THE MARKS OF CHRIST

 Part 1: The Mark of Ownership “Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” – Galatians 6:17 (NIV)

In this series of messages I want to focus on the marks of Christ with the first mark being the mark of ownership. We all bear marks or scars in our lives, whether physical, mental or spiritual. We usually didn’t ask for these unless they are, in some way, self-inflicted. These scars have significance. They are part of who we are. They are part of our testimony. They are reminders that life may be hard, but God is good! They can show the goodness of God in bringing healing to our lives. They also serve as a badge of honor that comes from our involvement in the battles of life. Paul had had plenty of troubles just in his efforts to proclaim the gospel message. He had been persecuted, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed and imprisoned for the sake of the gospel (2 Cor. 11:23-25). He wasn’t looking for any more troubles than he already had. But the Galatians had found a way to add to his troubles. They had let some false teachers lead them astray. These false teachers distorted the message of the gospel and tried to undermine Paul’s ministry there. They emphasized being justified by the works of the law rather than by grace through faith. Paul’s closing remarks, written in his own hand (6:11), includes a plea to the Galatians to not trouble him any more with this. Paul had a passion for the gospel and for the health of the local church. He was always disturbed when either of these was threatened. That is why he appealed to “the marks of Jesus” upon his body for leverage. Paul’s badge of honor was not the rite of circumcision, like the legalists or any other outward show of religion, but rather the scars he had from serving Christ. He was like a wounded veteran with scars from war. He didn’t flash a degree, a certificate of ordination or some authorized letter to prove to people he was an apostle. All he had to do was show them his back that endured several beatings, those scars were his credentials. Based on a study of this verse in relation to the rest of the book of Galatians, my paraphrase of this verse goes something like this: “Quit bugging me with false accusations and perversions of the gospel, I am a soldier of Christ and I have the war-wounds to prove it!” Or: “Stand back, I have scars from serving Christ and I know how to use them!” The Greek word for “marks” here is stigmata, it’s where we get our English word, stigma from. The word was used to describe the branding of cattle or human beings to designate ownership; that they belonged to someone who had purchased them with money just as you would buy some property or material goods. Once purchased, they become the property of the rightful owner. We are probably more familiar with the branding of cattle, which is still a common practice, than with the branding of human beings. Slavery was legal in Paul’s day; a person could be bought and sold for a price. Once purchased, they became the property of another human being. The owner would sometimes brand them with his unique logo to distinguish him or her from other slaves. This branding also indicated that you were a slave and didn’t have much status or rights in society. You were literally a piece of property and there wasn’t much you could do about it. Sometimes a brand could be used as a mark of shame and disgrace. A good example of this was when the Nazis marked the Jews with a yellow badge in the shape of the Star of David. Normally, the Star of David was something Jews were proud of, it is even on their national flag. But the Nazis turned it into a symbol of shame, ostracizing the Jews, designating them either for slave labor or death. Unfortunately for many, it was a designation of death. It is interesting to compare, how Christians have taken the symbol of the cross, also a symbol of shame and death and turned it into a symbol of honor and of life. Author and pastor, John MacArthur recently released a book entitled, Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ.” The reason he says it’s a “hidden truth” is because he contends that most of the English translators of the original texts of the Bible, including the King James, rendered a soft translation of the Greek word doulos. In most cases they translated it “servant” when the actual, literal translation of the word is “slave.” While there is a humble connotation for the word “servant,” it does not carry the idea of ownership like “slave” does. A servant can be employed and given wages, a slave is owned. MacArthur thinks that because slavery was still legal up until just a couple of centuries ago, translators did not want to come to terms with the real meaning of doulos. For example, when James, the half-brother of the Lord opens his letter, most of our Bibles say, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” – James 1:1 (NIV). According to Greek text, it should really be “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The NASB uses the term “bond-servant,” which is close but only the Goodspeed Translation of 1923 and the Holman Christian Standard Bible of 2004 are among the few that are faithful to the original translation of “slave.” In our modern, free, western society, this idea of ownership of another human being is probably a pretty foreign concept. We probably can’t imagine what it is like, except when we wear a sports shirt that says, “Property of ….” We aren’t literally owned by an organization, a school or a sports team but our identification with them is so strong that we proudly wear, “Property of Green Bay Packers.” But it is nothing like being actually owned by another person. Thankfully, slavery is an abolished institution in our society and in most parts of the world. Human trafficking is still going on just about everywhere but it is technically not legal any more. So for us to hear about someone actually being owned like a piece of property sounds pretty strange, not to mention pretty repulsive and abusive. It certainly doesn’t sound like something we would want for ourselves or for those we love. No one likes the idea of being owned. We are free, independent individuals, for the most part, with individual rights and privileges. But the Bible speaks of ownership when it comes to our relationship with Christ and uses slave language to describe it. In another letter written by Paul to the Corinthians he addresses the issue of believers abusing their liberty in Christ. Idolatry, paganism and immorality were widespread in Corinth as was slavery. Corinth had one of the most important slave markets in the ancient world. In a modern spin it might be called “Slave-mart,”advertised with low, low prices! Some of the new believers in Christ had a hard time breaking away from the lifestyle that was so common there. Some felt that because they were “free in Christ,” they could do just about anything they wanted to. But Paul told them different and he used slave language to get his point across: 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. – 1 Cor. 6:18-20 (NIV) Paul was saying that because they believed in Jesus now did not give them license to do anything they wanted to. They were missing the point. In fact, he reminds them that by virtue of their faith in Christ, they are not their own anymore; they are not their own boss, not their own captain, not their own master and commander. They were bought with a price. They belong to someone else. This is slave language. A slave would understand very well what he was talking about and as already mentioned, there were a lot of them in this ancient city. They were not their own but had a new Master and that new Master was Jesus. Rather than do whatever they wanted, they were called on to honor their Master with their bodies and with their very lives. We freely use the title “Lord,” when we talk about Jesus. We sing a lot of hymns and choruses that address him as Lord. We talk about “the Lord,” as Someone we worship, pray to and seek for guidance. But sometimes I wonder if we really understand what “Lord” means. I think we understand that it is a term that speaks of authority and that he is the ultimate ruler of all things. But do we realize that it is a term that also speaks of ownership? Do we realize that we really are not our own any more but that we were bought with a price? How many Christians do you see really living their lives under the ownership of Christ? What makes sin so deceitful is its promise of freedom, that we are our own person and are free to do whatever we want. It promises freedom, fulfillment and pleasure but gives you bondage, emptiness and sorrow. It convinces you that you are in the driver’s seat, you are in control. Then, before you know it, your life is way out of control! The problem is that in reality, sin has all the freedom of getting your leg caught in a bear trap! It will make you its slave with destructive results. That’s why Paul says in the Book of Romans that we have a choice: “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” – Romans 6:15-18 (NIV) Notice the way this is stated. It appears that we don’t have much choice whether we are going to be a slave or not. What we have is a choice as to what master we are going to have. We can either be slaves to sin, which leads to death or slaves to Christ which leads to life. In the natural realm a slave doesn’t get to choose his master but in the spiritual realm we do. Whoever you offer yourself to in obedience is your master. Before Joshua left this world, he said, 14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV) Joshua is saying you are going to serve someone or something. It is your choice which master you serve. They could serve the ancient idols of Abraham’s ancestors (beyond the River) or they could serve the current idols of neighboring nations like the Amorites or they could serve the Lord. This is a choice we still have to make today, are we going to serve the gods of this world, i.e. be their slaves, whether religious gods or secular gods? Or are we going to serve the Lord, i.e. be His slave? Self-ownership is an illusion! It is an illusion a lot of people never come to terms with. They would rather live a fantasy than live a reality. Even among God’s people in ancient Israel, slavery was legal. “An Israelite might choose to go into slavery to pay restitution for theft, to repay another debt, or to obtain food and shelter in hard times” (HCSB). A Hebrew could own another Hebrew. That means they were pretty much at the mercy of their owner. They had to work for them and do pretty much whatever the owner wanted. They had little or no rights and were still vulnerable to abuses. I don’t believe that slavery was God’s plan and design but that it was an institution so engrained into the fabric of society that God couldn’t take it out without doing damage to the whole fabric of society. But God at least made it considerably more humane compared to the rest of the world. Masters were to take good care of their slaves and not be abusive to them, for one thing. In other societies slaves had absolutely no rights and no protection from abuse. God also made it so slavery was not a permanent arrangement, which was a huge improvement over many countries where if you are born a slave you were likely to die a slave. In Israel, a slave was only required to serve his master for six years (Ex. 21:2-6). In the seventh year the slave was to be set free without having to purchase his freedom. In other places a slave might be able to somehow obtain enough money to purchase his own freedom but it was very rare. If he had a wife before he had been purchased, she would go with him if he wanted to be released from his master. But if he had been given a wife by his master while in servitude, the woman, along with any children they may have had would remain with the Master. But the slave also had another option. When the seventh year rolled around he had the option of actually staying with his master and with his wife and children if there were any. This option took into consideration that there might actually be a good relationship between master and slave, with the slave actually loving his master and being perfectly content in his role. How many people in a free society like ours actually love their employer and are content in their role? If the slave chose to stay with his master, the master then would bring him before the authorities to serve as witnesses, take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Today, pierced ears, noses & navels are pretty common but for an Israelite slave it meant that by his own choice, he was submitting to being the property of his master for life! Again, this might seem like a pretty peculiar and distasteful scenario. Few people, of their own volition would choose to be the property of someone else. And yet that is the picture of what it means to give our lives to Christ, our Lord and Master. If we truly love him, if we are content in our role of serving him, we will be glad to give our lives to him. He has purchased us with his own blood and we do not belong to ourselves. We don’t have to live in fear of him; that is in the sense of being an abusive master to us. He has also adopted us as children (Rom. 8:15), something that occasionally, though rarely happened to a slave in the Roman world. He is not an evil master but a good Master who treats us well, provides for our needs and gives us purpose in life. But we still are not our own, we belong to him because we were bought with a price. If we yield ourselves to Christ to permanently be his property, we aren’t doing anything for him that he already hasn’t done for us. Jesus left his home in heaven to come to this earth and become a man. His mission was to redeem us with his own blood. Again, redeem is slave language. To do that he had to give up his rights as God (Phil. 2:5-8), take on himself the form of a doulos, a slave, and then die a shameful criminal’s death on the cross for us. He basically came down and gave himself over to be owned by the human race. In the process he endured the most intense abuse any human being ever endured. He endured it for us so that we could be set free from sin to belong to him. An old hymn says, “Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.” - Norman Clayton Consider for a moment the benefits, yes the benefits of being the slave of a good master: 1. The Master gets all the headaches. He owns you but if he is a good master he is also responsible for you to care for you and provide for you. Your problems are his problems, the buck stops with him! 2. You don’t have to constantly try to figure out what you want to do with your life! It’s already determined for you! The master has a plan for your life and that plan is better than yours. It’s the best fit for your life. He knows what’s best for you and how to best utilize your gifts and talents. 3. You get protection from evil masters. If you stay with him, evil masters can’t touch you. They can’t pluck you out of his hand (John 10:28-29). The devil might harass you but you don’t have to let him be your master, you already have one! And your Master Jesus will not sell you out! If we choose not to let Jesus be our owner, we, in effect, put ourselves out on the market for a different one. 4. You are chosen for your weaknesses more than for your strengths. A typical slave owner would look for the strongest, best slaves to purchase. He chose the ones that would be the best physical specimens, the ones that looked good. God, on the other hand, tends to choose the weak and least qualified because it is through them that He can best display His grace. It is through them that He can best be glorified. Ownership is not a bad word when it comes to our relationship with Christ. It’s a good thing to be owned by Jesus! Don’t try to own yourself, if you do, you’ll end up being owned by someone you don’t want to be owned by! Let Jesus do the owning and rest in his care!