December 27: THE BEAUTY OF HIS CHARACTER

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? Isaiah 53:1

These two questions do not have the same answer. The word of the Lord is clear that His arm, that is, His unlimited power, faithfulness, and strength to save the fallen human race is on display for everyone to see. But not everyone chooses to believe in His saving power.

The opening line of the Suffering Servant poem shows Christ exalted and extolled (52:13), just as He was before the foundation of the world . . . before He left heaven to come down to the earth. Next, the poem moves suddenly and without warning to the most opposite condition of the Savior in His quest to save, and many were astonished (v.14). Even before His visage was marred more than any man, He had no form or comeliness . . . no beauty that we should desire Him (53:2). It is stunning that the One so highly honored as the promised Messiah—the Son of God—would voluntarily humble Himself to such a low degree. Yet, this is exactly what Christ did on His first mission to the earth. Jesus purposely veiled His divinity with an ordinary human appearance – so that men would be drawn to Him because of the beauty of His character.

Such an absence of glory caused a failure of attention from prideful Jews, who wanted God to exalt them over the hated Romans. In spite of His humble appearance, the purity and righteousness of His character brought their unholiness to light. This is still happening today, by the way. An encounter with Christ will always shine a light into the “unholiest” corner of the soul of a man. And each individual is again furnished with a choice: to agree with Him as to the condition of his or her soul, or to disagree, citing a battery of excuses. To agree with the Lord’s assessment leads a humble soul to step willingly onto His character-building path of correction and restoration.

But to disagree with Him is to join the ranks of those who sought to kill Him as He went about doing good (Acts 10:38). They could see that the people were drawn to Him. Envious that the people preferred the teachings and company of this humble Man, the religious leaders actually joined the rebellion begun by the archenemy who had long-before proclaimed, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Satan’s interest was in power and glory; he had no interest whatsoever in beauty of character.

Beloved, each of us should desire to be restored to the Creator’s likeness—to be like the Most High in beauty of character. At your invitation, He will graciously come in to perform the work of renovation. Ask Him now to help you believe the unbelievable wonders of transformation that He can produce within your character.

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24