The Nature of True Beauty in Confused Times
The Albert Mohler Radio Show
April 12, 2007
A new trend in cosmetic surgery is emerging and quickly growing in popularity — handlifts. In our culture’s insatiable quest for beauty as defined by unreachable standards, Christians are called upon to provide a biblical theology of age and beauty. On today’s program we’ll try to do just that.
This is a rush transcript and may not be in its final form
This is the Albert Moler program, your place for Intelligent Christian conversation about the issues that matter. Dr. Mueller’s, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the nation’s leading theologians and cultural commentators to get online with Dr. Moeller. Call toll free nationwide, 1-877-893-TALK. That’s 1 8 7 7 8 9 3 82 55. Now here’s your host, Dr. Albert Moer.
Hello America. Welcome to the Albert Moler Program. What in the world is beauty? I mean, when it comes especially to women, why the focus on beauty that has led to an explosion in cosmetic and what is now called rather euphemistically aesthetic surgery? Aesthetic surgery is surgery that is simply for appearance and now it’s not only about the tummy tuck and the facelifts and the other things such as the use of Botox, other aesthetic medical treatments, it’s hand treatments. You’re now talking about having hand treatments done, major media exposure to the kind of surgery that’s being done to enhance the appearance of hands in order to mask the appearance of age. Now, I’m going to argue that we have reached a very dangerous point in this society where we are treating women like they are objects to be preserved even artificially by means of surgery and enhanced even artificially by means of medical treatments rather than appreciated and loved and respected.
And the big question I think for Christians comes down to this. Are we supposed to accept aging as a part of God’s plan? Are we supposed to accept the fact that women as they grow older will simply bear even more marks for which we should give them respect and honor? Should we be looking to true beauty that is inner beauty rather than this artificial airbrushed liposuction view of consumer oriented beauty? I think it’s going to be a good discussion because this gets down to some of the most basic issues in the Christian worldview. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be beautiful? Where do we get our standards for determining what is beautiful and what is not? Of course, this gets right over to the question of what is real and what is not, and we’re going to have a real discussion about it here on the Albert Mueller program.
The phone number is eight nine three eight two five five. That’s 8 7 7 8 9 3 talk. When we have reached the point that women’s hands are the new product for cosmetic and aesthetic surgery, we have reached the hand lift moment. It’s time to have a conversation. The phone number seven eight nine three talk. That’s 8 7 7 8 9 3 8 2 5 5. The Wall Street Journal’s out with a big story on militant atheism in Europe and it appears that even as we have a more militant form of secularism in this country in Europe, it’s reaching all new stages. Michael Andre, celebrity philosopher and France’s high priest of militant atheism according to the journal recently strode onto the stage and looked to the reverential audience for his weekly two hour lecture series on hedonist philosophy. Mr. Andre, 48 years old, an author of 32 books stands in the vanguard of a curious and increasingly potent phenomenon in Europe, zealous disbelief in God. Now, this by the way in the Wall Street Journal story is on the very front page of the journal today.
This gets to one of the most interesting phenomena of our age, and that is consumerist, populist oriented atheism. Now, if you just take the United States and you were to go back in the 19th century, you would recall the name of Robert Erso. Robert Ingersoll was a notorious atheist. He was the kind of man who made his money, made a living, literally traveling around the country, giving talks in which atheists would gather, and he was a spectacle. He was a spectacle because most persons had ever met someone as notorious as a self-declared atheist, and he was notorious because he was a man who was very articulate, able to make the case, and he had all the appearance of a brazen non-conformist as he strode onto the stage in 19th century America. Now, of course in the 20th century, more recently we had figures such as Madeline Murray O’Hare, the woman who founded the group known as American atheists, and she was trying to make a point about the cultural acceptance of atheism back in about the midpoint and latter half of the 20th century.
She, by the way, was murdered. We now know her life came to a very tragic end, but now in Europe you have the celebrity atheist. This is something that is different than either Madeleine Mario O’Hare or Robert Erso. This is the modern popular culture hero or heroine who is known for militant atheism. Michael Andre is just one of these. According to Professor Andre atheism faces a final battle against theological hocus pocus and must rally its troops. Here again, I’m reading from the Wall Street Journal’s article of this morning, we can no longer tolerate neutrality and benevolence. He writes in what he calls his atheist manifesto. The turbulent time we live in suggests that change is at hand and the time has come for a new order. Karen Armstrong, a former Catholic nun and prominent British author on religion, and by the way, not one for whom I have tremendous respect nonetheless is right when she says there’s a big fight going on to define European civilization.
Fascinating stuff, and by the way, the Wall Street Journal gives, I would say at least a thousand, maybe 2000 words to this article that makes it all the more interesting, but what you have here is the collapse of Christianity as a meaningful part of European culture. You travel throughout Europe, what do you see? Monasteries ruins. You see cathedrals, you see village churches, and yet when you look at this, you recognize something is happening. Many of those churches are empty. Many of those cathedrals are basically empty spaces known for their architecture, more for their theology, and many of the other great artifacts of Christian civilization in Europe have collapsed and are disappearing in their place is coming not only atheism but Islam. The interesting thing is that the number of atheists in Europe is growing, and yet it’s still a remarkably small number of self-declared atheists, but the number of Muslims is growing far faster, and so while Europe is fascinated with the rise of militant secularism, they better be looking at what’s filling the vacuum they are then creating.
It’s not really secularism, it’s Islam, and what we’re looking at over a relatively short amount of time in our future is not a truly secular Europe, but an increasingly Muslim Europe. Fascinating developments in, of course, what happens on that side of the Atlantic has ramifications and impact here as well. Very interesting things going on in this country. There is a ban on online gaming, online gambling as it’s mostly called in this country, Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts. Congressman must have put an end to this. It’s very interesting. The United States adopted this ban on gambling because it appeared that there are very few controls and it would literally seduce many, many people into gambling that otherwise would never be able to get to a casino or other form of gambling, but Mr. Frank thinks that that’s an unfair, perhaps even unconstitutional restraint on trade. He considers the unlawful internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed last October as something that has to be undone.
Very interesting to see how that comes about. We’ll be watching it as well. Parents, when you wonder if your kids really are involved in anything troublesome on MySpace, you might want to consider the fact that in Great Britain, up to 200 teenagers from across the country trashed a family house while the parents were away after their daughters simply advertised a party on MySpace revelers caused 20,000 pounds of damage. That’s about $50,000 to the $500,000 property. After the invitation for Easter Monday was posted on the popular site known as Skin’s unofficial party, partygoers allegedly urinated on the mother’s wedding dress and on children’s clothes. I won’t go any further, say simply desecrated the place and barricaded the back door to prevent neighbors from intervening parents. The main reason I mentioned this is because an awful lot of adults think if they don’t look at it, no one else is.
If they’re not visiting these places, no one else is, but the reality is the internet is increasingly populated with adolescents and if you don’t know what your teenagers are doing on the internet, where they’re going, what they’re writing, and with whom they’re communicating, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. The Nation of Japan is worried that it faces a disaster with a declining birth rate and a declining marriage rate. So there is a new business in Japan and that is door to door marriage delivery. What’s happening is that agents such as Iro RO is going door to door. These agents are going door to door and they’re pulling out photographs of eligible bachelors or young women in order to make the connection. According to the Boston Globe, proud to be a busy body matchmaker. This woman belongs to a 200 women group in Fukui, which makes door-to-door visits to single people’s homes and a bid to marry them off and raise the birth rate of the sleepy pre fracture.
That’s like a state in western Japan subsidized by the local government. The matchmakers helped around 50 couples tie the knot. In the past year, one of the things we’ve been looking at is across industrialized economies. There is a rising age of marriage, a lowering rate of marriage, and a decreasing rate of childbirth. All this is of course tied together and it’s because we are enticing in this consumer-oriented educational entertainment oriented society. We are enticing young people to do everything but marry and have children. We are defying nature and we are in the process undermining civilization itself. Meanwhile, in Avon Park, Florida, a six-year-old kindergarten student was arrested and charged with felony accusations, felony counts for a temper tantrum in the Avon Park Elementary school. Now folks, when you consider the kind of trouble we’re in as a civilization, just think about what happens when a 6-year-old pitching a fit is answered by armed police with felony indictments. Whatever happened to parents? Do we ever count the cost of what happens when we disempower parents to be parents? You end up calling the police on a 6-year-old. We’ll be right back to talk about true beauty and cosmetic surgery. This is the Albert Miller program.
Welcome back to the Albert Miller program. Jonathan Thompson writing in the Independent one of Britain’s major newspapers writes, hands up if you’ve had cosmetic surgery. Here’s how he begins the article. They’ve had the tummy tuck, chin tightening, Botox jabs face and bottom lifts, but to the appearance of obsessed to those scrawny telltale fingers will give away their true age, but now help is at hand. Cosmetic surgery has finally reached the ends of the arms. Hand rejuvenation is the new must have procedure. These hand lifts are achieved by one of two methods, either fat transfer from elsewhere in the body or mesotherapy injecting cosmetic filler similar to those used on the face, wrinkled, bony hands with prominent veins and deep grooves suddenly become plump and healthy looking. These hand lifts are now being done routinely, not only in Great Britain but in the United States. One cosmetic plastic surgeon this Dr. Simon Withi said a lot of them that as women are afraid that their hands give away their age, particularly if they’ve had other work done, so this is one of the problems that is now faced in the aesthetic surgery business.
You can have one part of the body cosmetically or aesthetically enhanced, but if you don’t keep all the other parts up to date, you could have, oh, I don’t know, 30-year-old face and 50-year-old hands. This is obviously a problem to someone. Someone is spending billions of dollars a year and of course when it comes right down to it, it’s all about beauty. David Palon, prominent Christian writer and counselor writes, a hundred years ago, women might’ve compared themselves with the other 10 girls in the village. Today, women compare themselves with pictures of the cream of the worldwide fashion industry, and so it’s this comparison that really creates a problem, but I’m going to go further and say it’s not just comparison. It’s not just the supermodels where they’re airbrushed and artificially enhanced appearance. It’s also a bias against age. I mean this is where the hand thing comes in. This is where the impulse for hand lifts comes in. People want to deny the ravages, the effects, the glory of age.
The independent story I find really, really fascinating. According to this article, the hand lift procedure costs several hundred dollars. It’s very simple. According to this article, there are hand lift clinics coming, perhaps one to your neighborhood. Hand lifts are done with injectable fillers. There are three sessions of five to 10 minutes over six weeks. Now, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of patients having these procedures done are women. One woman who had it done said, now I feel incredibly confident you won’t hear me complaining about my hands anymore. Now I’ll be whining about something else like my eye bags. Well, I think in one sense women do this to themselves. I think in another sense this is done to them. I think we as fallen human beings tend to confuse beauty to such an extent that we will entice, encourage, perhaps even demand that women have procedures done in order that they be cosmetically, aesthetically, surgically, therapeutically enhanced to make them appear otherwise than they normally would.
I just want to argue that from a Christian worldview perspective, this is deeply sick that the impulse behind this is not one that glorifies God, but rather one that glorifies human beauty, which the Bible says is passing in the first place. In the book of Proverbs, in the very last proverb, chapter 31, we have here advice about true beauty and true womanhood. The last two verses of the book of Proverbs read this way, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised, give her the product of her hands and let her works. Praise her. In the gates, the Bible says the most important aspect of beauty isn’t external at all. As a matter of fact, external appearances can lie distorted beauty is deadly. As a matter of fact, we are told that that which is a delight to the eyes is often a threat to the soul.
That was true of the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden, and of course it’s true even as Solomon told his son of the deceitfulness of beauty of a woman who would entice a young man into adultery or fornication or sexual sin In these days, it has a lot to do with the fact that we are raising generations of young men who think that women are supposed to look like the pornographic images they see on a screen. They are not told that that is not true womanhood, no pornographer is going to say to them, this is highly artistically enhanced. This is computer generated. This is done with an airbrush. This is done with lighting, this is done with surgery. No one is talking about the unreality of all of this, and it’s leading to a deep confusion. I think it’s leading to a deep confusion that is especially harmful to women and young girls, and I want to say today as I look at this kind of development, I think it’s especially harmful to older women as well.
Older women should be honored for their age, respected for their experience. They should be honored for their interior beauty, which should be far more important to Christians than to these artificial external perspectives. I mean, anyone who is looking in terms of a woman’s value to the appearance of her hands, thinking that the hands betray her age is betraying their own utter superficiality and unbiblical worldview. The hands of a woman who will show the effects of age are the hands of a woman who has probably used those hands. She has probably used those hands to tend babies to change diapers, to cook and prepare meals, to clean, to care, to tend to nurture. They are hands that have earned that appearance, and I think to see those hands as ugly rather than as beautiful is to show how we have been utterly diluted by the spirit of the age and utterly diluted by the enticement of the eyes.
I’d love to know what you think about this. The phone number is (877) 893-8255. That’s 8 7 7 8 9 3 talk. This is the kind of conversation we desperately need to have because out there in this audience, there are a good number of women who are receiving the message, perhaps even from some of the people they most value in their lives, that what matters is external beauty. Nicole Whitaker is the daughter of CJ Mahaney, my dear friend of Covenant Life Ministries in an article she wrote and posted at the weblog she does with her sisters and mother. The weblog by the way, is as GirlTalk a blog that is found@girltalk.blogs.com. She wrote an article about two years ago with the question, beautiful is better, and she starts talking about this confusion that just really harms women, young and old. She asked this question, so what difference should the gospel make in how we think about beauty today?
She says, first, instead of complaining to the mirror about our imperfect body, let’s consider how we can live for Christ by trusting him and serving others. True joy will inevitably follow, and secondly, if we’re tempted to envy or self righteously judge the beautiful immodestly dressed coworker, classmate, or fellow mom for the attention they receive, let’s pray for them instead that they too would find true joy in Christ. By the way, Nicole Whitaker, I believe is recently the mother Victoria, Carolyn Whitaker, born just a few days ago. Congratulations to Nicole and to her husband and to CJ and Carolyn Mahaney. Congratulations on this post as well. I think this article gets right to the heart of the issue. We’re either going to look at beauty from a biblical perspective, which means as I’ve often said on this program, that we are the only people, perhaps the only people on earth who understand that the true, the beautiful, the good and the real are the same thing, the true, the beautiful, the good and the real are all the same thing. That which is truly beautiful is genuinely good, it’s genuinely real and it’s telling us the truth. Do we ever think about the fact that cosmetic surgery is just a way of lying with the skin? Our appearance should say something and the appearance of age should actually say something that we value. The phone number eight seven seven eight nine three eight two five five eight seven seven eight nine three talk. We’ve got callers calling in. I’d love to hear what you think. 8 7, 7 8 9 3 talk coast to coast and with listeners around the world. This is the Albert Mueller program.
You are listening to the Albert Mohler program, your place for Intelligent Christian conversation about the issues that matter to get online, call toll free 1-877-893-TALK. That’s 1 8 7 7 8 9 3 82 55 or go to www.albertmoler.com. Here again is your host, Dr. Albert Moeller.
Welcome back to the Albert Moeller program. I’m absolutely convinced that my wife is truly beautiful, but I know that that beauty is also filtered through some other expectations. Every time I look at her, I see as my wife, I see as the one who loves me in good times and bad. I see the mother of my children. I see one who gives herself in so many ways to such incredible ministry and service. I see the woman who tells me that when she knows that someone’s in particular need of prayer or concern or something like that so that I can actually do my job because she knows before I know all these kinds of things. The women’s network is so much better. I see the woman upon whom I absolutely depend and when I look at her hands, when I look at her face, when I look at her hair, I see beauty and I also see that she is no longer the very young 20 something bride that I’m married, and I’m glad of that. I just think she gets well, the old commercial, you’re not getting older, you’re getting better. I think that’s wrong. I think you get older and better because beauty is a matter of what one earns with the hard experience as well as what one is given by God. Let’s go to Beth calling from Hardenberg, Indiana. Go ahead, Beth.
Hello, Mr. Miller. Thank you. I just had to tell you that hearing this perspective from a man means absolutely everything to us as women who are getting older and we don’t look 21 anymore, especially my hands. I had gotten into it even myself, of looking at my hands and saying, God, I’m getting old, and even what you said today specifically about aging hands being something to be honored, that feels so good to hear. Thank you so much.
Well, Beth, thank you for your call and I do just want to encourage you to see yourself, those hands as what you have earned. Beth, I hope you’re still with me here. Are you a mom?
Yes, I’m here actually. I’m mother, five children.
Well, I can just imagine those hands have seen a whole lot of tending for babies and giving baths and doing all the rest of these things, and those hands then become a testimony of what the Lord has allowed you to do and what you’ve done in faithfulness out of love, and so I would simply say to you, you should look at those hands as matters of pride, and I would say to those who know you and love you, they should look to those hands as truly beautiful hands and if that encourages you, that encourages me.
Well, thank you so much and I enjoy your show and just hearing that specifically from a man, that feels fantastic. Thank you.
Well, thank you for that word, Beth. It’s great to hear from you. Thanks for listening. Let’s go to Eric calling from Louisville, Kentucky listening on WFIA. Go ahead, Eric.
Yes, sir. Thank you for this topic and I’d like to say I agree absolutely wholeheartedly with the point that you are making. I think this trend is just absolutely ludicrous. I think it’s totally pursuit of the world, and as I try to pursue a Christian heart and understand Christianity and try to grow my heart more and more in that, it seems even more and more ridiculous and the stress that it puts on, I have two young daughters, I think it’s just absolutely unfair, and as far as men, I think it distorts their expectations of women and the relationships with women, and I think it’s probably evident in our divorce rate and premarital, rampant premarital sex. It’s just, I really appreciate you discussing this topic.
Well, sometimes people whose worldview we reject are right on certain elements, and I would’ve to say, Eric, that I think one of the points you’re making is that when the feminists say that men create an idol and an abstraction of beauty and then cause great harm to women by it, I think they’re onto something there, and I especially appreciate your comments as the father of young daughters. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I think what you’re saying to me is you want to raise your daughters to be beautiful on the inside knowing that it will work its way out, not just beautiful on the outside, hoping that it’ll work its way in. Is that what you’re saying?
Well, yeah, absolutely, but I’m also saying the stress that it puts on them to be something maybe that they’re, maybe they won’t accept themselves for how they look. Maybe they’ll feel inadequate in some point and I mean, I’m a man. I mean I, I’m susceptible to desire of the flesh, but I just think this whole thing distorts it for men and women and I think it’s just destructive to relationships and people’s self image and people’s image of each other. I
Think it is, and Eric, I appreciate that call. I think beyond that, it is also a distorted image of the image of God. The image of God is not something that is external to us as something that is for our appearance. It’s rather the capacity that God makes in every single human being to know him and to glorify him through true beauty. The phone number is (877) 893-8255. We’ll be right back.
Welcome back to issues cosmetic surgery. In particular, what we’re now seeing with women having what are called hand lifts and the whole idea of aesthetic surgery, particularly the kind that is basically intended to deny the realities of age. The phone number is (877) 893-8255. I’ve made some pretty strong comments about what I believe a Christian perspective on this ought to be in terms of locating beauty within rather than without an understanding age as a matter of respect and honor, rather than it’s something to be cosmetically avoided. The phone number again to join the conversation is 8 9 3 talk. We’ve got some folks calling on the line very quickly from Durham, North Carolina. Jeff’s on the line listing on XM one 70. Go ahead, Jeff.
Yeah, Dr. Molay, I appreciate your comments. I agree that God values internal or interior beauty more than external and that plastic surgery and a lot of other things, evidence that people are particularly women, are placing their hopes in wrong places, but I also think we need to balance the concerns you properly express with compassion and understanding that we were created perfect physical beings and it is also an evidence of God’s reality within us to dread death and to dread the decay that comes with aging.
Yeah, play that out just a little bit for me, Jeff. I understand what you mean. I certainly feel a great deal of concern for people who want to do these things out of fear of death. I just want to make sure that we get your point as finally as you want to make it here.
Yeah, I appreciate that. Well, I think it’s the issue is one of degree and not of principle in that women use age aging cream, anti-aging cream. Where do you draw the line? And I think we just need to be careful and compassionate before wholesale condemning plastic surgery. I’m not saying I agree with it, but I just think we need to be careful. Where do we draw that line?
Well, I think that’s a good point. That’s why even in the beginning of this segment I tried to say we’re talking particularly about these kind of elective procedures that are just aesthetic and just to avoid the appearance of aging. There are a lot of surgeons out there whose business is plastic and reconstructive surgery, and if you think about someone who, for instance, has been in an injury or someone that perhaps has an issue from birth in which there are some major aesthetic issues from burn patients or someone like that, we’re certainly thankful they’re doctors with that kind of gift. It’s the marketing of all of this in women’s magazines and all the rest for persons who are otherwise healthy, that I think is of grave concern to me. We have a plastic surgeon on the line jefferies com from Louisville, Kentucky listing on WFIA. Doctor, welcome to the program.
Thank you. I do both cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery, probably about 50 50 split. I’m also a very devout Christian and I have thought about this issue. I’ve been in practice now about 30 years. It does concern me more than it used to. I sometimes wonder, is this what God really means me to be doing with my life? But I would say it has a lot to do with expectations and what the person is trying to get out of their surgery. There are certainly some frivolous people who think it’s going to totally change their life. Their husband will come back, they’ll get a better job, their friends will like them more, and we in our training try to discern those people because they are never going to be happy no matter how perfect a job you do. There are other people who think of it more in terms of getting a new car or buying a new coat or something like that. They don’t think it’s going to give them anything other than what they’re looking for, whether it’s a tummy tuck or some liposuction or a facelift, and those people with realistic expectations are often some of the most grateful and happiest patients that we treat. They often come in with their spouse who’s very involved in the consultation and in the whole process, and both the patient and the spouse are often, as I say, very grateful and just it gives them a new lease on life.
Doctor, I appreciate not only the fact that you called, but frankly a very thoughtful response to all of this, and we tried to think about this issue. Let me just kind of pick up on something you said. If I heard you correctly. There are persons you think should not have these procedures because their expectations are not healthy and will not be fulfilled.
Their expectations are misplaced in that they think it’s going to cure some sort of psychological problem that they have rather than a purely physical one that the healthy patient is not obsessed with it. They just say, I work out, I’m healthy, I’m in good shape, but I’ve got this little tummy that hangs down and it flops and it’s uncomfortable and I just love to get rid of it. It’s not a big deal, but I’ve worked hard. I can afford to do this, and those patients are what I call healthy cosmetic patients. They do well, they’re invested in their results and they’re very grateful and they sort of just go on live feeling a little bit more positive about themselves.
Doctor, well, I’ve got you. I’ve got to ask you a question and your call is just so well timed for this because there’s one question that I think more than any other, I wanted to ask someone who does what you do a plastic and reconstructive aesthetic surgeon, and that is this, how do we know what beautiful really is? I mean, where do we or or does a patient get the idea of what one is supposed to look like?
Well, that’s a very individual thing, and I learned many years ago not to make the mistake of trying to diagnose the problem before the patient opened their mouth because that’ll get you into big trouble. You may see a big Roman type nose and you start talking about noses and they actually came in for their tummy tuck and it’s very embarrassing, but people have their own of what is beautiful and what is unsightly, and it is a very individual thing.
Well, that is a very interesting response to get, and I guess what I gained from that is that there’s no picture, there’s no catalog or something like this, that there’s no ideal, like the Greeks and the Romans had an ideal doctor. You’ve honored us with your call and I think you’ve probably prompted a great deal of thought as well, and I appreciate so much you adding to this conversation. Folks, we’re going to have to go into a break. We’ll come back. We’ll have some final thoughts. Just thinking about the most recent part of our conversation here, I really have to wonder as I’m trying to think this through myself, how we come to a notion of what beauty is supposed to look like because, well, the doctor said it’s very individual. I’m sure it is, but I think it’s also in the background of some cultural expectations that we hold up. What you see on the billboards, the women on the covers of the magazines and so many other things, and not only in so many cases is that not you. The reality is it’s not anyone. It’s not real. I think that’s deadly. Back with final thoughts in just a moment. I’m Albert Molen.
Welcome back. This has been a fascinating discussion and I think it gets to so many key issues of which Christians ought to be aware and concerned. Let’s go to Julie, calling from Louisville, Kentucky, listening on WFIA. Go ahead, Julie.
Hello, Dr. Mohler. I believe that God allows us to go through the process of aging more than anything so that we will long for heaven way more than we do for this earth.
Well, I think that’s a beautiful statement just in itself, and I think also when we think about restoration, that’s another thing. Julie, and your call is really helpful in pointing that we think about the restoration of our bodies. We think about, well, what it would mean organs that have been diseased to be well again, for skin that has shown all the ravages not only of life and experience and work and age, but sometimes also of injury and disease and all the rest. You just think about all the things, the eyes that are grown, dim. All you have to do is read some of the sections out of the book of Ecclesiastes and boy is that a reminder to us of how bad it can get just in terms of what age does to us, all the way from the teeth, the eyes, the bones, the joints and all the rest.
But Julie, you’re right, it makes us long for heaven, but here’s the promise of the word of God. It’s that we will, those who are in Christ receive not only the resurrection of the body, but we will receive glorified bodies. In other words, we’re going to be made as our embodied selves, the body that we know in some consistent way with the body we will one day be, we’re going to be made perfect the way God intended from the very beginning that we should be made perfect and in this life, none of us is perfect. Every single one of us has a body that is dying. Every single one of us has cells that are sloughing off. Every single one of us has skin that is growing older and eyes that are growing older and all of this happening, and within all of us, there are things that are within our bodies that we would certainly want to change.
There’s probably something about appearance that every single one of us would want to change, but if we changed it in all likelihood we wouldn’t make it better. What will we look like when we are made perfect? I don’t think it’s going to be something you’ll find in a cosmetic surgery catalog. I don’t think it’s going to be something that will stare back at you from the billboard or from the cover story for that matter, from the pornographic image. It’s what is going to happen when God glorifies his saints in Christ such that we are then what he always intended that we should be. We’re going to find out what true beauty is, and again, it’s going to be at the intersection of goodness and truth and reality and beauty, all the same thing. We’re going to discover that whatever beautiful is, it’s a reflection of God himself and a reflection of God as he has shown himself to us in the incarnation in Jesus Christ, the Son. He was despised and rejected of men, one as from whom men turned their faces, but oh, was he beautiful and is he beautiful? Now we’ll be back tomorrow for intelligent Christian conversation. I’m Albert Mohler.
Thanks for listening and be sure to visit our website, www.albertmohler.com. You’ll find archives of past shows and other important resources. You can also email your questions and comments. That’s www.albertmoler.com. Be sure to join us next time for the Albert Mohler program, your place for Intelligent Christian conversation about the issues that matter.