God's Beauty - Pt 2

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:15-20 ESV).

I have been using a “heart-healthy” diet for the past few weeks since the doctors have informed me that I need to both lose weight and reduce the amount of plaque building in my arteries. And, since the angioplasty to restore flow of blood in two of my arteries, I suppose they are correct. However, can I simply say it is a lot harder to resist those cookies now than it ever was before! The temptation to “cheat” just a little on the diet is not lessened by the threat of more heart trouble. I need a different motivator. That seems to be the truth the apostle is expressing in our reading today. The good news is that God’s beauty can fill the affections of our heart, which is essential if we are going to meet our foes of sin and temptation with success. Jonathon Edwards was often heard speaking about quietly enjoying the beauty of God, and communing with him in his Son, who was the mighty and radiant friend in times of great temptation. Edwards delightfully used a wonderful phrase when he said, “Enjoying God happifies me.” One of the crucial battles of the Christian life is discovering the true ugliness of sin and exposing its destructiveness. Sin is the enchanting allure of what is going to kill you. You simply can’t help but jump into the water of sin and get slammed against the rocks of judgment and hell and death. We do not have the willpower to stop. We must rely on a higher loveliness, a more compelling beauty. We will only do what we love to do, and we will be that way forever. We cannot function any other way. Edwards said, “We have a beauty-thirst that must be quenched, no matter what.” We all do. The sixty year old who leaves his wife for a younger woman, the teen looking at porn, the banker checking his personal accounts every hour, the pastor feeding his soul on the drug of congregational approval, all of these are taking a mere mannequin and treating it like a spouse, we expect it to love us like a spouse. The great tragedy is that the real person is in the next room wanting to love us. Seeing the beauty of God leads us to recognize the truth and discard the emptiness of the world in favor of the vast beauty of God. That is real motivation!