To Encourage You

Isaiah 53:2-3 “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Colossians 1:27 “Christ in you . . .”

The spiritual blindness of the natural man is a condition so much more desperate than physical blindness.  The Bible tells us that “the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  In other words, God’s perfect vision exceeds ours in many ways, but one of the most critical ways is that He sees what is in us, and that’s the basis of His view of us. 

We typically do the opposite.  So often we judge things by how they look on the outside, because that’s the limit of physical sight.  This can be seen in many ways.  Racial prejudice is based on how people look.  Because someone has a different color skin, of all things, they are viewed in a negative light.  Then there is the peer pressure that is so prevalent regarding the style or even the logos on the clothing we wear, or the cars we drive.  That’s why advertising is so effective, playing to our focus on how things look.  Another example, watch the stars of Hollywood primp before the cameras, especially at events like the Academy awards. The stars work hard to impress each other – and us – by the clothing, jewelry and hair styles they wear. They set the trends, and like lemmings, many in the world follow them, all because of the outward appearance. 

How flawed this is and how inferior to what our great God desires for us.  He would have us see like He does, beyond the outward appearance.  The blindness of men is most evident in how man views Christ.  As men observed the glorious, incomparable Creator of the universe, they saw absolutely nothing that appealed to them, as we are told in the words of Isaiah above.  If men would have seen the internal glory that was hidden behind the veil of His flesh, they would have been struck blind, completely overcome by it all, just as Paul was when he saw the risen Christ on the Damascus Road.  But they couldn’t see this. They were blind to it, and so they scoffed at Him and even spit in His face.  What fools they were. 

But then the Bible tells us that the Christian has this same glory of Christ dwelling in them.  It’s an internal thing.  It’s something that’s true and that God sees but that unbelievers are blind to and believers need reminded of.  Christ in you.  What a glorious thing.  Christ in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. And because He is in you, all that He is dwells in you.  These wonderful internal things include eternal life, spiritual light, the knowledge of God, the indwelling Word of God, and the attributes of God such as His love, His joy, His peace, and His power.  Peter describes this with respect to women in these words: “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Peter 3:4). 

What an awesome and glorious thing this is, though it be hidden from the view of most.  Are these the things that concern us, and are these the things we have eyes for?  If we know the Lord and His Spirit dwells in us, they should be, for it is these things that God sees, things that are so much more than meet the eye.