God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
When God created us human, He gave us the capacity to enjoy beauty. And the greatest experience of beauty is in relationships of love. We have the joy of knowing that Jesus is beautiful and that He expressed His beauty in the most vivid way possible: by dying for us. Now we can taste of that beauty by having a love-relationship with Him that is deeper and sweeter than all the ugliness of the world. This too is a result of the work of Christ. It restores the beauty of life that was lost as a result of the Fall.
The more excellent something is the more likely it will be imitated. There are many false diamonds and rubies, but who goes about making counterfeit pebbles? However, the more excellent things are the more difficult it is to imitate them in their essential character and intrinsic virtues. Yet the more variable the imitations be, the more skill and subtlety will be used in making them an exact imitation. So it is with Christian virtues and graces. The devil and men's own deceitful hearts tend to imitate those things that have the highest value. So no graces are more counterfeited than love and humility. For these are the virtues where the beauty of a true Christian is seen most clearly.