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Chapter Eight: The King Will Desire Your Beauty

We have now seen just what the true message of Christianity is, and how it applies to every person under heaven, regardless of circumstances or background. We have seen that this gospel-message demands a response, and have made clear the high cost of following Jesus, and the pricelessreward that it will bring. But we must still touch upon another matter, which is equally misunderstoodin American Christianity today; and that is, just what it means to

a Christian, what we are saved

and

for;

in a word, exactly what is the purpose of all that we have been speaking of. Is the ultimate goalof God's plan of salvation simply to give me a “get out of hell free card”? Is the reason for evangelismand missions just to get as many individuals as possible into heaven? Now, these things are not at all bad – it is good, unimaginably good, to be delivered from hell, and there is great rejoicing in heavenover every individual soul that is converted

– but still, there is a greater, unifying purpose to the whole plan that does not end with individual destinies alone. And in order truly to understand Christianity, wemust understand this overarching goal. In the next chapters, that is what we will be discussing.Some of you who are reading this book may be puzzled by the name I have chosen for thischapter: “the King will desire your beauty”; where did this quotation come from, and what does it haveto do with being a Christian? Well, to answer the first question, it is a quotation from Psalm 45. This“love song

” is the psalmist's best effort to praise the Messianic King, who has taken his seat on theeternal Davidic throne. This King is “more beautiful than the children of men”

, and the singer goes onto praise his beauty. He worships the King for his everlasting, righteous reign, declaring to him, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of your Kingdom is a scepter of uprightness”

.But the psalmist is not content just to praise this King for his personal beauty and eternal, righteous reign; inthe latter half of the psalm he goes on to praise the great King for the glory and splendor of his bride.Because he is so worthy a King, he has taken a bride unparalleled in beauty and majesty, and he hasadorned her richly with all the most priceless garments and jewels. It is this most beautiful of all bridesthat the King has desired, and he has taken her to be a glorious queen over his kingdom. He is to beworshiped for his own beauty; he is to be worshiped for his righteous reign; but he is also to beworshiped because of the glorious bride he has won and in whom he delights. She is glorious in beauty,and this unrivaled beauty reflects upon and displays his own kingly glory and majesty. This bride is theChurch, and she exists for the glory of the eternal King.This image, of a glorious queen reflecting the majesty of the great King who has won her and beautified her, in order to show her off as a display of his own royal glory, is a very instructive lessonon the purpose of the whole message of the gospel, which we have been discussing at some length.What is the purpose of redemption? Why did God go to all the trouble of creating a world andhumanity, and redeeming a new humanity from their fallen estate of sin and rebellion? Well, it was justfor this: to give the eternal Son of God an eternal, glorious Kingdom and an eternal, glorious bride to be its queen. The people whom Christ suffered to redeem are his chosen reward for the greatredemptive accomplishment that he solemnly agreed to undertake before the world was ever created.This means that all of us who turn to Christ and are forgiven have now become part of the greathistoric-redemptive goal of becoming a beautiful bride for Christ, a reward in which he delights and adisplay of his kingly glory.This biblical theme, that Christ agreed in eternity past to accomplish redemption, and was promised as a reward for this great work, first, that he would be given a scepter to reign over the entire

1 Luke 15:102 The description given of this song (Psalm 45) in the original preface, before the first verse.3 Psalm 45:24 Psalm 45:6

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earth; and second, that he would be given a unified and glorious people to display his own glory andworship him forever, is very prominent throughout the scriptures. Consider, for instance, the second psalm: there, God relates how he has set his Messianic King upon his holy hill in Zion, and the Messiahrecounts the eternal covenant that God the Father has made with him – he will designate him before thewhole world as his true Son, and give him all the nations of the world as his heritage and his possession. This is so that he might shatter with an iron rod all who oppose him; but all who seek refuge in him will be eternally blessed. Christ was promised a solemn reward by the Father – being publicly designated his one-and-only, unique and eternal Son, being given a people from every nationand dominion over all the world – but what did this promise expect of him? What did he agree to do inorder to be given these things?One key chapter in which we are given a greater understanding of what the Son had undertakento perform as his part of this agreement resulting in the glorifying of his Name is found in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53 describes in horrific, shocking detail just what the Son had agreed to do. He would become a lowly, despised man, itself an amazing thing for the eternal Son of God! But not only that – he would also be a “man of sorrows,” whose grief and suffering would be unparalleled in the entirehistory of the world. He would undergo unspeakable punishments, even pouring out his very soul todeath, and all this in payment for the sins of his people, who had gone astray as wandering sheep

. Hehad agreed to win back a bride from a wicked, rebellious people; and in order to do that, he would takeall their punishment upon himself as the true sacrificial Lamb of God, he would satisfy all of God'srighteous wrath against their great sin. And what is the conclusion to this incredible portrait of thesuffering Lamb of God? We see it at the end of the chapter. When this Christ had made his soul anoffering for sin, he would “see his seed and prolong his days”

, he would see and be satisfied with whathe had done and what it had brought him, for he would cause many sinners to be accounted righteous by his substitutionary self-sacrifice. God would apportion to him a great reward, and this reward would be a justified, sanctified, beautified, glorified people. All this would be because “he poured out his soulto death, and was numbered with transgressors; and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors”

. This is the price that he agreed to pay for the reward of a redeemed and glorified bride to display his kingly majesty.The place where we get the clearest understanding of this eternal, inter-triune covenant, inwhich the Father plans redemption and chooses a people, the Son undertakes to suffer for their redemption, and the Spirit agrees to apply this perfect work of redemption to the elect is the gospel of John. In this gospel, Jesus always has in mind the works that his Father had given him to do, and he isdetermined to fulfill them completely

,in order to save forevermore the people that the Father hasgiven him

. Finally, just before he goes to the cross, he promises that, when his redemptive work iscomplete he will accomplish the final stage of the eternal, triune plan of redemption by sending theHoly Spirit, who would testify to his people of all that he has said and done

; and then, offering up a prayer of intercession to the Father before going to his place of sacrificial slaughter, he makes theclimactic announcement, “Father, the hour has come; glorify the Son in order that the Son might glorifyyou, even as you gave to him authority over all flesh in order that, everyone you gave to him, he mightgive to them eternal life...I have glorified you on the earth, having completed the work that you gave

5 Isaiah 53:1-96 Isaiah 53:107 Isaiah 53:11-128 See, for example, John 5:17-19, 30; 6:38; 8:28-29; 10:17-18; 14:31; 17:49 See, for example, John 6:37, 39; 10:29; 17:6, 1010 John 14:16-17, 25-26; 15:26; 16:7-15

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me to do; and now, you glorify me, Father, with your own glory which I had with you before the worldexisted”

.After this prayer, Jesus went to the cross, and he truly did the work that the Father had givenhim, which entailed nothing less than the perfect display of the eternal glory of God, which he sharedwith the Father from eternity past and manifested to the earth by redeeming from fallen humanity a people who could be with him forevermore, and have the eternal life which is nothing but seeing anddelighting in the glory of God

.So then, what exactly was taking place on Calvary, after this climactic prayer andannouncement? Well, in fulfillment of the inter-triune agreement made in eternity past, Christ did infact pour out his soul there as an offering for the sins of his people; but three days later, God vindicatedhis worthiness and indicated his acceptance of the perfect sacrifice of Christ by raising him from thedead, and then bringing him up to sit forever on the throne of David

. This coronation was the publicevent designating him as the Son of God. Although he had been the divine Son for all eternity, here hisSonship was solemnly displayed and vindicated

; and now, having fulfilled his part of the inter-triunecovenant, he is henceforth waiting until the Father has consummated the promised reward by bringingeverything under his footstool

. Christ has won the right to be Lord and Judge of the living and thedead

,one day he will destroy every enemy and trample them in his fury

. Because of his deephumility he has won the Name above every name, before which every knee will bow

. Christ will thus be finally given the one aspect of his promised reward: dominion over all his enemies.But in the meantime, God the Holy Spirit is bringing about the second part of Christ's reward,the promise of an eternally glorified and beautified bride, by regenerating and sanctifying those for whom he died

. When we turn to Christ, therefore, it is not so much about our individual salvation as itis about the Spirit's presenting to Christ the reward of his suffering – a glorious and holy Church, whowill reflect his own glory forevermore.A key passage to keep in mind is Ephesians 5:25-27: “Husbands, love your wives, even asChrist also loved the Church and gave himself up for her, in order that he might sanctify her, having purified her with the washing of water by the word, in order that he might present her to himself aglorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but in order that she should be holy and blameless.” In other words, Christ accomplished our redemption, not just to give us paradise when wedeserved hell, but so that, by providing us with this unspeakable gift, he might make us into theglorious bride in whose beauty he delights. He has undertaken to make us lovely beyond compare, because he has agreed to accept us as his own reward. And the reward that he deserves for hissufferings is rich and lovely beyond expression.This should immediately impress two things upon us who have come to him for salvation: thefirst is the need for personal holiness. If we have been redeemed by Christ to become his beautiful bride and precious reward, how we ought to labor not to stain or besmear the glorious robes of hisrighteousness with which he has clothed us, but always to live a life worthy of the gospel! We willdiscuss this more fully a little later. But the second lesson this truth should drive home we will discuss

11 John 17:1-512 See John 17:3, 2413 Acts 2:30-3614 Cf. Romans 1:3-4, where Christ is the Son of God before the incarnation, but “designated” the Son by the resurrection.Also, Acts 13:3315 Hebrews 10:12-1316 John 5:22-23; Acts 10:42; Romans 14:9; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:517 e.g. Isaiah 63:1-6; Revelation 19:13-1518 Philippians 2:5-1119 e.g. Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; Romans 8:1-17