Beauty is Divine
This is Part 1 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.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That’s one of the most common phrases that our society uses on the topic of beauty. And it is taken as irrefutable fact, serving as an immediate conversation stopper during any point of aesthetic disagreement. But is it true?
If taken in a strict sense, it would mean that nothing is more or less beautiful than another; it would relegate beauty to the realm of personal preference; and it would mean that the profound experiences we have when we see something beautiful—longing, desire, a sense of smallness beholding greatness—are only mirrors revealing self-sentiment. They’re not indicative of something more; they’re just goosebumps.
Thankfully, that view seems obviously false. And everyday life reveals that no one lives as if they believe it.
Think of all the time and money Hollywood spends on picking locations for shows, the musicians who dedicate their lives to perfecting their craft, and the people who travel across the world to visit museums like the Louvre.
Has everyone wasted their time and money?
Of course not! We act in accordance with something we all intuitively know: that beauty is a real quality of a thing itself. This means that sunsets, songs, and paintings that possess beauty are beautiful—whether I notice them or not.
These things piqued my interest in the topic of beauty, but what keeps me fascinated with it is the experience of beauty and the promise it holds for my spiritual life.
Think for a moment what it was like when you saw or heard something that just blew you away. What effect did the beauty have on you?
Beauty evokes wildly different responses—awe and inspiration, joy and exhilaration, even sorrow and pain. But there is a common thread among them all: a sense of delight and desire. When I see or hear a beautiful thing, I love it; I don’t want to stop beholding it; and I want to experience it in a greater degree.
There’s a reason we describe visible beauty as transcendent or otherworldly and certain voices as angelic or divine. It's because when we behold beauty, we begin to believe—consciously or unconsciously—that there must be something more than this. We feel as though this earthly beauty is a foretaste of heavenly beauty. We intuitively believe that a complete fulfillment of beauty exists, and that when we encounter it, we will finally and fully be satisfied.
The Christian story says, “Yes, you’re right! If you look in the right place, you will behold a beauty that will put an end to your seeking. Look for beauty in God himself and you will be satisfied, for in him is the fullness of beauty.”
Listen to the way Scripture expresses it in Isaiah 33:
13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might…
17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
they will see a land that stretches afar…
21But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor majestic ship can pass.
Beauty is Divine
What does it mean that the fullness of beauty is complete in God’s Being? And what real-world bearing does that have on our lives?
Primarily, it means that God is the objective standard of beauty.
We all know what it’s like to be held to a standard. When students take tests, the standard is the answer key. When a carpenter sets out to construct a perfectly square angle, the standard is 90°. My mom got so mad at my dad one time that she never made apple pie again. Why? Because his mom’s apple pie was the standard, and her pie didn’t measure up.
Compared to beauty, standards of goodness and truth seem straightforward. God designed reality, filling it with beings who have purposes. Something is true if it properly corresponds to reality. Something is good if it properly fulfills its purpose.
But a standard of beauty seems more ambiguous. Is it some written list of qualities—like an answer key—that we ought to look for in things? Just imagine how long that list would be. Here’s a short list of common suggestions of the definition of beauty: “proportion, unity, variety, symmetry, harmony, intricacy, delicacy, simplicity, or suggestiveness,”[1] clarity, order, and integrity.[2] That approach seems untenable.
Instead of a list, Scripture reveals that the ultimate standard of beauty is a Being: God himself. In other words, God doesn’t merely define beauty in words; he embodies it. That’s why the Psalmist was so bold with his declaration: “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4).
And this position is not unique to me. Over 1,500 years ago, Christians were saying things like this:
God is “the all-beautiful,” “the superabundant source in itself of the beauty of every beautiful thing.”[3]
In his prayers, St. Augustine mourned the time he forfeited on other things, saying, “Belatedly I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved Thee.”[4]
And an early defender of the Trinity, St. Hilary, asked, “Should not the Lord of this very beauty be conceived as the most beautiful of all beauty…?”[5]
But what is God’s beauty like?
It doesn’t mean that he’s pretty or handsome, though Scripture does confirm that it is sometimes manifested visibly. It’s often related to light, leaving people who encounter him to be described as “radiant” (Ex. 34:30; Mark 9:3). But it’s more than that.
God’s beauty is evident in his character. He has all desirable qualities, and nothing is missing.
God’s beauty is evident in the pleasant harmony of his own Triune nature. He is perfectly whole as Father, Son, and Spirit. Jonathan Edwards wrote, “God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself, in perfectly beholding and infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, his own essence and perfection.”[6]
God’s beauty is evident in his royal power. His reign is majestic and filled with splendor.
And God’s beauty is evident in his deeds. They correspond perfectly to his nature; they are proportionate to his power; and they are proper in light of his divine happiness.
Beauty Shines Brightly in the Dark
Sometimes beauty shines most brightly in the darkest moments. And that certainly seems to be the case against the dark backdrop of the crucifixion of Jesus.
On the cross, divine character, power, harmony, and righteous deeds were placed on full display. By dying in my place, Jesus paid the just penalty for my sin, conquered over the stronghold of the enemy, and lavished his perfect love, mercy, and grace over me. And three days later, he rose again, and reigns forever as glorious King.
The beauty of Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection on my behalf evokes all sorts of responses in me, chief among them a desire to worship him.
Works Cited:
[1] Jonathan King, The Beauty of the Lord: Theology as Aesthetics (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 9.
[2] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, quoted in Kovach, Philosophy of Beauty, 162.
[3] Pseudo-Dionysius, Divine Names, quoted in Philip Ryken, Beauty is Your Destiny (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), 4.
[4] Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. Albert C. Outler. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), 228.
[5] St. Hilary, On the Trinity, i. 7, quoted in Patrick Sherry, Spirit and Beauty (London, UK: SCM Press, 2002), 55.
[6] Jonathan Edwards, An Unpublished Essay of Edwards on the Trinity., (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903), 77
