Bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus

From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
(Gal 6:17)

Jesus resurrected bodily, not just in the spirit for after He rose from the dead he ate before His disciple (Luke 24:32). He also showed them His hands and side and even asked Thomas to feel the wounds. Why didn’t Jesus resurrection come with healing and why the scars of the painful crucifixion still remain? Paul himself told the Galatians that he bears the marks of the cross. If the disciple is not above the Master (Matt 10:24), like Paul we should also bear the same cross and eventually the same marks of the Lord Jesus.

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
(Php 3:18)

The reality is many are not enemies of Christ for many want the blessings (eternal life, healthy, wealthy, protection and whatever we want God to offer), but when confronted with the cross many will veer or run. The foot of the cross is where we decide who is in control, whose will is it that rules. Once we decide it is God’s will, we will indeed drink the cup that Jesus drank (Matt 20:22, 26:42) and from the foot of the cross to the hanging there. We decide and God will bring people or circumstances to pin us to our cross. We don’t hang ourselves there. Subsequently the marks of Jesus become our marks if His will is done.

As we know the cross is the place of death, to follow Jesus and to inherit His Kingdom takes death, though not physical but yet much deeper because we have to live through it. Abraham had to let his dreams die when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac. That is probably why physical death is easier to face. This old patriarch lived to see the day Isaac was born as it were the confirmation of God’s promise that through him comes a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen 18:18). In Gen 22, the quick and unquestionable obedience of this righteous man took his only son whom he loved up to offer as a burnt offering. He only knew it was somewhere in the land of Moriah, location not told to him yet. He must have done some deep wrestling within himself but didn’t question Jehovah. Faith is like that, it leaves us in an un-nerving situation when we have lost total control. Wrestling with the Truth (John 14:6) isn’t easy. On the mount, Abraham’s dreams died….. however the promise of God came through……”Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. “ (Gen 15:1). This revelation given to him long before Isaac was born became a reality on that mount, he inherited the Kingdom. It wasn’t Isaac but God.

Jesus said ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’ (Matt 5:3). Abraham came to appoint of absolute poverty before God when his dreams died. The rich young man (Matt 19 and Mark 10) could have sold everything he had and gave to the poor but the covetousness could not have been dealt with. In Matt 5 Jesus started giving a discourse about the spirit of the law, beyond the external. Our righteousness that will have to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees has to do with the dealing beyond the external, for who can outdo these men who followed the Law to the letter. It has to do with dying deep inside, which Abraham experienced, he could have toyed with the idea of him dying in the stead of his son. You see, inner dying is harder because it will leave a scar of remembrance for the rest of our lives. Jacob (supplanter) became Israel (he will rule as God, Prince of God) but walked to the grave with a limp.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
(Joh 20:27)

You see, the dying may be internal but the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ is external. We are called to mourn when everyone else is rejoicing (heart broken for the sin of the world and for the people who call themselves ‘church’, marked by God as those who mourn for the sin Eze 9:4). We are called to be meek, losing our rights but being bondservants of Jesus Christ. People everywhere will fight for their rights, from the rich to the pauper. But we are to confessed that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Heb 11:13). We are called to pure in heart, an ‘enclosed garden’, an exclusive bride of Christ. (SoS 4:12). We are called to turn the other cheek. We are called to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them which spitefully use us, and persecute us.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
(Php 3:8)

The cross we carry to follow Jesus takes us to the place when things we have been holding on for dear life becomes dung, never secondary nor even holding third place…..but becomes dung. What do we want to win today? Is it our ambition, dreams, ideals, ideas, anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, good and noble they maybe…… or we want to bear the marks of discipleship to win Christ. Confront the Truth, let the wrestling begin, don’t veer or run away but yield at the end. The paradox of the Kingdom of God is loosing in order to gain (Mark 8:36).