Title: Do I Have the Stigma of Jesus?
The people in Galatia received the gospel of Jesus and became believers. But some Jews came into the community of faith and started spreading the wrong teaching that God’s chosen people ought to comply by the Law of Moses which brought great confusion to the congregations of the church in Galatia. In order to explain and teach that salvation comes from faith not from works, Apostle Paul wrote this letter to Galatia :-
Gal 2:16 nevertheless, knowing that a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; since by works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
The Law makes people known that they are sinners and entitle them as the slaves of sinner. However, the faith in Jesus makes people free from their sins and allow them to live under God’s blessings. Then, the freedom we have in the Christ is not a self-indulgence but to bear the fruit of righteousness through living by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And at the end, to the Jews who were saying, “Are you not one of us who thought Jesus was a heresy? Are you not one of us who were trying to catch the followers of Jesus and put them into prison? Are you not one of us who believed that to comply by the Law of Moses is the only way to come closer to God?” Apostle Paul tells them, “From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.”
Greek word for ‘brand marks’ is ‘Stigma’. According to the culture of that time, only two kinds of people received Stigma: the first type are the slaves of Roman General. They go to the battle as Roman soldiers with their master. The brand-mark on their body shows whom they belong to. The second type are the slaves working in the temple of idols. They had this brand-mark on their body to show that they became the slaves of their god forever. Basically, this stigma is the outward sign of eternal slavery. As Apostle Paul used this word to describe the relationship between Jesus Christ and himself, he was telling people that he is the slave of Jesus forever (Rom 1:1; Phil 1:1; Tit 1:1).
What kind of stigma does Apostle Paul has?
In 2 Cor 11:23-27, it summarizes what Apostle Paul had gone through for the sake of gospel of Jesus Christ. Certainly, 5 times of 39 lashes would leave him a mark or a scar on his body.
The founding pastor, Rev Abraham Park taught as that the stigma we have is a change of our body. For example, as we grow old, we may have wrinkles on our face and around our eyes. Others may have on-going back pain, knee pain or joint pain. These are all the brand marks.
If we gain these pains while enjoying our life going clubbing, dancing and drinking, or if we gain these pains while working on our business day and night without going to church and without spending time with God: These brand-marks are the Stigma of this world. It shows that we belong to this world.
However, if we gain these wrinkles and pains while we study the Word of God or while we serve in the church or while we evangelize people to the Word of God. Then, these brand-marks are the Stigma of Jesus Christ. Believe that all the sufferings and pains you received and tears and sacrifices you made for the kingdom of God are the Stigma of Jesus which will lead us into the life under God’s amazing blessing.
The time you spent, the money you spent, all the energy you spent for the church and for Jesus Christ will become the glorious stigma of Jesus on your body.
Conclusion:
We shouldn’t withdraw from Jesus
Jhn 6:66 As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore.
Jesus came to the synagogue in Capernaum and taught something. Then, many people left Jesus. The teaching was :
First : Is He is the living bread came down from heaven and whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood will have eternal life (Jhn 6:54). People started arguing among themselves, “How can we eat His flesh and drink His blood? We are not man-eaters. Even if we eat, how many of us can be fed by one person?”
Second : He is going to die. People argued among themselves, “Hadn’t He taught us that we are going to receive eternal life? How are we going to receive eternal life if He is not going to live eternally?”
Because of these two topics, most of them left Jesus Christ. Greek word for ‘to withdraw’ is ‘ApelKomai’ and it was used in various parts of the Bible.
- It means to return to their position
Before they started following Jesus, they were living or working in their village. So, to leave Jesus means to go back to where they were before.
- It means to look back (Luk 9:62)
- It means to eat what we vomited (Prop 26:11)
After believing in Jesus, God opened our spiritual eyes through the Bible and His teaching. But, if we slip backward to the ideology we used to have, that is as same as we withdraw from Jesus.
Let’s not withdraw, let’s not slip backward. Let’s stand firm like Apostle Paul and Peter confessing that we have the brand-mark of Jesus and we believe that Jesus is the only one who can give us the eternal life. Amen!
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 