Beautifying the Gospel

It is true that we cannot make the gospel any more beautiful than it is, but we can live in such a way that we can reveal its beauty to others. This is true saintly living. The apostle exhorts us to “let [our] lives become the gospel of Christ.”* (Philippians 1:27) Let us look, for a moment, at a life that becomes the gospel. In such a life we see the beautiful character of Jesus. Open your New Testament to 1 Timothy 1:11 and you will read, “According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” If you will read this in the Revised Version, you will get a somewhat different thought. There it reads, “The gospel of the glory of the blessed God.”RV This no doubt, is the meaning of the original text. The gospel is a glorious gospel, but it is glorious only because it declares, or reveals, or sets before us a living picture, clear and unmistakable, the glory of the blessed God.

This is the mission of the gospel. It is to unveil and show forth the beauty and glory of God’s character. It is to make all of Him known to us that we should know. God wants to set a picture of Himself before us, and to do this He photographs Himself in the gospel and commits it to us. This is God’s chiefest gift to man. We prize the photograph of those we love. How very frequently we take it up and behold it. As we look into the countenance, our heart warms afresh with love. The gospel is a picture of Christ. How frequently we should take it up and behold the face of our Savior in its undefiled beauty, and our heart quivers with a sweet rapture, and our soul swells with the emotion of adoring love.

Now the gospel as we have it in the New Testament is scarcely sufficient to meet all the purpose and will of God. It seems to come short of satisfying the heart of God. Sometimes a photograph of yourself does not wholly meet your approval. It scarcely does you justice. It appears to be too dim. While the gospel does justice to the character of God, gives no dim picture of Him, yet there is a dimness in the eyes of the people and they cannot behold the face of God in the written Word as they can in the life of a Christian. Therefore, young man or woman, God has made a choice of you to mirror His gospel. He has put His gospel in your heart, and as you each day live becoming that gospel, you are giving a picture of God to the world. The dear, unseen face of Christ is made visible in your daily life. Young Christian, you are God’s choicest gift to the world. He is pointing the world to a photograph of Himself as seen in you. Oh, how much depends upon this. God is greatly concerned about your life. He has grace to help you to live in the beauty of holiness. He wants your life to do Him justice. He wants your life to make Him known in the widest and fullest sense. He wants your life to give correct views of Himself. A light you are to be, revealing the character of God.

Your daily life a mirror is:
Oh, keep it filled with grace,
That those who walk a while with you
May see God’s smiling face.

Let deeds be done in tender love,
As down life’s way you trod,
That those may see who walk with you
A photograph of God.