God’s Beautiful People
Romans 10:5–15
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news! Romans 10:15
Do you know how the gospel came to Hugh Latimer (ca. 1485–1555), that great bishop who became one of the brightest lights of the Protestant Reformation in England? Hugh Latimer was a “beautiful” man, strikingly good-looking and brilliant. But he did not know Christ and he was using his learning to oppose the teachings of the Reformers, especially that of Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s co-worker and friend. Latimer was at Cambridge at this time, and there was at Cambridge a little monk whose name was Thomas Bilney. No one paid much attention to Bilney. But Bilney had discovered the gospel, and he wanted the great Hugh Latimer to come to Christ too. What a tremendous influence he would have, if only he would discover the gospel of God’s grace in Christ, Bilney thought.
So he hit on a plan. One day after Latimer had been preaching, Bilney caught his arm as he was coming out of the church and asked if he would hear his confession. That was a prescribed duty of a priest. So Hugh Latimer listened to Bilney, and the little monk who had found Christ “confessed” the gospel, sharing how it had changed his life. Latimer later said that he was converted by Bilney’s gospel “confession.” As for Latimer, he became a great reformer in England and is best known for his encouragement of Nicholas Ridley as they were being led to the stake in Oxford at the height of the English persecutions in 1555: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as (I trust) shall never be put out.”
Bilney was not a beautiful person as we generally think of beauty. But he was the bearer of the gospel to Hugh Latimer, and that means that he was beautiful in the sight of God, just as are all those who obey the Lord Jesus Christ in carrying out the Great Commission.
May I suggest that you start thinking of beauty the way God does. What you think is beautiful now is going to be a thing of the past in just a few short years. Those you think beautiful now will no longer be beautiful in physical terms. But the beauty of the bearers of the gospel will last forever. What is more, they will go on getting more and more beautiful, as they use not only this life but eternity to praise the Lord Jesus Christ more fully.
Beauty really is as beauty does. I invite you to value others not by their outward appearance, but by their service to Jesus Christ and the gospel. And I invite you to become one of God’s beautiful people yourself.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.