***Bear in your Body the Marks

by Northcote Deck

“Our supreme desire and ambition must be not service, though that is necessary, but that we might become more and more conformed to the image of God's Son.”

In Galatians 6:17 Paul the Apostle writes: "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." The Apostle, confronted by these Galatians could not refer to his mighty missionary work; the provinces evangelized, scores of churches founded, thousands of converts won. Instead, with unerring spiritual wisdom he says: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

Our supreme desire and ambition must be not service, though that is necessary, but that we might become more and more conformed to the image of God's Son. That is just what the Apostle Paul claims, and that is the surest title to trust and confidence.

I turn from that verse to a similar passage, John 20:24-25. "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe."

"I will not believe." Now, it's very easy for us to criticize the Apostle. I don't think Thomas had a right to speak like that; he should have believed. But what Thomas claimed as his right (although it was not his right) the world also claims. The world looks at us who call ourselves Christians and says in effect to us, "Except I shall see the print of the nails of the Lord Jesus in you Christians, I will not believe; why should I? There ought to be some evidence."

We claim that by faith in Jesus Christ we now have a new kind of life called eternal life. Not an improvement to ordinary human life, but quite different. Not only eternal in duration but divine in quality; Christ is our Lord. We claim further that we now have a second nature called the divine nature which is incapable of sinning, though we may be plagued with the old nature still. We claim still more remarkably that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us, that actually God has taken up His presence in our unworthy hearts.

Those are big claims. And the world, and that rightly, demands evidence of those claims. We come to some friend and say rather tremblingly, "We have seen the Lord." And he looks us up and down rather critically and says, "It doesn't look much like it; there's not much evidence of it."

We ought to be hallmarked; there ought to be something about us that's evident, that's divine and supernatural. We are to be "living epistles, read and known of all men." Don't forget, we're not just postcards, and the writing to be read by the village postmistress. Alas, there's so little worth reading very often in our lives. What God needs today is living Bibles six feet long and bound in human skin. They're scarce today, but we can be those living Bibles.

Mr. Hudson Taylor was a great missionary - great in common sense and great in spirituality. A young missionary asked him, "How can I count most for God in China?" And so he took a glass of water, filled it to the brim, struck it with a ruler, and capsized it - nearly broke the glass, with the water running all over the table. And he asked the young man, "Now, what spilled out?" "Well," said the young fellow, "evidently what was in." And he said, "My young friend, what's in will spill out. You'll get knocks; what's going to spill out when you get knocks? Is it going to be irritation, anger, or is it going to be the grace of God?"

A solder was brought up before Alexander, the Great, the world conqueror and Emperor of Greece one day for negligence of duty, for sleeping as a sentry. The great Emperor demanded of this trembling soldier what his name was. The man replied that his name was Alexander. "Well," said the emperor, "you've just got to change your name or change your behaviour. You can't behave like you've been doing with the name Alexander." We can't change our name; we don't want to. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We are Christians in a real sense, praise God. We can't change our name, and wouldn't. But we can and need to change our behaviour.

We want to reproduce by God's grace the marks of the Lord Jesus. Now, I only have time for one mark. We'll read Galatians 6:2, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." That's a very evident mark. Jesus Christ came into this world to give a new emphasis to life. Up until then men had lived mostly for themselves. He came to live for others. He lived for others; He loved men before He died for men. You and I must learn to have that same supernatural love for others. That's the shortest challenge you can have - one word - "others." If you and I are self-centered, they say a person wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.

I want to bring you a new arithmetic that young people don't always know yet. I read in Luke 6:38, "Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

I think I know where the Saviour saw the illustration. I think that one morning in Nazareth he saw in a little bazaar at the side of the winding street two ancient Eastern men with long beards, a great pile of golden grain between them. And one of them took an old earthenware measure and filled it up and shook it, and forced it down and piled it up, piled it up till he couldn't get more grain to stay in that pot. Well, I don't know whether he was the buyer or the seller; he might have been the buyer. But that's what they were doing in the Lord's day, and that's just what God can do with your life and mine: make it just run over with His blessings.

In the Solomon Islands we have very broken English. They can't say "God bless you very much," but they say "God bless you too much," which means God bless you so much you can't contain it all so that it must run over into somebody's else life.

How can I be such a person? How can I be a living Bible? How can I exemplify the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when I'm provoked something worthwhile will spill out? You see, it's in our unguarded moments that the world will judge us, not when we are in our best clothes on Sunday and on our best behaviour.

If I couldn't control my temper as well as the old schooner I lived on for nineteen years in the Solomons, then some fool would make sure that I let go of the wrong rope, and we'd let the mainsail down with a crash on the deck, And someone would say, "My word, the doctor, he talk one way, but live another way." It's our unguarded moments we must watch. But it's only the Holy Spirit who can watch. And as He has thus gained control of us only so can we be kept and be living epistles worth reading.

I shall have to deal moment by moment with the Great Physician. Now, He's attending here by special appointment these days - He's here. I'm so glad to say He doesn't prescribe a long series of treatments as most of us poor doctors must to get rid of our patients. Again and again I read in His miracles that immediately the leprosy departed from him, immediately she was made strong, immediately the fever was reduced, and so on.

No long course of treatment, but (and it is a very important but) he does prescribe care in after-living. That's where you've got to look out. He can make the adjustment in your life these days; I've seen it done again and again around the world, in a moment, but then it's up to you for the care in after-living. He's what you might call a divine Dietician. He prescribes a needful diet, and that, of course, is the Word of God. No paper can takes its place; no Christian magazine can take its place. Don't be robbed by these other things; That must be your diet. Nothing I've ever seen done around the world is done except by the Word of God.

And then He's prescribed plenty of fresh air, the fresh air of prayer. And don't you forget - if you say you're too busy to pray, then you're too busy. And then exercise? Weld, how can we be happy unless we are making our Saviour known to someone else? But remember this prescription must be dispensed and taken.

I preach in about ninety places in America every year for God, and that means I sleep in about ninety beds every year, some of them two or three times. And I would always find on the wall prescriptions – yes, pious texts – not always being dispensed by what happens in that home. Thank God they mostly are. Now, surround yourself with these wonderful prescriptions, but dispense them. Make them your own by faith. Claim that God will do these mighty things.

Then as you go out to be a living epistle, by His grace there will be nothing worthwhile of you, but there will be somebody wonderful in you. If Christ is living in your heart, He should be seen looking out of the window sometimes - out of your lives. There should be the grace of God evident in your life and mine, moment by moment