit sin have not died and taken that nature with them, but have passed it down to their children and their children’s children. Simply looking upon the things that have been marred by sin will not be a revelation of true beauty or glory because the creation is itself imperfect. Thus, the only road to travel that would reach perfect, unhinged, unhindered, unstained beauty, is the road of the Gospel.
Travel with me on the road to true beauty. We turn onto this road at the intersection of sinfulness and longing for something greater. The road we abandon is one of deep depravity and compounded brokenness. We got used to this bumpy, pothole filled road. We have been on it so long, we didn’t even consider turning off of it (as if there were any other roads to turn onto). There were many beautiful sights along the way. The billboards of propaganda that we all called to subscribe to were pleasurable for a time, but proved to run out of sustainability. The people we rode with were enjoyable at times and detestable at others. We grew to simultaneously “love” and hate them. Then, by some sort of miracle happening, we finally began approaching the first exit ramp. A chance to turn off of this cyclical highway.
Now, here we are. Met with smooth pavement, we continue to drive down this new road. There are much fewer billboards, and the ones that stand don’t seem as crude. They seem to be necessary. One advertises new beginnings. Another advertises love and kindness. Another advertises truth and justice. We turn to each other in love and service, not out of some desire to reach something in the backseat, but more so out of love we have seen around us on this journey. The road comes to an end. The last of the pavement spreads thinner and thinner until finally, one thing remains: a driver in a car. The Driver’s car is not expensive or classy, but it has stood the test of time and proven reliable on all fronts. He beckons us with love to leave our expensive sports car and get into the older, less enticing one. It seems easy for us to do now, with the Driver standing there. All at once, we realize how much it truly costs to ride in the car we were in. Getting out of it seems much easier now.
This Driver is one that will not only get us to our destination, but one that will teach us things about the journey we are on and how to live with the ugly roads we pass by. This Driver lovingly shuts the door as we try to open it and get into other cars. This Driver is Jesus. We think and talk amongst ourselves in the backseat (acting as if He can’t hear every word we say), beginning to realize that the journey was not only to get to some beautiful destination where we could leave all other traveled roads behind; the journey itself was beautiful because all along, we were looking for the right Driver. The right guide and mediator between these roads and our destination is the One that shows us true beauty along the way.
True beauty, friend, is not primarily found in things of this world. The Psalmist reminds us that there is beauty in the things around us, saying, “the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies declare His handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). They are, however, an extension of the glory and beauty that mankind desires. See the beauty and the glory of Jesus, and know true beauty.
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