True Beauty

Why do we sin? The Bible tells us it's because we enjoy it, at least on some level. That our hearts are so sick that we gladly turn our back son the fountain of life giving water and drink out of man made cisterns instead. That instead of swimming in the ocean of God's goodness, we'd rather drown in a muddy puddle, sucking dirty water from the ground.

But we don't see sin like that do we? We see sin as attractive, fun, beautiful even. That's why, or one of the reasons at least, that John saw what he saw in Revelation 9. The middle chapters of Revelation are some of the hardest i've ever preached through. Not because of the manifold interpretations of those chapters, but because of the undoubted truth that they proclaim. Whether you see the ghastly locusts and terrifying armies of Revelation 9 as symbolic of the devils activities from day one, or an historical prophesy of actual famine and wars (or, as i'm increasingly beginning to, both) the message is clear. Pull the beautiful mask away from sin, and the truth is as ugly as it gets.

We don't see casual lustful glances as ugly as locusts with lions teeth, but we should. We don't see the materialism that takes money from the offering plate as awful as a deadly sting that doesn't kill, but we should. We don't see the joy we pursue as if this life is all we have like sulphur breathing horses, but we should. And Revelation 9 helps us to.

So is this the key to our sanctification? Just grit our teeth, remember that what looks attractive really isn't, and life our lives in a state of stoic denial? Luckily our maker knows us better than that!

In John 17:26 Jesus prays that the love the Father has for Him might be in us. That is, that we might see Jesus as beautiful, as attractive, as lovely as He really is. This is the key to taking our gaze off the shiny trinkets of the world, this is the way we see sin for what it is, by seeing something better. Next to the blazing midday sun of the love of God in Christ, sin looks like a candle, next to the fullness of joy in the presence of our Lord, sin looks like the loss that it is.

So we pray, we pray for eyes to see the world as it really is. We pray like the bride in the Song, for help to find our beloved as we wander through the city. We open the Bible, and ask the Lord to reveal Himself to us, and make us sick with love by faith in Him, not by sight in the world.

We sin, not because our desires are too strong, but because they are too weak. In the Bible we find a love stronger than death, a love strong enough to satisfy our every desire, forever.