The Beauty of Salvation (1)
One thing I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27.4, 5
It can be easy to lose sight of the beauty of Christ and His salvation. We tend to reduce salvation to an outline: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, peace and happiness here and now. Those are good and desirable gifts, to be sure. But because they are scarcely ever unpacked more fully, we never quite glimpse the beauty to which they point.
As a theologian, David Bentley Hart is at once important and fascinating, and exasperating and controversial. Few of us have heard his name, and fewer still have read his works. While, as with nearly every theologian I’ve ever read, I cannot agree with all that Hart believes and writes, I find him to be enormously gifted in addressing the role of theology in our contemporary world and the mystery and beauty of it for believers.
We’re going to follow a section in Hart’s 2003 book, The Beauty of the Infinite, in which he expounds how our salvation urges us on to a greater understanding of Christ’s beauty. Our study begins with Hart referring to the Franciscan theologian Bonaventure (1217-1274) from his work, Collationes in Heaemeron 1.34): “Christ…is the measure of all beauty, who restores beauty to what has become formless through sin and death, makes the beautiful yet more beautiful, and makes the exceedingly beautiful more beautiful still.” While we can all affirm this statement, I wonder how many of us respond to it as we might.
William Cowper (d. 1800) wrote:
Scenes must be beautiful, which daily view’d
Please daily, and whose novelty survives
Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years…
Jesus is beautiful like that. He draws us to Himself daily, to seek His beauty in Scripture, dwell before the beauty of His glorious face, bask in the beauty of His heavenly throne room, and become, increasingly, His beauty in and to the world. No matter how long we’ve known Him or how careful and earnest our study of Him has been, His fresh beauty remains fresher still.
This is the One Whose saving mercy and grace we believe and proclaim. The salvation He offers is no mere outline. It is nothing less than the increasing experience of unspeakable beauty as a way of life.
Being disciples and making disciples
Perhaps the most crucial aspect of being and making disciples is living in the Presence of the Lord. In my conversations with Mike McQueen, we begin the first of a series of discussions on this topic. Click the link or the audio bar at the top of this teaching letter to listen in.
Other columns of interest: This week: In our ReVision series on “The Kingdom Economy” we wrap-up our discussion of the Biblical teaching on justice. Our Read Moore podcast is working through The Gospel of the Kingdom, looking for the true Gospel of the Lord. The Crosfigell teaching letter continues our study of the life of Brigit, a contemporary of Brendan. And our daily Scriptorium study concludes our investigation of Ephesians 4. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
New in our bookstore is Let God Be True, sharing the Gospel in an age in flight from God. It takes patience and love, but we can do it. Free as a PDF by clicking here. You can also order my new book of poems, Never Too Late, issued by Wipf and Stock’s Resources imprint. Click here.
From the Celtic Revival
Brigit of Kildare (451-525)
In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we have begun following Cogitosus’ Lift of St. Brigit the Virgin:
Her concern was to provide for the orderly direction of souls in all things and to care for the churches of the many provinces which were associated with her…
– Cogitosus, The Life of St. Brigit the Virgin
Brigit was a contemporary of Brendan and chose being a nun over being sold into slavery. She became renowned by her good works and excellent teaching, and she is recognized as one of the pillars of the Celtic Revival (ca. 430-800). Cogitosus, her biographer, offers this brief summary of the focus of her ministry: the orderly direction of individual souls and the care of churches. Surely she has something to teach us.
Follow the rest of Cogitosus’ story of Brigit each Tuesday and Thursday in our Crosfigell teaching letter. Add our Crosfigell teaching letter to your subscriptions.
Devotional Histories
Brigit’s story is the fifth in our series of devotional histories of great saints from the period of the Celtic Revival (ca. 430-800). Here are the other three, which are available as free PDF downloads in our bookstore
Patrick: A Devotional History
Colum Cille: A Devotional History
Columbanus: A Devotional History
Our devotional history of Brendan is still in the process of being readied for publication.
You might also enjoy our selections from the lives of other saints of this period, Lives of Irish Saints.
T. M. Moore
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
