The Loveliness Of Christ
February 2025 — Grace & Truth Magazine
The Loveliness Of Christ
Regarding Christ, all comparison is impossible. All other greatness has been marred by smallness. All other wisdom has been flawed by folly. All other goodness has been tainted by imperfection. Jesus Christ remains the only being of whom, without gross flattery, it could be asserted, “He is altogether lovely” (Song 5:16 NKJV ).
His Humanity Is Lovely
First of all, His loveliness consists in His perfect humanity. In everything but our sins and our evil nature, He is one with us. He grew in stature and in grace. He labored, wept, prayed and loved. He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
With Thomas, we confess Him as Lord and God (Jn. 20:28), yet there is no other who is so intimate with us, who comes so close to our hearts. There is no one in the universe of whom we are so little afraid.
He enters as simply and naturally into our present day lives as if He had grown up on our street. How wholesome and genuinely human He is! Martha scolded Him; John – who had seen Him raise the dead, quiet the storm and talk with Moses and Elijah on the mountain – did not hesitate to lean on His bosom at supper. Peter hesitated to let Him wash his feet, but later wanted his head and hands included in the washing.
They asked Him foolish questions, rebuked Him and adored Him – all in the same breath. He called them by their first names, told them not to fear, and assured them of His love. And in all this He was altogether lovely. His perfection does not merely glitter – it glows.
His Holiness Is Lovely
The saintliness of Jesus is so warm and human that He attracts and inspires. We do not find Him to be inaccessible, like a statue on a pedestal. The beauty of His holiness reminds us of a rose or a garden of violets.
Jesus receives all kinds of sinners: Nicodemus, the moral, religious sinner (Jn. 3); and Mary Magdalene, the shocking kind of sinner, “out of whom had come seven demons” (Lk. 8:2). He comes into sinful lives as a clear stream enters a stagnant pool. The stream is not afraid of contamination because its sweet energy cleanses the pool.
His Sympathy Is Lovely
His sympathy is absolutely lovely. He was often “moved with compassion” (Mt. 9:36). The multitude without a shepherd, the sorrowing widow of Nain, the ruler’s dead child, the maniac of Gadara, the hungry 5,000 – whoever suffered touched His heart. His wrath against the scribes and Pharisees resulted from His sympathy for those who suffered under their hard self-righteousness.
What grace is seen in His sympathy! Why did He touch a poor leper (Mt. 8:2-3)? He could have healed him with a word as He had a nobleman’s son. For years this leper had been an outcast, cut off from society and dehumanized. He had lost the sense of being a man. It was defiling to approach him. Jesus’ touch made him human again.
His Outreach Is Lovely
His humility was disarmingly lovely. He was the only one who ever had the choice of how and where He would be born. Yet He entered this life simply as one of the masses.
What meekness! What lowliness! He said, “I am among you as the One who serves” (Lk. 22:27). He washed “the disciples’ feet” (Jn. 13:5). “When He was reviled, [He] did not revile in return” (1 Pet. 2:23). “As a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7). Can you think of Jesus ever demanding His rights?
His Gentleness Is Lovely
The loveliness of Jesus is most evident in His manner with sinners. How gentle, faithful, considerate and respectful He was. Nicodemus, proud of his position as a master in Israel, and afraid to imperil it, “came to Jesus by night” (Jn. 3:2). But before he left the Master, he learned how utterly ignorant he was regarding the kingdom, and he went away to think about the personal application of Jesus’ words: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (v.19). But he had not heard one harsh word, one utterance that might wound his self-respect.
When He spoke to the despairing woman who was caught in adultery, after her accusers “went out, one by one” (Jn. 8:3-11), the word He used for “woman” is the same gentle word He used when addressing His own mother from the cross.
His Speech Is Lovely
Follow Him to Jacob’s well and hear His conversation with the woman of Samaria. How patiently He unfolded the deepest truths, how gently yet faithfully He uncovered the great sin which was eating away her soul. But He could not have been more respectful if she had been Mary of Bethany.
Even in the agonies of His death He could hear the cry of despairing faith. When conquerors return from distant wars in strange lands they bring their chief captive as a trophy. But it was enough for Christ to take back to paradise with Him one thief’s soul.
His Poise Is Lovely
He is altogether lovely. All the elements of perfect character are in lovely balance. His gentleness is never weak. His courage is never brutal. Follow Him through all the scenes of outrage and insult on the night and morning of His arrest and trial. Behold Him before the high priest, before Pilate, before Herod. See Him browbeaten, bullied, scourged, smitten, spit upon and mocked. How His loveliness comes out! Not once did He lose His poise, His dignity.
Go with the jeering crowd outside the gates. See Him stretched upon the great, rough cross and hear the dreadful sound of the hammer as the spikes are forced through His hands and feet. As the yelling mob falls back, see the cross – bearing this gentlest, sweetest, bravest, loveliest man – raised up for all to see: “Then they crucified Him, and … sitting down, they kept watch over Him there” (Mt. 27:35-36).
Do You Find Him Lovely?
Hear Him ask the Father to forgive His murderers. Hear His gentle words from the cross. Is He not altogether lovely? He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).
This article is available as a tract from Grace &Truth.