The True Beauty of Jesus Christ
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
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Beauty is not necessarily visual; beauty can be non-visual too. For example, the Lord is beautiful (Ps. 27:4), but we can’t see him—he is spirit (John 4:24). His sanctuary is beautiful (Ps.96.6). The Lord’s King is beautiful (Isa. 33:17). And, consider the beauty of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Despite contrived artistic visual images of him, we have no record of his appearance.
It is the word of God that shows us the beauty of Christ Jesus.
None of the so-called pictures of Jesus are true; they could never capture the accuracy of his divine nature, even if in part they could reveal one aspect of his human nature—his physical appearance. Even so, there are no visual records of what Jesus looked like. There is a reason the Second Commandment prohibits worshipping or serving images and idols—they can never reveal the truth about God the Father, God the Son, or the God Holy Spirit, especially in terms of beauty.
Nevertheless, was Jesus’s human appearance beautiful from what we know in Scripture? In Isaiah 53 we read a song of the Suffering Servant of God, which is a prophecy about the promised Messiah who is Christ Jesus. Isaiah describes him for us:
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isa. 53:2-3, emphasis added)
This picture Isaiah writes of what the Messiah would look like is far from many popular images people imagine in their own minds when influenced by modern artistic representations. It is the word of God, not human-imagined images, that shows us the beauty of Christ Jesus. In the wisdom of God the Lord has shown us his Son by his written word, and he is beautiful! In fact, he possesses a beauty that in this life we can only see by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
The beauty of a person’s heart reflects their goodness.
One example of the concept of seeing with the “eyes of faith” can be found in the story of King David. When Samuel was appointed by God to anoint the King of Israel to succeed Saul, the Lord explained to Samuel why he chose David and not his brother Eliab:
When they [David’s brothers] came, he [Samuel] looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is before him.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:6-7, emphasis added)
Even as we consider physical beauty we are reminded about inward beauty. In another example, Peter gives instructions to wives:
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Pet 3:3-4, emphasis added)
Seeing the beauty of another person by their heart, their inward beauty of kindness, gentleness, patience, and especially love, is seeing true beauty.
One day we will visually see the fullness of the beauty of Christ with our own eyes.
Seeing with our heart, a heart changed by God from stone to flesh (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26), and walking by faith in Christ Jesus also gives us eyes to see him in all his beauty and glory. With eyes of faith we can see the beauty of his love and self-sacrifice as the Suffering Servant who perfectly obeyed his Father and gave his life so that we may one day even see him fully with our eyes as he truly is.
By God’s word through faith we see now Jesus’ gentle and lowly heart (Matt. 11:29), his compassion (Mark 6:34), his forgiveness (Luke 5:24), and his love (1 John 4:19). Yet, in heaven our eyes will be perfected to see his full beauty. John writes,
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
At his second coming, in new resurrected imperishable and incorruptible bodies, those who are united to Christ by faith will see his true beauty, a beauty that is indescribable and beyond our imagination, true and eternal.
This article was originally published under the title “True Beauty” in BCL’s March 2025 monthly newsletter “Beauty.”
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