Galatians 6:17 From now on let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I. The text is an expression of that rest in love which those alone can have whose "life is hid with Christ in God." The immediate motive of its utterance here is a certain sense of powerlessness in swaying the minds of others. What is argument to him? What is the judgment of man? What is any outward evidence? Has he not within the surest of all proof, the experience of the highest faith? "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ." II. What are the "marks" here signified? Whatever they are, no doubt they are proofs that he is Christ's, and Christ is his. But what are they? Elsewhere, he speaks of his labours and sufferings in the cause of Christ; and that too on an occasion like the present, when some were disparaging him, and making invidious comparisons between himself and the earlier apostles. He is obliged to say in his own cause, "I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles." Then he speaks of his severe sufferings as signs of his apostleship. Are these uppermost in his mind now? I think not. Again, he speaks to the Corinthians of the vision vouch. safed to him — "How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." And he concludes, "In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." Is it to the same that he is referring now? Or, once more, does he allude to the many converts whom he had made, signs, if there be any, that Christ is with him? Well might his heart rest in thoughts like this, as when he wrote to the Church at Corinth — "Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel;" "And the seal of my apostleship are ye in the Lord." Or when he calls the Philippians "my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown." Is this the mark of the Lord Jesus which he looks at, and takes comfort at the sight? No. I think not. It is something closer to him than this. Sufferings may find a man and leave a man separate from Christ: "Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it is nothing." Of visions he says, "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory;" and lest he should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given unto him a thorn in the flesh. Of miracles and mighty works, One greater than Paul said — "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." And as to making converts, here is his own solemn caution, "Lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." What are these marks? They are the stigmata, the marks (as the Greeks would say, whose word it was), burnt into a slave, the brand set on a runaway slave: a sign graven upon the very body, as inseparable as a birth-mark; one that has indeed been imposed in after years, and by another hand, but now become part and parcel of the man himself, as his own flesh and bone. They are the stigmata, the marks (as Christians would say, in memory of Him who bore them on Himself), of Christ their Master: His marks on their body, as signs that they are members of His Body, in all purity and chastity and holiness, as being "temples of the Holy Ghost;" His marks on their temper, as those who have taken up their cross and borne it after Him in self-denial and mortification, in patience, in forgiveness, in humility, in cheerfulness; His marks on their soul, as being set free from condemnation by the atoning mercy of the Saviour, as being made partakers of the precious fruits of His sacrifice upon the cross — the mark of justification, and the mark of sanctification — the imputed righteousness of Christ, the imparted and inherent righteousness wrought in them by the Holy Ghost: His marks on their spirit, being full of all spiritual affections — love, joy, peace, patience, amid the trials of earth, longing for the security of heaven, the present enjoyment of an almost perfect rest in the arms of God; in short, "a life hid with Christ in God." III. In the next place observe, that this is not an unusual thought with St. Paul, and will not admit of being explained away as a momentary instance of highly-wrought enthusiasm. It was his life! Did it seem to any a mischievous intrusion of imagination into holy things, to speak of love imagining the Saviour's wounds to be traced in the Christian's heart? Then how do you read St. Paul's words to the Colossians — "I, Paul, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh;" or these to the Philippians — "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death;" and again to the Galatians — "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me"? These are the marks branded by the fire of God's love upon his heart. "What marks have I of the Lord Jesus?" and again, "Without these marks will Christ know me for His own?" They are brands burnt into the very body, so no outward thing will satisfy; nothing that your hands have done, nothing that the world can measure, for it is beneath all the dress and apparel of a so-called religious life, of which the world takes cognizance. They are part and parcel of yourself, so they can be nothing which can be taken up and laid down at will. Think how great is the risk of self-deceit; because that mark is not genuine unless it be found in the very inmost circle of your life. (G. W. Furse, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. |
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