Beauty and Glory
This is Part 2 of 3 from a sermon on Beauty, the third in "The Transcendentals" series preached at Summit Church (Naples) in January 2026. It has been lightly edited for publishing. Click here to listen to the audio.
Scripture is filled with references to God’s glory, an all-encompassing excellence that unquestionably establishes his unique right to be worshipped. He expressed this to the prophet Isaiah himself:
8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols. (Isaiah 42:8)
But God doesn’t just deserve to be worshipped; we worship him because he’s desirable and enjoyable. He is both glorious and beautiful. In fact, God’s glory and God’s beauty are so closely related that wherever God’s glory is present, there his beauty is displayed as well.
Captured by God’s Beauty
This is why, for example, Moses pleaded with Yahweh, “18 Please show me your glory” (Ex. 33:18). It helps us understand why the Psalmist remarked that his one desire was to “4 to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4), and boldly declared “11 In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). It helps us understand why Jesus prayed for his disciples like this: “24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory…” (John 17:24).
These passages indicate that a fitting response to God and his activity is to be captured by his beauty. Karl Barth, with whom I don’t agree with on everything (not even in regard to beauty) speaks to this.
“[To say that God is beautiful] is to say that God has this superior force, this power of attraction, which speaks for itself, which wins and conquers, in the fact that He is beautiful, divinely beautiful, beautiful in His own way, in a way that is His alone, beautiful as the unattainable primal beauty, yet really beautiful… He has it as a fact and a power in such a way that He acts as the One who gives pleasure, creates desire and rewards with enjoyment. And He does it because He is pleasant, desirable, full of enjoyment, because He is the One who is pleasant, desirable, full of enjoyment, because first and last He alone is that which is pleasant, desirable and full of enjoyment.”[1]
It’s normal and right to be filled with joy as we experience his glory.
Don’t Settle for Less
But here’s the question: have you settled for lesser beauty than you should? This is where so many miss out—disastrously so. The beautiful things we see and hear are incredible, but there exists a beauty that far exceeds all earthly beauty. The delight we get from those things pales in comparison what we experience in the light of God’s glory. The beauty of this life is like a wedding hors d'oeuvre, just whetting our appetite for the main meal. And yet, it’s so easy to stop here.
Beauty naturally draws us to worship, but we often end up giving our lives to things instead of the Creator. Have you made an idol of the human body—either by tirelessly trying to maintain your attractiveness, or objectifying another’s beauty for your own pleasure? Are you worshipping music? Have you made an idol of your art or craft? Are you chasing experiences, hoping for goosebumps at the next mountain peak?
Don’t misunderstand me. Beauty is a wonderful gift and we ought to enjoy it, but the greatest beauty of all isn’t something we can chase down with money, skill, or time. He reveals himself to us.
2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “6 For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Do you know his beauty for yourself? I sure hope you do, because it gets even better.
Works Cited:
[1] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, edited by G. W. Bromiley and T . F. Torrence (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1970), vol. II, part 1, p. 650-651.
