In this wonderful devotional to refresh us, we are reminded that "beauty" is the heart of the believer to God. Commonplace immorality in our society is "wicked" in God's eyes. Why? Because God is pure. We can praise Him for making us pure when He comes to live inside us and supernaturally make us want to live holy for Him.
December 2
All beautiful you are, my darling. (Song of Songs 4:7)
From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:
The Lord's affection for His church is quite wonderful, and His description of her beauty is very glowing. He doesn't merely speak of His bride as beautiful, but "all beautiful." He sees her as being in Himself, washed in His sin-atoning blood, and clothed in His legally-won righteousness. He considers her pleasing to look upon and, in fact, full of beauty. Yet this is no wonder since it is actually His own perfect qualities He is admiring, for the church's holiness, glory, and perfection are His own glorious garments in which He has clothed His well-beloved spouse. She is not simply pure--she is positively lovely and beautiful!
She also has true merit! Her deformities due to sin have been removed, but even more, through her Lord she obtained a legally-won righteousness by which her true beauty has been conferred upon her. Believers have an absolute righteousness given to them when they are "accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 1:6 KJV).
Again, the Lord doesn't see His church as barely lovely but "all beautiful," for He also refers to her as the "most beautiful of women" (Song 5:9). She has true worth and excellence that cannot be rivaled by all the nobility and royalty of the world. If Jesus could exchange His elect bride for all the queens and empresses on earth, or even for the angels in heaven, He would not do so, for she is His priority and the "most beautiful of women." Like the moon, she outshines the stars, and this is not an opinion He is ashamed of, for He wants all people to hear Him. In Song of Songs 4:1, He doesn't simply say, "How beautiful!" but "Oh, how beautiful!" drawing even more attention to it. And in that verse He reiterates the thought, saying, "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!"
Even now our Lord proclaims His glorious opinion of His bride, and one day from the throne of His glory He will reconfirm this truth before the assembled multitudes of the universe. His solemn affirmation of the beauty of His elect will be the words: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father" (Matt. 25:34).
From the pen of Jim Reimann:
Today's devotion is a glorious reminder of the power of God's grace to transform His people. Paul asked, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were" (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
And that is what some of us were! Yet the power of God's amazing grace is revealed as Paul continues in verse 11: "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." Paul also said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17), and "He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" (Eph. 1:4)--not to mention beautiful.
And as Solomon said in another of his books, "He has made everything beautiful in its time" (Eccl. 3:11)--even us!
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