So your heart is captivated by the beauty of sin, yet at the same time is a growing sense of urgency to delight in the beauty of Christ. The first sign of repentance, I am convinced, is to become aware of the fact that you are unrepentant. You see your lack of desire for God, your flaccid appetite for Him. You must note something obvious from the things we have been considering. We have sketched the picture of how one is attracted to beauty when he sees it, because beauty has that attracting quality about it. But have you seen the beauty of Christ? You must see His beauty in order to be attracted to it. To experience an attraction to Christ that is more overwhelming than the attraction you experience toward your sin, you must be able to see the breathtaking beauty of Christ!
As you read Psalm 16, take a piece of paper and note all of the beautiful things the Psalmist sees in His God (like I did in the first and second parts of this series of reflections).
Let me share with you some things I have learned about seeing that may help you to see the beauty of Christ and of God. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:2 that “not everyone has faith”. This is significant in our thoughts on seeing the beauty of Christ because of what faith is. I will now make a statement and then go on to show you how I have come to this conviction. Without faith, you cannot see the beauty of Christ.
Some years ago I sat under the preaching of a man who pounded the point home that everyone has faith, but most people simply don’t direct their faith toward Christ. He used the old (worn out idea) that everyone exercises faith when they sit on a chair. They believe that the chair will hold them. They swig out of a Coke can by faith, simply believing that the black, sticky substance in the tin really isCoke. They then go on to tell you that all you have to do is direct that faith toward Christ.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones called that idea of faith the principle of mathematical probability. You simply use your experience in calculating a situation to make a decision as to whether you can do a certain thing or not. The chair has always held you so it will probably hold you again etc. I also think that this kind of talk about faith is confusing and unhelpful.
Anyway, I slipped the preacher a question in private, in a most gentle way. I asked him what he thought about 2 Thessalonians 3:2 where God says that “not all men have faith”. He didn’t take it very well because that created problems for the rest of the series he was due to preach, based on that idea. Some months later, I received an invitation to preach at their church on Hebrews 11! Here was my opportunity to share with them something of the wonderful nature of true biblical faith. I would like to share this with you, not only because of the confusion that surrounds faith today, but so that you can come to see the beauty of the lovely Jesus.
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