Righteousness Is Perfectly Beautiful

“And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” (Isa 11:5 AV)

This chapter of Isaiah regards the LORD Jesus Christ, his character and nature; in the context of His incarnation and second coming.  There is a comparison between the rulers Israel and Judah did have, and the person of the Messiah as He will rule.  As I read this, the Spirit brought to mind the righteousness of Christ and how much His righteousness was a part of Him.  The two are indistinguishable.  The Holy Spirit gave me a glimpse of what that might look like in the sense of how Jesus sees righteousness.  Through His eyes, He sees righteousness as a beautiful thing.  We tend to see righteousness as a set of rules, standards, and laws that are followed by which we might please God.  And certainly, they are.  But righteousness pleases God, not because we are compliant.  Rather, it pleases God because righteousness is a perfectly beautiful thing.  The LORD doesn’t please Himself in being righteous.  That would be egotistical and self-serving.  He exists in righteousness because it is His nature.  He cannot deny who and what He is. And what He is, is exquisitely beautiful.  When the Spirit illumined this, I could not help but desire the same.

I don’t know about you, but I am fascinated by perfect craftsmanship.  There is a difference between something that is handmade and something that rolls off a factory floor.  When a handmade object is not perfect, it is easily noticed.  I was looking at replacing my mandolin with an ‘A’ style standard model.  I have a crossover which is a bit harder to play.  I went to a music shop, and I saw something I had never seen before.  There, hanging on the wall, was a twelve string Mando-guitar.  It was handmade.  I fell in love with it.  I thought I had to have it.  A week later, I went in to look at it again.  This time, I went over it with a fine-tooth comb.  There was excess glue on the fretboard, on the neck, and along the side panels.  It appears as though three of the fret bars had come loose.  Rather than repair it correctly, the luthier and reattached them is a sophomoric way.  But the most glaring fault was found on the bottom of the instrument.  To one side of the string clamp, the body and split and was slightly warped.  As beautiful as that instrument at first appeared, it needed much TLC for any usability.

Many years ago, my wife and I were in Barea, KY on a mini vacation.  There is an arts college there.  Walking the town there is much to see.  We took in the works of art produced by the college body, and for the most part, it was pleasant.  We happened along a luthier who built custom lap dulcimers.  Also known as mountain dulcimers.  This man was an artisan.  His instruments were absolutely flawless.  We spent a bit in that shop and he showed us the basics of how to play a dulcimer.  My eyes of wantonness happened upon one instrument after another.  The design and artistry was impeccable.  We didn’t walk out with one that day.  They were way out of my price range.  They were worth every penny.  I simply didn’t have enough pennies.

This is the understanding the Spirit gave to me this morning.  Righteousness should be like that perfectly crafted instrument.  Righteousness should be something we salivate over.  Righteousness should be something we desire as the perfect ways of life.  Righteousness should not be something serving the ego.  It should not be something to prove what we are not.  Rather, living right and doing right should reflect the person of the LORD Jesus Christ that affects those around us.  Like appreciating perfect works of art, those who see true righteousness just might be apt to seek it themselves.  We can tell when righteousness is self-serving.  It repels.  True righteousness of Christ attracts.  If He is lifted up, He will draw all men unto Himself.  This is the right perspective.  This is the way we should see and pursue holiness.  We should pursue it because it is a glorious thing.  We should live it because it reflects the glory of God.  We should be righteous because it is perfect.