The Most Beautiful
The Beauty of Creation
Let me ask you, what is the most beautiful thing that you’ve ever seen? It’s an important question because we live in a world of beauty. Things that are beautiful draw our attention. If you were to go outside and take a walk in the woods, or by a lake, or look up at the sky at night and you will find tremendous beauty. People will travel great distances to marvel at the beauty of nature. And when they arrive at something like the Great Barrier Reef, or Victoria Falls, they are overwhelmed with the beauty which they are beholding. I can remember taking a trip and being able to detour through southern Arizona to spend some time at the Grand Canyon. Walking up to the edge I stood there in awe at the enormity and depth of the canyon, the majesty and colors of the rock layers. This is exactly what should happen because in seeing creation, we perceive the invisible attributes of God. We ought to stand in awe of the power and divinity it took to create with a word all that your eyes drink in. Even this week as students from our church retreat at a lodge nestled in the Ozark mountains, one could go outside and see deer grazing in the open fields, find the clear waters of the river endlessly flowing, and the wooden soldiers of the forrest standing at attending. And yet the human heart longs for more. Not just more in quantity, as in more mountains or more sunsets or more beaches, but more beautiful, actually the most beautiful.
And as beautiful as all creation is, it is not the most beautiful.
It is interesting that most people don’t even notice the most beautiful thing in the world. They pass by it often and some even look on its beauty and find it not to be beautiful at all, but something they despise and deride. But make no mistake, it is a beauty the likes of which, rulers and authorities in the heavenly places take notice.
The Beauty of the Church
So what is the most beautiful thing in the world? What is it that would cause not just humanity but the heavenly realms to stop and take notice? The apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus about this beauty. He tells them that this beauty was hidden for centuries, but has now been revealed. This beauty is described as the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10). The word manifold is defined as much variegated or multicolored. This wisdom of God is rich with multicolored beauty. This is an important definition because this describes the coming together of two groups that were separated by ethnicity, culture, and most divisive, hatred for one another.
And yet, God with the brushstrokes of wisdom, is creating a masterpiece that will cause the “rulers and authorities in heavenly places” to take notice.
This beautiful masterpiece is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reconciliation, the unity of the church will reveal this beautiful wisdom to them. And this beauty will not pass away. It is an eternal beauty. It is a beauty that continues to get more and more beautiful as God continues to create the masterpiece with His brushstrokes of redemption. The physical creation has limited beauty because it has been subjected to futility in hope that it will be set free from corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8). But the beauty of God’s redeeming love that has set us free in Christ will last eternally.
Reflecting Beauty
There are those who will be attracted by this beautiful reconciliation and unity in Christ. And there will be those that will reject this beauty, and not only reject it but actively oppose this beauty, choosing rather to define beauty subjectively. They will not see the gospel-created church as beautiful, but evil. But this opposition is a sign of their destruction and a sign of the salvation of the those striving together for the faith (Phil 1:28). But for those of us who are part of this masterpiece that God is creating, we must keep this beauty in mind as we strive for unity in the bond of peace because it will be difficult. It will be hard. But we will be announcing the beautiful wisdom of God to not only this world, but the heavenly realms. So the difficulty, the disagreements, the conflict that will inevitably come in the church are worth the struggle, they are worth the pain, they are worth the hard work that will be required because God is doing a work in us and through us so that His name can be proclaimed throughout all creation to His glory and honor. We as the church are to be like the crystal clear mountain lake that reflects what looks down upon it. We are to reflect the very character and nature of our glorious Savior who through His atoning death has brought together those who would certainly be separated not only from Him, but from one another. There is beauty to be found in the church. A beauty that comes from our unity and is a reflection of our Savior. There is beauty in our unity, there is beauty in our diversity. There is beauty in our forgiveness. There is beauty in our love. And by these things people will know that our beauty does not come from within us, but comes from the Most Beautiful One. But let us remember that we who form the church are a work in progress. The masterpiece is not yet complete. There will be more colors added, more brushstrokes made. So yield yourself to the Creator Artist as He continues to use us as tools to re-create the Most Beautiful thing in the world—His Church.
One day it will be complete, lacking nothing, but today we trust the Master to form the Masterpiece.
Cory Majors is the Senior Pastor at West Baptist Church Batesville, AR. He graduated from Liberty University with his Bachelor of Science in Religion and is currently finishing his MDiv at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Sherry Majors, have been married 25 years and they have four children (Grady, Rachel, Caedmon and Evan) and one miniature schnauzer (Murphy). Cory loves to spend time with his family, study scripture, watch college football (especially the Razorbacks).
Follow Cory on Twitter: @CLMaj