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CHAPTER FIVE

 

 THE QUINTESSENCE OF BEAUTY

and

 "THERE IS NO BEAUTY THAT WE SHOULD DESIRE HIM!" -

Isaiah 53:2

INTRODUCTION

Beauty is the quintessence of desire, whether morally, structurally, in colour, shape, form, formation, congregation of elements, suffused with superabundance beyond mere practicality and needful function, ultimately incomprehensible and ununifiable in thought, except as a summit of expression of the handiwork, handicraft, expression of the vision or even Being of the Almighty where either innocence, or travail, or innate goodness is associated with an exquisiteness of triumph, in simplicity or in spirit or in atmosphere, which excels and blesses the spirit of man, ennobles his heart and stirs his soul. It is vision amplified, victory localised, overcoming suffused, the wonder of the loveliness of the Lord supplied as stimulus to eye or heart or mind, without crimping or constraint, in a freedom which soars and invites the spirit to soar with it.

In the Preface to an earlier work, Beauty of Holiness, expression of it is given in this way:

Beauty of holiness is not cosmetic, glamorous or fizzy. It is not mere exuberance, nor indeed is it even close to inert entropy of the spirit, gazing at nothing and lusting to be like it.

It is one aspect of the glory of God. It is HIS. If it imbues people at any time, it is because of His presence. In Him, its purity is perfect, in His love, its motivation is unalloyed, in His wisdom it is without fluctuation. Orchids suggest its delicacy and strength despite fragility. Oceans touch its depth of meaning, and declare something of its grandeur; for it is not willing to be debased, and witless wanderers who try to touch it without warrant, are like small craft in the vehemence of the storms in mid-ocean.

You cannot put it on, but rather, like the bloom on peaches, it is a result of WHO HE IS and it is only when you know Him, that it is realised. It is not a thing of terror, nor is it a matter of complacency; and its presence is from Him willingly, not by constraint. Like love, it is not to be manufactured, and like godliness in mankind, it is not a thing of whim or caprice, sudden starts or mere method. It is found in personal inter-relationship, and grows in close abiding in His will and rejoicing in His wonders, who is not only unique, for there is but one God, but unblended, uncomposed and non-composite, filled with glory as the waters of the sea with waves. From a distance it is not readily discernible at all; but when you are close, it is all but impossible to believe that it is not perceived more readily among mankind, than it is.

It is one aspect of the glory of God; and the uncomprehending darkness is one aspect of the debasement of mankind. When the light shines, as enemy bombers used to try to avoid it lest their wings be torn to tatters by fiery bullets, so man will often scurry into darkness, afraid of the light. That it is here beneficent, benevolent, and indeed beautiful for what it reveals: this becomes a mere increment to its menace for many; for they do not want the light, whatever it may reveal, being committed to darkness; and so they drone on in the night, till out of fuel, they ditch at the end.

Indeed, while the beauty of the Lord is to be found in Christ Jesus, there is a vigorous preliminary in the heart of man, before he is regenerated into the region of the visible in such things. As Christ told Nicodemus (John 3:3), "Most assuredly, I tell you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

The darkness is singularly unrevealing; but when one opens the eyes, through the exquisite regenerative surgery of that master craftsman, Jesus Christ, that Lord of the spirits of man and their Creator indeed, then what is to be seen in the beauty of holiness in the divine being is that beginning, or point of origin to speak spatially of what is not spatial at all, for all that excites the wonder and incites admiration among our race, whether in the celestial architecture of things, the astronomical immensities, the oceanic thrust and majesty, the intricacy of little things and their meaning, the glories of art, the wonders of life and the intimacies of reality.

These are its offspring. But in itself, in God Himself, the beauty of holiness is seen in figure in such passages as Ezekiel 1, in transifguration in Matthew 17, in grace on the Cross, in love in the approach to it and the completion of it, in compassion uninhibited but pure, as in Mark 3 and Matthew 8:2ff., in loving lament as in Luke 19:42ff., in self-control as in Luke 22:39ff., in guileless wisdom as in Matthew 5-7, in illimitable power combined with plan, oblivious of suffering to grant grace, as in the resurrection, and indeed in the whole work of the incarnation. To BECOME one of us is more than a come-down, a degradation, a nobless oblige, far more: it is to enter squalor, like a diamond in the dust-bin, but yet again, far worse than that. On HIM was etched the sin of those who receive His salvation (Zechariah 3:9).

In its divine reaches, the beauty of holiness is unattainable, being one aspect of the divine nature, like the pure snow waters on the high mountains. In its human envelopments, however, it is in His gift to beautify the saints, and this is the very message of Ephesians 5:27:


 

It abhors vanity and flows like a stream, where the waters are fluent and frequent.

In this it reminds us of two further scriptures, one positive, one negative:


II Corinthians 3:18, and
 


They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns  - broken cisterns - that can hold no water" -

 Jeremiah 2:13.

Again, Section 3 of Chapter 5 of SMR, there is emphasis on the ease and simplicity, adequacy and coverage of beauty as a challenge for its meaning and application. This found in biblical perspective, is exhibitive of the normal power of such an overview, a divine basis for the resolution of what are otherwise virtually  insoluble problems, things sensed but scarcely formulable, let alone verified. They gain utterance and comprehensibility, coverage and meaning in one place only, that in which the Bible places them; secure then like a jewel in a case, they are on ready display, from the light of the Lord.
 

Another 'insoluble' problem solved through the Biblical presentation is that of beauty. How are some things so magnificently beautiful, decked with a splendour so much greater than what is biologically necessary ? It is because God is an artist. You see, He made artists and artistry alike. Both sin and judgment mar beauty (sin indeed mars the ultimate beauty - the beauty of holiness); but the final judgment and separation is not yet; and meanwhile beauty abounds. Let us look at this in some more detail now. What is the place of beauty ? Why does it enthral, or inspire with a sense of vision ?

This is its place. It is a correlative, at the creaturely level, of the vision of God. It is an intuition, a vigorous ideal, providing a scent, an awareness that comes because God, who made all things, gives a sense of His personality in His products; and this is one of its dimensions which He applies and enshrines at will.

Where blessing rather than cursing is in view (cf. Romans 8:18-23), the sheer prodigal profusion of unabashed creation, or where the light of it is still relatively undimmed, the view of beauty may carry touches of His divine glory, so that it is His mind which is evidenced without the entrammelments of the misused freedoms of creation.

But it is as persons that, naturally enough, we may experience or intuit a special sense of beauty. If, for example, there is a free and lively love of freedom, truth and goodness on the part of someone who is fellow man or woman (or even child!), then there may be elicited a sense of... something near beauty.

Not only is it dedication, devotion or dutifulness, fine though these may be. Rather is it the awareness of a certain freedom, a willing, lively and if you will, lithe, unconstrained choice of virtue at its source that touches a feeling of exquisite rightness, moral design, aptness that seems, in the presence of God, to suggest beauty.

Where the Lord is in the matter, then there is that acute authenticity as of ringing of beautiful bells, that carries a rare sense of beauty. It is not misplaced, misused, distorted into dereliction of ultimate duties; but imbued, embossed and surrounded by majesty, the majesty of the Lord. Thus a certain sculpture shows simple people amazed at the presence of an angel. Not their faces, but the light of them; not their experience, but the source of it seems to diffuse loveliness into the scene. The object of life can create in its product something of the beauty of its atmosphere, when communion is inter-personal and the spirit of man senses the spirit of God... in His workings of beneficence in the intimacies of peace, the wonders of restrained power or the grandeur of design.
 

THE ESSENCE OF BEAUTY

Beauty may be found, in application, in reification of what is a spiritual thing, by way of illustration, in things architectural as in some cathedrals, majestic as in some wonders of art that combine colour and form, shape and intimation, successfully conveyed, of a certain feeling of surpassing elements, moving above crimping and cramping constraints, resolving problems with wings. In art, it may have something of the same, often in things personal relating to things peaceable, noble, composed in the midst of furies or perils, with an inner serenity or willingness that is admirable and unstressed, as we see figured what through overcoming has bypassed many dangers which might have been, but are not.

Let us pursue its meaning. It may be exhilarating, but not with mere drama, stupefying even, but not in a clouded but rather staggering fashion, but rather one that lifts the spirit, inspires the will, shows triumph where trouble might have been, or even in trouble, rising past it, gives glints of the masterpiece that man was made to be, and the environment in which he was first placed.

It has a sense of fitness, before thought, but not alien to it, of splendour without glamour, wonder without disappointment, of burrowing to the depths, while at the very same time arising to the heights, beckoning to bliss, summoning understanding, inviting wisdom, conveying a mid created things, a message that while all is not well, there are things that are, that are to be found, that are not resting on mere labour, but have a pathway direct from God to man, inspiring to the conception and perception alike.

What then of this beauty ? While it is not effortlessness by any means, that is necessarily in view, yet there is in it a certain grace, so that whatever travail may have preceded it, there is triumph in the depiction. Without God, it has neither lair nor place, meaning nor metaphysical basis, is a raw datum explicable in part in many ways, yet ones never satisfactory nor meeting final meaning. It may be seen in the face of an urchin, who longing for better things, beholds something arresting and stirring to the heart, which begins to open his or her soul to wonder. It may be found in the faces of those who behold an angel, in expectation, adoration and composure in the presence of a grand adequacy and blessedness in view. It may be seen in the heart of a small desert bloom, like a min-rose, surviving amid shrivelling conditions with what suggests a spirit of verve and determination without vexation, florid amid the torrid, diminished but not demeaned.

It is experienced in the sheer brilliance of the southern lights of the Southern aurora, which are so composed as to be awesome, so changing as to be fascinating, so atmospheric in sense, so majestic in scope, so glittering in part, so arresting in glow, so colourful with restraint, that they speak of the source of awe which is to be found in fact, through the nature of our bodies, minds, spirits, imaginations and organs, our environment and our astronomical partners, in the light of their intelligent Creator. Just as it is He who has made them  accountable to our intellects, their laws conceivable by our minds, and frequently re-composable in retrospect by our researchers,  so we move from one level of understanding to yet more, as our thoughts are ordered on the basis of that found within the creation, secure in the light of their author, composer and stirred by the Spirit of His work.

The meat and meaning of beauty is found in spirit, and its multiplied forms, formats, associated functions and functionalities, sites and configurations, colours or codes; and these express what is past mere constraint, compulsion, necessities of existence, rather moving into the realm of artistry, like the feathered designs, colours, brilliance of conception of so many maximally feathered, multi-partite and elegantly distributed clothings of birds, the bloom of peaches in a sunny orchard, or the multiplied translucencies in an ocean bed, nearer to the shore, arousing the sense of the superb, not because of exuberance so much as the appearance. in the midst. of an artistic adequacy which flows from a spirit of expression which meets that of man with felicity, unfathomable wonder and deep stirrings of heart.

This is logically  associated with only one Being in perfection, because of whom these testimonies are as splendid waterfalls in the forest, limitless seeming, uncontaminated, unspoilt, brilliant yet often unsophisticated, without the mere travail of contrivance. Rather do they tend to evoke succinct stirrings to praise of the source that can conceive and impart to us such powers of appreciation, and to other creations, such just stimulus to them, arousing through their testimony, such conception as we have latent in our beings. These may be stirred by exhibits of a creativity with composure, whether of spirit or design or mind, that if it in the case of beauty, it does not rebuke sin, at least it shows up extraneous extravanganzas and morbid fascinations by contrast.

The sheer beauty of countenance in a Stephen (Acts 7), facing stoning with a love which overmasters the hatred of his ignorant and impassioned pursuers to the death, possessed with a mind for massacre whatever the appeal and goodness of the ways of the victim, as he overcomes fear with faith, is a testament of truth beyond emotion.

It is at once

eloquent in fact,

splendid in utterance,

bold in composure,

adequate for revival of those who may soon themselves be damned,
not in mere death, but in spirit for ever, if they do not heed, and

therapeutic in profound potential.

As he spoke and glowed in spirit, it was like a spiritual surgeon cutting to stimulate before death sets in, the hearts of his false accusers, not in time but for ever. There is a sense in his words, doubtless by description communicated to his shining face, as that of an angel, that is forgiving, forceful, fearless without swagger, abrasive without hatred, enticing without allurement, and as he dies his spirit is cast to the waiting hand of the Lord, as he cries, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin!" (Acts 7:60). There is a thing of beauty.

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Composure without contamination,
 
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a resting in reality amid the wrestling with evil powers,
 
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a tang of truth amid the hearts of lies,
the distorting, disturbed personalities without ground,
groping in furies unresolved,
thrusting death at a saint
whose works of miraculous power and grace were notorious:

these were some of Stephen's qualities as he was speaking to the heart while minds, being tempest-tossed, were in no mood to listen, though doubtless their ears conveyed to their minds the words ready for later consumption. Here was courage with compassion, practical peaceableness in incisions to let flow out freely, the puss of confusion, even if in some, the draining might take days, or weeks or even years.

There was beauty in this, a spirit of beauty, even courage without contamination, piercing without pugnacity, holiness without self-preoccupation, love without littleness. Here was something of the beauty of holiness, which speaks in spirit to spirit, and communicates personally to man amidst his distortions, by its own lack of contortion, freedom from abortion in lesser things, integrity and charm. To those who look for it, are not blinded, it stills the spirit, even as it stimulated the minds and activated the hatred of those who could not stand what truth is, grace offers or pardon tenders. Filled with animation and force, it yet does not bludgeon, child-like in simplicity, being deep in composition and composure. It has no armed guard, nor troops to assassinate what it exposes, no whips to control, but stark like lightning, it has its own light that shines from above.

There is likewise a certain beauty in King David's ready acceptance of the curses of Shimei, who called him a bloody man as he withdrew from Jerusalem with his soldiery, because of his desire not to make of that city a battle-field with the forces of his rebellious son, Absolam. Why is this to be found in David here ? It is because he had instant power to have the man who cursed the King, killed at once. The King was even incited to kill, as he had been incited to kill his persecuting father-in-law, Saul when he had opportunity, while the man slept. But he did not yield. He showed an informed restraint, a spiritually luminous spirit of understanding, seeing the fitness of things beyond the fit of opportunity, or flitting passion; for through the grace of God, he acting as a spiritual and not a mere carnal man of appetite and predictable response.

There was in him here, an abundance of grace, a touch of pity, a wisdom of goodness and lovingkindness, a sense of discipline before the Lord, an awareness that his was a place which, whatever its powers, was simply deputing, nor surpassing morality, not enslaving personality, intimidating watchfulness or inviting torrents of mere dynamism. Here was a constraint from the Lord freely felt and faithfully applied. Here was personality in the beauty of holiness, where spiritual themes and graces were in the ascendant; and this, EVEN WHEN physical facts were inciting, jealousy might have soared, ambition leapt, opportunism surged and hatred in vengeance sated itself.

Such beauty is spiritual, and all beauty is explicable in spiritual terms as ULTIMATE, giving a standard for reference and contrast with what might otherwise have been, an exhibit, in whole or in part in some field, of some element of the divine grace, goodness, in style, atmosphere,  be this on the surface, physical, mental, spiritual, moral, spatial or colourful. It speaks to the heart because the heart is made by the Creator who inspires it with other works of His, which may move to tears amid the befoulments more usually found, where here a certain purity and superabundance in form, wonder, character, sense, sensibility is present, preaching whether or not heard, speaking whether or not understood.
 

NOT ONLY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

It is said, Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, but this is only partly true. It lies in the 'eye' in the sense that it is individually perceived in a way which is personal and allies itself with the conceptions, feelings, susceptibilities and sensibilities of the beholder. He or she is a subject, and in that sense only, it is subjective. But this is but part; and indeed, such a definition of 'subjective' is almost meaningless, since the fact that there IS a subject at work, does not in itself make the result of that work to be subjective: it may or may not, depending on the case and the methods used, the modes of response invoked or even revoked.

There is a sense in which there is, if not a universal response, then at least a universal trend towards reception of certain things which,  while variable because the treatment and character of man varies, are yet startlingly composed and normative, in that the image that mankind has is but one, however befouled or enlivened. Beauty HAS to be sensed, to be sure, but the sense of smell similarly has to be active if  you are to smell; the fragrance is not subjective BECAUSE it needs a sensory equipment for its detection. That depends on the design and nature both of the equipment and the person who has it. Begging questions is merely futile philosophy where reason with understanding is required.

Beauty lies where it is found, spoilt or conveyed by the finder, apt or inept at its detection, and is no more subjective than a glass and concrete building, or a palace, despite the fact it needs to be seen or felt or realised. The mode of realisation is wholly distinct from the need to realise. In what is made for a task, the result is as objective as the maker makes the components and the composition of what is to find it. Where was is, in part, a free agent, is in view, then the extent to which the liberty does or does not distort the arena and focus of its operations is what matters. Assumptions are not to the point, but verifications and access to the objectives.

Just as it is only in God, the Creator, that a just coverage of all aspects of and the meaning in beauty may be found, so there is often a sense of discovery, rather than instruction, when one is shown some beautiful sight or site, atmosphere or composure, composition as in a sunset, or configuration as in the heavens above in a clear space in desert or semi-desert wilderness.

As in Psalm 19, you have access  indeed, one and all, to what the Maker has to declare concerning it, and the point that the declaration wordless, is yet broadcast from the very heavens (cf. SMR).
 

THE SHEER DIVERSITY OF BEAUTY

There may be a sense of beauty simply in seeing a family at the seaside on holiday, where children have unfettered glee, parents ease and composure with friendliness, the sea has slight mistiness, the sand a latent splendour in its multitudinous composure mixed with its oneness and bulk, amid so many harmonious feature of wind and spray, birds flying and pools gushing. Why ? It is because here is labour at rest, striving on recall, a family in its configuration and function at once apparent, a giftedness of environment, a movement out of the curse into the grace which always accompanies it on this earth, a shaft to the victory to be granted at last, and which is present already in Spirit, in the domain of Christ, whose pardon promotes peace and re-enables man to find his place. This is not primarily amid his race, but with his Creator-Redeemer, where the rest is more than for a day, but normal, and the graciousness is more than in environment and atmosphere, but in spirit as well.

It is then  that the rest of the rest may be found! (Hebrews 4, Matthew 22:40, Ephesians 4:32).

In the twilight, there may be beauty in seeing a fisherman's form, as with intent and intensity, he surveys and approaches the sea with his line, as if sculptured in his environment, the tableau forged with light on the sky beyond, the whole enmeshed with the light and the sea, agile in peace, quiet in involvement, the angler at peace with his domain, then acting with focus.

Why may this be so ? It is because here is unstriving serenity at least in mode, in manner, where uncertainties are distant, aptness is inherent, grandeur surrounds, participation in physical environmental beauty is innate, so that there is called forth some sense of the wonder of life and the rich gifts it has ready to impart, nearer than hands and feet, in the very heart of man; and this leads straight to the God who made man in goodness and for goodness, and still beckons. It is not in beauty as such or alone that He does so,  but through this with many words, in the Bible, wonderful works, in Christ, where the splendour of divine love being present, and the practicality of the beauty of holiness being operative, the spirit of peace became available through the blood of the cross.

That is part of the beauty of holiness, that things delightful are not available continually, because of sin, and that payment is made to procure peace, in a way which is beautiful in its sheer dutifulness, remarkable in its integrity and responsibility, and pure in its practicality. It is not offering victory through hope, but conferring it through life, and death, and resurrection of the marred corpse of Christ who, taking measure of all that is past and to come, among those who are his, so has brought restoration and relief for man, if he will take it.

Beauty is one of the many summonses to listen. Peace with it is another.

Thus beauty may also be found in unexpected places, where some other facet of the divine harmony ready for man is featured, active when man is ready for it where alone it may be found, Where ? it is where it has been wrought out for availability through divine LABOUR in the life and death and resurrection of Christ. It is He who was signalised then sent and triumphant once and for all, thus creating an hiatus for trial, testing, testimony and the application of the Gospel, for learning, till His return. This is that Age, the Age of the Gospel. To  despise it is to despise life.

Again, take the motion picture of Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth, featuring the invasion of France, allegedly on legitimate grounds. In some of the cries of loyalty and commission, the harmonies of the singing, the unity of the faithful to the cause, the bearing of trials and the  endurance of sufferings while continuing enthusiastic and determined in company and in hope, there is a latent beauty. To be sure, there may be question of the need for the invasion, whatever legal normalities may have been involved. That is a limiting factor to the sense of beauty, and were it mere ambition, then beauty could not be present. Yet, leaving aside such questions, can one discern even where much is questionable, a certain beauty in the implacable intensity of intention amid sufferings endured by young Henry's followers, the mutualities enlivened, with a sense of glory of heart in responding to the earlier danger of or overthrow in treachery, first to be overcome, in this communal harmoniousness and exuberance amid weakness that required stirring.

If so, in what does it consist ? It is but a slice of what is far greater, a testimony in some part to what is a glory where no question lies, where peace has  already been paid for, though even the receipt of the price is beyond many who WILL NOT participate in a singing which is harmonious indeed, because holy and integral to truth. This is that  in Christ the Redeemer, only site for man's spiritual peace, because it has laboriously been hewn out for his emplacement, allowing the sins which deal not only with some but every  part of all situations, by those ignoring the wonder of rest available,  to be put to rest, so that a rest surpassing restlessness and uncertainty, is conferred like rain on dried ground. THIS is the victory not of Henry V over a nation, in mighty courage, for a time, much lost by Henry VI, but of His Royal Majesty, Jesus Christ, for all nations, in glorious Messiahship, for all time.

Thus there may be scarified beauty, where some elements are missing, and clarified beauty where nothing is sensed amiss at all, and there is stimulating beauty which the more readily shows man the glory of God beckoning and speaking without words. More yet, there is the beauty of acclaim, where the heart unconsciously perhaps seals the forms of participation and delight in the ways of the Lord, though more dimly sensed in some settings, or alert and delighted, directly declaims on a beauty so splendid as to surpass the bounds of stimulus and stirring, declaring the glory of God directly to the soul. The voice of testimony and praise may then well follow (cf. Psalm  145:1, 146:2).

With what ardour has the Lord placed His testimonies before the eyes, the mind and the soul of man!

But how may it be said, and has it indeed been written, that Christ who came to bring harmony and holiness in practicality and by redemption for mankind, to as many as received Him, had "no beauty that we should desire Him" ? We will now find that so far from this being a minimisation of beauty, it is its emphasis and its acme.

 

WHERE THE EXTERNALITIES OF BEAUTY WERE EXCLUDED

In context, this is in the setting of His being like a root or sprout out of a dry ground, to combine revelation on this phase (Isaiah 53:2, 11:1). He is to grow up before God His Father in heaven, He the Prince on earth better than Henry V, because deity in the first place, and without impurity in the second, and in so growing on earth, He is as a tender plant, not a splendid realisation of manifest regality. In this setting, that He humbled Himself to take the form of a servant, having come not to be ministered to, but to serve, as in Philippians 2, and Matthew 20:28, He is then seen as having no beauty that we should desire Him.

What is the alternative in view then  ? What is it being denied, that might have been affirmed ? It is that glamour and a breath-taking attractiveness, a certain sense of physical flair and personal glitter might have drawn people to His wonderful display, so that like a film-star He might have had spectators of His noblesse, charm and format, as might readily be filmed giving vicarious pleasure to many who might like to have such charms and powers, privileges and propensities for themselves, or in others.

That sort of attractiveness does exist, and for some, is paramount. With Him, the text is telling us, this is not so. HIS attractiveness, HIS splendour, being that of a root out of a dry ground, has nothing whatsoever to do with riches, or the power to earn them, or with acquisition of popularity and the power to charm mankind. On the contrary, if you look for the good oil of fame and fortune, privilege and the heights of elevation in human terms, in Him you will look in vain. All this has been carefully excluded, as part of the mission! There is to be no confusion, and hence of this feature, there is a positive exclusion. This is the burden of Isaiah 53:2.

Indeed, just as He has "no form or splendour",  as shown there, so the Hebrew word for "form" is used even more intensively in Isaiah 52:14, in this very theme and locale in that prophet, in the setting that His form was marred more than any man! Here is absence magnified, lack exalted, for as His form was not vested in appearance,  so it through abuse of men in their miserable sinfulness, was ruined to the point of unrecognisable in a ghoulish marring. This occurred in the vicarious suffering of His crucifixion with the perverse preludes to it in mocking and clouting and whipping.

Accordingly, when something of His innate splendour was given a very short exposure in the Mount of Transfiguration experience (Luke 9), this was to be kept out of speech, secret till His work was done. It was an envelope briefly exposed,  for the sheet of no form or splendour, the purpose being to help the disciples discern the address on the envelope, where it was posted and whose it is.  It goes on, however, in Isaiah 53:2, following the references to a root out of a dry ground, as to His having no form or splendour, no prepossessive appearance or mere dazzlement, to say more.

It is this. "There is no beauty that we should desire Him." This rendering of the Hebrew word basically for  "appearance" is fitting, but must in its English translation be taken too far. The Hebrew term, as seen in the Theological Word Book of the Old Testament of Harris, Archer and Waitke, is good appearance, the sense of what pleases the eye, what has something in the realm of being looked at, which is attractive. It is this sense of no-outward-show and no-splendid or enthralling appearance which is in view. The form (1), the splendour (2), the simple attraction to what is to be seen (3), the underlying sense here of what is rendered in this case only in the AV version of the  OT,  'beauty', what kindles the eye: these are all negatived. He did not have these things. That was not the purpose, the mission or in the commission. Some might want those things; not He. Some might use them; not He!

It is like being on a mission, where a time of mutual enjoyment in each other's company is not to the point, since terrible things threaten, and the marring of mission menaces, so that these luxuries are not to the point at this time. They could fatally fascinate so that the whole point of the exercise would be lost! Hence for the time, they are omitted.

NOTHING extraneous is to the point in this one time epic of the Lord to lead to an entire epoch of Gospel ministry, missions and marring of many who presented Him as He is in persecutions innumerable. It is not appearance that here matters, but what is behind the scenes, the substance for which the exterior is the cover,  what is inherent, internal, constitutive behind and for the format of flesh which Christ has adopted, in His created form, in the sense of what makes it significant, the purpose for which it has been formed, the Person eternal and God manifest for ever, for whom it is the envelope. It is WHO He is and WHAT HE as a person is like, this that matters;  just as it is what He conveys, where He comes from and why, that is crucial. He needs no 'help' from the extraneous, let alone from the regalia of glory, which at most, would be but dim compared with His eternal glory!

 It is not an insurgency of beauty, then, in any outward show, majestic excitement or alluring spectacle that is in view in the coming and work of Christ. It is something more exalted than the stars, more lowly than the earth-worm (which might look good compared with the marred ruin that was taken from the cross of Calvary).

To what might this be compared at all ? The hand is not the point in a piano exhibition, and to be too fascinated with its motion and form could annul the beauty of the music. Music here involves the manual, but the less this is noted, the more the music may be realised.

It is not that sort of beauty which is in mind, but one with just that wonder of awe and truth and atmospheric loveliness not definable as format, eternal in nature, which Is God. As God the Word is beyond human form, so Christ the man used minimal formatting.

Though His is that feature which is in the heartland of beauty as distinct from appearance, of things spiritual, yet in presentation as man, He absolves all address in ways which might be confused with something else: God is very clear! because so intensively kind. Beauty itself, though it may use many particulars, and in its presentation may even use many marvels, yet is conveyed beyond the particulars, because of the spirit behind them, and the more ultimate communications for which they are the exhibits, the foci, rather than containers. With Christ, even the natural expressions of beauty were strictly rationed. Clarity was maximised, wisdom was applied, poverty of spirit was illustrated, and the picture was thus perfected for the purpose in hand!

With what sublimity of ardour has the Lord, surpassing all earlier action, incarnated His only begotten Son, in a creaturely format for an eternal purpose, and with what ardour has He, willing to so be humbled (Psalm 40), brought beauty to perfection, and sublimity to earth, untouched and undefiled that through vicarious defilement, and overpowering resurrection even of what had been defiled, the beauty of holiness might freely come once and for all. Moreover, for those who are His, for all time and beyond the times of this earth, it endures forever.

Let us now ponder a little further, the basis for beauty.

 

METAPHYSICS OF AESTHETICS

In the past, the term metaphysics of aesthetics has been used on this site. This concentrated on the fact that there is a reason for beauty, as well as a mode for it, indeed, many are its modes. The reason as we have seen here, is this, that it is based in God, unbiased by obliterative blasts, secure in spirit, conveyed by forms, a directive towards the divine, a message in action, not words. Personal distortion can mar it, but personal wit does not create it in the percipient in its ultimate basis. It perceives it. It may be created by the purveyor, as in the case of an artist, and there is no necessity in this, that he or she should even consider the metaphysics of aesthetics, the reason for and the meaning of beauty, any more than courage requires articulable vision. Things that relate to God are so profound, so inherent in man, made in the image of God, that much that is good can come from even from the bewildered soul, just as a marvel of aesthetic beauty in the flight of a sea-gull in its artless wit and splendid ease, can come where exposition is even in natural terms, and results are inbuilt.

In The True God has God, Gives Grace and Glory Ch. 6, we have this concerning a peacock, imagined as participating in a conversation.

At that point, there was a very considerable growth in our near vicinity, and as you may have guessed, it was Peacock, whose tail had slowly risen and spread itself like a glorious mini-galaxy of colour, and as he did so, he looked us to keenly in the eye, as if to check that we were properly appreciative, so that it had something of the feeling of a game. The thought passed through my mind, that just as that tail arose, so the tale of its fall might arise; that here was a glory which could intoxicate as well as delight, both Peacock and onlookers; for if you failed to seek the Maker of the incredibly complex basis for luminous phenomena, reflection, refraction, interaction, method of siting the feathers, the physiological apparatus back of it, the anatomical provisions for its massive erection into display mode, what then ?

Why, then you would just be participating in a vainglory. That falls.

Looking at Peacock, I was moved to ask him directly. Peak, I said, almost at once regretting any implication in the nick-name, do you feel any glory about your tail ?

I have been listening to LL, said Peak, and yes, I have found some sort of pompous pride in what after all is only a gift from God; but I do so no longer. It is true that I had an eye to see if you were noticing this creation of wonder, this advent of artistry and complexity above all that any could hope to see or be prepared to admire functionally, because you see its artistry is a ground for aesthetics, and this is merely the appreciation of the texture and truth of beauty. If you did not, then the effort might not have been worthwhile. When instead you thank God for what He has done, and rejoice in such a Creator, there is a falling of the curtain on the pantomime of pride.

It was so good to hear commonsense and spiritual perception at work in Peak that I almost wept.

Great! I said.

It is because there is a ground for beauty that it is comprehensible, and because that ground is no one less than God, who created human hearts, eyes, yearnings, turning powers and access to truth, both direct in Christ and indirect in the very construction of our minds and world, that all is both readily explicable and this without reductionism; for with God there is no reduction, but rather glory. This, beauty,   is one of the tides of His output, one of the avenues to His being who invites, a phase of His wonder; and it is grounded there in Him, covered without omission in all cases, one reality in many forms, multitudinous as a marvel; and so it is is as attested in the assiduities of reason, that faculty itself, God-given. Not only is its presence, meaning and power covered in all its scope in every instance by His power and active presence, Himself its origin in spirit, its manufacturer in meat and meaning, its explication as basis, its creator as convener and conveyor just as He may see fit to endow it, but it is directly exposed in the Bible, His sole written, authorised word to mankind -
(cf. REASON, REVELATION and the REDEEMER).

It is found in Jesus Christ personally; placed in the Bible graphically, in life  just as He may see fit to endow it. Iin Christ Jesus the Lord, the Logos and the Saviour,  it is imparted by His heart for mankind and where due response is wrought, then in them. It is a gift by grace to the race, but its tenuousness becomes triumph when its basis is personally known, and known personally as One better than any guard, more constant than any friend, more consistent than the rising of the run, more insistent than the sighing of the waves as heard on the dunes; for it is He who said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent," John 17:3. John in I John 1:1-4 expounds the sheer marvel of it, as also the security in I John 5:11ff., Paul the same in Ephesians 1:5-11.

When therefore the Christian worships the Lord in the beauty of holiness, as in Psalm 96:9, it is a direct relationship with the author of created beauty, in whom it is inherent, He being uncreated and eternal, necessary and actual basis for all things, including the liberty to mar them, one necessary that love might even exist in and with man. In beauty in its finale, however, there is no marring, since the redemption is secure for all who are His, and a new heavens and a new earth will come without scar.

There is a glow of the flow, a wonder of the presence of the Lord in the movements to be found in worship of His Being in Christ sent to secure and save us. Enlivened by His Spirit, covered by His Son,  based on the pardon of His procurement on the cross for faith, beauty becomes if not palpable, then an imbuement associated not only with liberty, but with His glory (II Corinthians 3:17-18).  As a freeway extends, but first must be entered for travelling, so the freeway to God in Christ, is adorned with His beauty and the very clouds above it, speak of it as we go.

Small wonder then that we find in Isaiah 28, a Chapter which moves slowly and surely to the Messiah in 28:16, we find in verse 5, these words:

"In that day the Lord of hosts will be for a crown of glory,
and a diadem of beauty for the remnant of His people,
for a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and for strength for those who turn back the battle at the gate."

There is that emphatic association of the Lord's wisdom, justice, glory and beauty in all its arresting gleams of light, which illuminates His people, the more as they wait upon Him for those who do, they will never be ashamed (Isaiah 28:16), yes, nor make haste.

There is beauty in that, the steadfastness of truth allied with the brilliance of light, the wisdom of truth and the bounty of responsible judgment.