Or I could send you to Flickr or YouTube and encourage you to search for Scottish pictures and videos.

Which do you think would be more successful?

The Wikipedia entry might make you say something like, “Well, that’s very interesting! Sounds like a great place. I think I’d like to go there someday.”

But the Flickr pictures and YouTube videos would evoke, “Wow, that’s beautiful. How do I get there and when can I go?”

Beauty is a more powerful persuader than data.

That’s Beautiful!
When the grocery store wants you to buy a new chocolate cake, what do they do? Do they set up a booth with a Powerpoint of the Nutrition Facts? Do they have books explaining the benefits of this low-carb, low-fat, low-sugar, high-protein, high-fiber chocolate cake?

Of course not, they set up tasting booths in aisles where the rich chocolate fragrance draws the nose, the light moist sponge draws the eyes, and the offered sample draws a drooling tongue. You taste and exclaim. “That’s beautiful! Where do I buy?”

Beauty attracts. Beauty draws. Beauty persuades. Beauty compels. Beauty convinces.

Yet, the church, especially the reformed branch of it, is not very good at beauty.

We do logical but not beautiful. We’re good at arguing, but not at attracting.  We’re good at systematizing but not at stunning. We’re good at organizing but not at awing. We’re good at clarity but not at beauty.

He’s Beautiful
Now, of course, we need logic, we need argument, we need system, we need organizing, and we need to be clear. But these are only servants to beauty, a means to an end – that of bringing people to the feet of Jesus exclaiming, “Wow! He’s beautiful!”

Facts, argument, logic, persuasion may bring you to nod your head in agreement.

Beauty produces, “Draw me, I will run after you!”

Truthful + Beautiful
When I’ve preached justification or sanctification, doctrine or devotion, Old Testament or New Testament, I ask not only, “Was it truthful?” but also, “Was Jesus beautiful?”

I don’t want my hearers just to say, “Well that was reasonable, logical, tightly argued, clear, etc.” I want them to say, “Jesus is so, so beautiful.”

Same goes for parenting. Amidst the noise, smoke, and dust of raising children, am I communicating the breathtaking, inimitable, irresistible, beauty of Christ?

Also for witnessing. I can proof text, win arguments, and beat down atheists, Arminians, Muslims and Mormons all day. But did I once try to show them the beauty of Jesus?

Beautiful inspiration
This post was partly inspired by Brian Zahnd’s Beauty will save the world: Rediscovering the allure and mystery of Christianity. Like Trevin Wax, I have some reservations about this book, especially the lack of clarity in a couple of places about the exclusive truth claims of Christianity. But the fundamental core message of the book is one that many of us in Calvinist churches (old and new) need to hear.

For too long we’ve limited the demand of faithfulness to “telling the truth.” To this we must also add “showing His beauty.”

Truthful + beautiful = faithful.

Disease brings death. The grave destroys. But here God promises a radical reversal. Death will be diseased and the grave will be destroyed. Israel’s enemies will themselves be defeated and Israel will be released.

Paul borrows this language and the principle behind it to anticipate the ultimate victory of the Christian over death: “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?’ (1 Cor. 15:54-55)

This great climactic victory will be seen in all its glory on the day of the general resurrection of God’s people. As the Lord Jesus comes to claim the precious dust of His saints and to transform them into His glorious body, He shouts, “O death, I will be your plagues; I grave, I will be your destruction.”

But we need not wait until then to see foreshadows of this victory. Every time a Christian defeats the fear of death and its soul-paralyzing power by trusting in Christ to save his body and soul from death, the victory shout is heard, “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction.”

Every time a Christian faces terminal illness and death with faith and confidence in Christ, death is plagued and the grave’s power is destroyed.

Every time a persecuted Christian faces the firing squad and looks heavenward with peace and confidence, all heaven celebrates the victory, “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction.”

As you face your own end in this world, may this great divine ‘I will’ make death and the grave weaken and wither before you. May you look forward to the day of full and final victory when “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (I Cor. 15:51-52).”