SOS 5:16 – His mouth is most sweet,
Yes, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved,
And this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem!
There was something about Him that was just different. No one could really say why but there was something strangely attractive, you might say irresistible, about Jesus of Nazareth. It wasn’t His beautiful features or the muscular physique from spending many years in the the carpenter’s shop, but there was something quite different about Jesus. To the average onlooker there was nothing to see here, but with those with eyes wide open He was altogether lovely. It was the loveliness of His nature not His form. There was a sweetness and authority in His words and His actions, He was not like anyone else anyone had ever seen or heard of. Solomon said He was altogether lovely, Peter left his fishing business to follow him, Matthew gave up a lucrative career, Mary poured her priceless oil on Him, and Paul risked everything for the opportunity to live for Him. Dane Ortlund quotes Edwards on the beauty of this man called Jesus.
“Divine beauty must be given a sharper edge, however. God’s beauty is specifically seen in Jesus Christ. The actual, tangible setting forth of the loveliness of God is manifested in the Son. Christ “is the brightness of God’s glory.” (Here as elsewhere Edwards uses glory and beauty as virtual synonyms.) That is: “He is more excellent than the angels of heaven. He is among them for amiable and divine beauty, as the sun is among the stars. In beholding his beauty, the angels do day and night entertain and feast their souls and in celebrating of it do they continually employ their praises. “Edwards goes on to argue that despite the ongoing enjoyment of the angels (“that blessed society”) of Christ’s loveliness, they can never exhaust it, nor their enjoyment of it.”
So have you caught a glimpse of this beauty for yourself? I used to wonder what all the commotion was coming from the followers of Jesus. They were so insistent that they had found the source of all life and joy in this person Jesus Christ. It didn’t seem plausible to me until….until I saw His beauty for myself. I suppose I was looking for a system to follow to earn my way to heaven, I had no idea that what I was really looking for was this man. But when I opened my heart and He came in I have to join the chorus of the ages saying, “Jesus Himself is altogether lovely”.