Bearing the marks of Christ

Those who want to make a good impression in the flesh are the ones who would compel you to be circumcised—but only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

For even the circumcised don’t keep the law themselves, and yet they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh.

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world…

From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” (Galatians 6:12-14, 17)

I was chewing on those last few words of Paul, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”

The word “marks” usually carried the idea of a slave being branded, identifying who their master was.

For the Jews, circumcision was the sign they belonged to God. As a Jew, Paul had received circumcision, but for him, he wasn’t pointing to that as his identifying mark.

Rather, Paul pointed to the scars he bore for faithfully preaching God’s gospel of grace.

Many times, the Jews persecuted him for preaching a salvation based on the cross instead of a salvation based on circumcision and on keeping God’s laws.

He had gone through many other hardships as well for preaching that gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:24-29)

And so he tells those preaching a false gospel to the Galatians, “Stop bothering me and hindering the work that I’ve done among the Galatians. You aren’t true servants of Christ. You’re only preaching circumcision because you want to avoid persecution.

“But my scars, not my circumcision, prove that I truly belong to Christ.”

I can’t help but wonder, though, if he was also trying to tell the Galatian Christians something else.

“Circumcision isn’t what marks you as belonging to God. You already carry the ‘marks’ of Christ which he received on the cross. You have been crucified with Christ and died to the law and its condemnation of you.

“More, you’ve died to the sin that once enslaved you and you’re no longer living for the things of this world. Rather, you live for Jesus who loves you and gave himself up for you. That’s what marks you as a child of God.”

So let us walk each day as children of God, proudly wearing the marks of our crucified Lord whom we love.

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)