Total Beauty
Introduction
God’s endgame in creating the world, a cosmos founded on the “Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8 cf. 1 Pet 1:20), is to make “everything beautiful in its time.” (Eccl 3:11). In a world sovereignly subjected to futility, decay and death (Rom 8:20-21), this is definitely not self-evident. That the earth will one day “coming soon…be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14; Rev 22:20), is a destiny fiercely contested by “the (evil) cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Eph 6:12). They understand that when the people of God enter into the revelation of “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6) “the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things” (Mark 4:19), will lose their power. Meanwhile in our affluent nations the “lifestyle Christianity” which “chokes” genuine discipleship is holding back the progress of the kingdom of God (Mark 4:19). At present, “[T]he deceiver of the whole world…knowing that his time is short” (Rev 12:9) has thrown every lie and delusion at the Church to block her from seeing the goal of God’s beauty in Christ encompassing everything. This is a topic too huge to cover here, so I need to focus on three clearly contested realms of our thinking, how we see work, ageing and death.
Work
Despite advocacy for marketplace ministries, many sincere Christians still lack a revelation that work is to be the most extended sphere of their worship. What other place offers an opportunity to “offer your body as a living sacrifice…(of) spiritual worship” (Rom 12:2)? I prophetically declared recently that the wisdom and knowledge of Christ in the work of a (Christian) plumber (Col 2:3) involves a holy beauty one with his longing for marital bliss and one with the relationship between Christ and his Bride (Eph 5:25-32). These things are real in the Spirit to me as he unfolds Jesus’ eternal calling in every dimension of life and culture (Acts 3:19-21). Tragically, few Christians seem to see their work as beautiful; many more see it as a means to supply the finances to get on with the more important or pleasurable things of life! Some do see the workplace as an evangelistic or ethical opportunity, which it is, but far more profoundly we need to see work itself as beautiful in Christ. (As Jesus saw his carpentry as worship for the Father (John 4:24).) The gospel teaches that by his labours for us in Gethsemane (Heb 5:7-8), and on the cross (John 19:30), Jesus has reversed the curse of work as toil (Col 1:28-29; 1 Cor 15:10; 1 Tim 4:10). The atonement is not limited to some “spiritual realm” but enfolds all creation (Col 1:18-20). The work of Jesus is bigger than everything!
Ageing
Years ago, soon after I had a soul-splitting then joy-releasing experience of the Lord’s powerful presence overseas, I took a regular communion service for frail, crippled, demented and the visibly perishing in an old people’s home. Surprisingly, I was granted to see them through the eyes of Christ crucified in the power of his endless love. This haggard bunch were all amazingly beautiful. Loving, radiant, spiritual beauty covered them breaking in from another world. This was a heavenly vision about how God sees his elderly saints. Compare this with the gloomy message of an anti-ageing clinic I walked past yesterday, which appeared to target the middle aged. In a recent Australian survey of 1200 people aged over 65, 77% expressly said they not looking forward to ageing. They were anxious about losing their freedoms and enjoyment in life and of becoming a burden to others. The Lord however commands us not to be anxious about anything in life (Matt 6:25; Phil 4:6). Shopping last night I heard a song with the words about dancing together so “we will be young forever”; the gospel doesn’t promise eternal youth, it promises eternal glory. PTL The older and weaker we get the greater the opportunity to depend on resurrection life (2 Cor 13:4). This is a call to live by triumphant faith, Hallelujah. What about that “last enemy”, death (1 Cor 15:26)?
Death
When I was at theological college two notable scholars said they agreed that death was never a good thing. In response, I quoted them from the Song of Simeon, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word” (Luke 2:29). They fell silent. This sense of God’s supremacy over death can be our portion. When a friend was dying of cancer the Spirit directed her and her devout husband to this scripture: the Lord “makes everything beautiful in its time” (Eccles 3:12). “Everything” embraces death, or more poignantly, all things are embraced by the death of Jesus as “the fulness of time” (John 7:8; Gal 4:4). In COVID time, vax or anti-vax, people are hyper-stressed because of their generally irrational fear of death. This is a truly demonic experience (Heb 2:14-15). Compare this with the vision of Christ when anointed by an anonymous woman, “She has done a beautiful thing to me….She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” (Mark 14:6,8). How does this apply to us (supposed) ordinary mortals? When the Word proclaims, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” (Ps 116:15) we are to read this prophetically of the infinite joy the death of the all-obedient Son brought to the Holy Father (Heb 1:9; 12:2). In Christ we are heirs of such great things (Rom 8:16-17).
Conclusion
I long for the day when “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” (Thomas Chalmers https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-expulsive-power-of-a-new-affection) will drive out of the Church its preoccupation with the petty, passing glories of this world. Today we desperately need a new vision in the Spirit of the all-surpassing worth of Christ in his eternal beauty (2 Cor 4:7; 9:14; 12:7; Phil 3:8). We can believe that by Jesus, through the ministrations of the Church, that in the End, God will be “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28 cf. Eph 1:22-23; 4:10) and that unsurpassable beauty will fill all things radiating out from who we are in Christ. In his “Weight of Glory” C. S. Lewis famously said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Are you my sister and brother too easily pleased? Ask the Lord for the desire of Christ, by which I mean a deeper sharing in all Jesus saw of why the world had been made by his Father and how he longed for it all to be fulfilled. This will “blow your mind” and leave you with very little choice than to follow Jesus and bring forth “fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:20).