This is difficult to write because of my own marks. I see mine but they may be well-hidden from you. I work hard to conceal the marks that I have inwardly, so bear with me while I comment on a hard and widespread subject that may offend about everybody, including myself.
Astute people see what is important
to them. God sees it as well! I think of the movie, Death Becomes Her; two
beautiful women never want to die. Madeline is married to Earnest, a reconstructive
mortician who endeavors to keep her beautiful. That failing, a spa owner gives
her the business card of a woman who specializes in rejuvenation. That too failed.
Soon, a young-looking, but
elderly woman, reveals to Madeline a potion that promises eternal life and an
everlasting youthful appearance. Madeline purchases and drinks the potion and
is rejuvenated, regaining her beauty. To
shorten the story, both Madeline and her friend Helen, although old, look young
and beautiful but they began to wither. We are all withering and some deal with
it in preposterous ways.
The potion is temporary; the mortician
husband must maintain their beauty by heavy makeup that peels off. Soon, those
two women look as if they are the walking dead.
Nobody wants to grow old, and
because they do, they want to remain attractive until the day they die. So many
times, it is heard at a funeral, “He (she) looks so natural and beautiful.”
They are dead. They are neither vibrant nor beautiful; the mortician has just
done a good job. People hang onto vanity even in death!
God created mankind beautiful —
in His Image. God is glorious, so mankind were created glorious. That God is
glorious is a thread throughout the Bible, and example is, “Behold, the Lord
our God hath shewed us His Glory and His greatness, and we have heard his voice
out of the midst of the fire…” (Deut 5:24). Because of sin, mankind has “come
short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
Narcissistic people think of
themselves as beautiful but since the original sin, mankind is brutish and grow
more brutish with time. Speaking of ungodly men, Jude wrote, “But these speak
evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as
brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves” (Jude 10).
In the days before the flood, “God
looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His
way upon the earth” (Gen 6:12). In the end, it will be as in the days of Noah, all
flesh will be corrupted. What mankind sees as “beautiful,” God sees as corrupt!
In the end, Christians — those
who are like Christ in death — will be made “incorruptible” again, and without corrupt
flesh. When Jesus comes again, even the dead shall live again, those living in
Christ will join them, as it is written, “The dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:52). Even the dead shall be glorious
again as Adam (mankind) was in the beginning. The Image of God will be restored
in the faithful as they are completely regenerated at the rapture. They shall
be regenned again in the Image of God’s Genome.
Now consider the word, “glory,”
in the Hebrew it is “kaḇoḏ.” Glorious is thought of as “beautiful” but
the root word means “heaviness” or “dullness.”
We are told to, “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I AM the Lord your God” (Lev 20:17). We are to set ourselves apart to be dull like God is dull. The point therein is that beauty, or glory, is on the inside. Christians are to be different than the brutes of the world. God sums that up this way:
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“This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from
fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his
vessel in sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of
concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God… (1 Thes 4:3-5)
Early in childhood development,
they cherish their flesh, “…no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth
and cherisheth it” (Ephes 5:29). In fact, the rest of the passage reveals that mankind
makes their flesh as cherished as God’s Image.
We are to abstain from
worshipping our own image. “Porn” is satisfying our own flesh as we lust after
the flesh of others. It is not the glorification of the flesh of others but a
sad attempt to glorify ourselves.
What is the lust of Lucifer? “I
will be like the most High (God)” (Isa 14:14). His “flesh” is corrupt. He wants
the Glorious Image of God, no matter how dull it is to the world. Humans are
the same way because, we like Cain, our progenitor, are of the Wicked One. (1
John 3:12)… the spiritually diseased one.
What glorifies mankind? Death!
Are you surprised?
Jesus was glorified at death
(John 7:39) and our gain, like the death of Jesus and for Paul, “To live is
Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Living set apart as Christ was set
apart delivers a reward. That reward is glorification. What happens at death?
The person gives up the flesh while retaining the mind and soul. Christians relinquish
their image that they adore all their lives.
Hence, self-adoration is mankind’s
problem and how better to adore oneself than magnifying the flesh. Is that not
what Death Becomes Her was all about? They refused to relinquish their
fleshes at all costs, even to the point of adorning their flesh with cuttings
and cosmetics!
Yesterday my granddaughter said
forthrightly to grandma, “Papa doesn’t like tattoos.” Indeed, I would never again
tattoo my body. It isn’t for me because in the spiritual realm no Christian
will be tattooed. The only Person there who will be pierced in Paradise is
Jesus, and that is because it is His Mark to show that He paid the price for
our sins. Our old flesh will be of no concern there.
Many Christians, especially
Calvinists, are “antinominalists.” They minimize, even trivialize, the Law of
God. Obedience to the Laws of God is not
the Way to Paradise because Jesus fulfilled that requirement. Jesus, and Him
alone, is the Way. However, the Law remains the written “Will and Testament of
God.” Hence, the burdensome Law remains the Will of God.
If you remember, “glorious” means “Heavy” or “Burdensome;” that describes the Glory of Jesus (John 7:39).
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Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4
Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might
deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our
Father: 5 To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Gal 1:3-5)
The Law, I repeat, remains the
Will of God. Like a good Papa, we will not be condemned for writing and
cutting on the “coats of skin” (Gen 3:21) that God made especially for His
children. We are to cherish the grace that he gave our kind by giving us even
inglorious skin!
The Lord Jesus Christ gave up His
Flesh and became “Heavy” — He “gave Himself for our sins,” as the Word says. Jesus
revealed His innermost self when He gave up his marked flesh. His “flesh” was
much different than ours; it was glorious! The Identity of Jesus still looked
like Jesus as He gave up His innermost feature — the Holy Ghost — the invisible
God that carried all our sins to Hell. Was the Holy Ghost a beautiful Thing?
The “Holy Ghost” is from the Greek, “Hagio Pneuma.” The root word is hagos — “an awful thing.” The Innermost Jesus was indeed uncomely as Isaiah saw Him:
He was
despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and
as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him
not. (Isa 53:3; RSV)
Two
young men also appeared to Him, remarkably strong, gloriously beautiful and
splendidly dressed, who stood on each side of Him and scourged Him
continuously, inflicting many blows on Him (2
Mac 3:26)
Who were the ugly beings at the
crucifixion?
I believe Satan was there, after
he had gone out of Judas. Perhaps the chief priest, Caiaphas became the
Antichrist. He would be the ugliest of the ugly without regard to his robes or
status.
Those “beautiful” people who scourged
Jesus were two more of the ugly ones. They would have been decked out in the
finest Roman centurion apparel and would have looked grand to the crowd… but inside
their innermost person — their souls — they were ugly men.
Jesus was not hideous enough for those who mocked Him, so they scourged Jesus of His flesh. The Romans were noted for applying forty minus one flogs on people. Jesus surely suffered thirty-nine strokes from the scourging device:
A scourge (Latin: flagrum) consists of a rope with metal balls,
bones, and metal spikes. The scourge, or flail, and the crook are the two
symbols of power and domination… A flail's intended use was to thresh wheat,
not to implement corporal punishment.
As a young man, my son was beaten
about a dozen times on the head with a crowbar. I saw him the day after. His
head was alien in appearance; it was puffed twice the size as usual. My handsome
son had been diminished to a beaten creature. I hardly recognized him. That’s
what they did to Jesus only many times worse.
Those beautiful and grand men
thought they were making Him ugly, but His Soul showed through. Jesus left His haggardly
flesh and was glorified as He showed to those who would look His Glory!
Jesus was cut and pierced as they
mocked and killed Him. That was God’s Will for Himself because they were inflicting
defects on the Glorious fleshly Image — the skin of God that was the “coat of
flesh” of God.
So why would God say, “You shall
not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks
upon you: I am the Lord” (Lev 19:28).
My granddaughter said it rightly
just as children do, “Papa doesn’t like tattoos,” she said. God said that
first, Papa said to not make cuttings in your flesh nor tattoo any marks upon
you. Was it Papa who said that? He added, “I AM the Lord.”
You are not the Lord, the LORD
GOD, Jesus, is the LORD. His glorious flesh would be marked so yours need not!
Marking the flesh was a “Gentile”
or pagan thing to do. God marked Cain already and as the progeny of Cain, we
are already marked. The flesh of Cain was the problem; it differed from the righteous
flesh of Abel, so God marked it.
You are not God, so it is presumptive
for you to do the marking. Yes, sins of presuming to be what you are not, are
still sins — “presumptive sins.” It is written, “Keep back thy servant also
from presumptuous sins” (Psalm 19:13).
Jesus was accused of presumptive
sin; He claimed to be God, and He was marked for it! His flesh was torn off bit
by bit. He had thorns placed on His head that ripped His flesh, so why would so
many today pierce the beautiful faces that God made for them?
This “papa” doesn’t care what you
do with your own flesh, but God still cares; it remains His Will that your
flesh is not degenerated more than it already is. Why not do whatever you will
to do? Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
Agape love is to honor the
Will of the Father. The Law is still “His Will to be done” as we are said to
pray.
This seems to be an attack on
modern customs. Many of us would never mark ourselves, or would we?
To glorify God is to love and
adore Him. Love, as said before, is having goodwill for God, to honor Him and
His precepts, or commandments.
How to adore God? Worship His
Image, and that “Image” is Jesus. To magnify the very Flesh of God that replaced
yours to redeem your sins.
In the Old Testament, the sacrifice
was to be unblemished (Exod 12:5) and your own flesh as the perfect sacrifice
should be without blemish, at least the best that can be had; God fully
realizing that mankind is already terribly blemished.
That Christians are to glorify
God is best done by unglorifying themselves. Paul wrote to the pagan Romans, “I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service” (Rom 12:1). You are to present your flesh to God as the sacrifice to
glorify God. Your gift should not be repackaged nor reused. It should be as new
and pristine as possible.
You cannot clean what is on the
inside with rebirth, but you can present your bodies with some degree of
decency. Then, God will clean the inside, or perhaps the inward you, until it
is as clean as the outward you. However, He cannot be fooled.
For myself, I am presentable
outwardly but know that I am haggardly inwardly. My hope is that God regards
that well — recognizing how unclean that I am and to continue cleaning me up.
Outward appearance reflects the
inner person. Why would anyone mar themselves? Because their flesh may very
well represent their inner person. Of course, some use a clean image to conceal
the dirty inside, but that is problematic as well. Indeed, even us “clean”
folks are marked inwardly; we just conceal it better.
Many of us who are straight and
clean, even clean ourselves up more than usual to appear cleaner. For instance,
those who think they are preachers may wear a preacher’s suit but that does not
make them holy at all. Spit-shined shoes and carefully applied aromas and cosmetics
do not make the preacher more real!
There is a problem of overdoing
anything. Even if something is a good thing, overdoing it may be harmful.
So, you like candy? So do I, but
too much candy will make you ill. The same goes for too much preparation; a
little makeup may be good, but a lot may be detestable to the Lord. Take for instance,
Jezebel; Jehu was anointed king and to appear to him more glorious than she was,
“she painted her eyes and adorned her head.” (2 Kings 9:30).
Jezebel wanted to be noticed
beyond the noticeability of other women. She made herself out to be the ideal,
the idol of something she was not. She presented a false image to Jehu.
Many of our own careers were
presenting a false image. Mine was a country boy made up in a three-piece suit
and presented to customers as a businessman. When I realized that in my black
suits, I looked more like a penguin than a success, I ceased wearing my “penguin
suit,” and still avoid wearing suits to church.
We are to wear our best for
God, and the best for Jesus was an undergarment with a robe. John wore a suit
of camel’s hair for a reason; perhaps not to look more glorious than Jesus, and
even with that, they thought him the Messiah!
Speaking of Jesus, John said, “He
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear” (Mat
3:11). His role was to magnify God by minimizing himself, and it worked!
The high priests were lucky men.
If anyone was dressed to be king and thought of themselves as rightful heirs of
Herod and of God; it was the priestly realm. Pilate should have been wary of the
chief priests who dressed like and acted like gods and kings. They were the
real pretenders to the throne, not Jesus. They were acting the part that they
were not!
Makeup is making oneself out to
be what one is not. Some makeup may be good, but excessive makeup is for the
stage. It is not much different than marking oneself. It is not so much how you
mark but that you find it important to mark.
Beasts mark their trails with
urine or excrement. The reason they mark is for territory and dominance. Even small
puppies mark their territory as if they are Dobermans. They act as kingly
beasts, all the while they are just pets. It is instinctive to mark ourselves
to preserve our fiction, just as Cain was marked to preserve his fiction (Gen
4:15).
In previous times, tribes marked
themselves wildly to appear more vicious. The Picts of England were noted for
their tattoos that they used to frighten their enemies. The Romans were so
afraid of those vicious “beasts” that they retreated with their Roman tales lagging
them. Soon after, the Picts were lost to history. Somehow the Vikings, Anglos,
Saxons, and other invaders diminished them because the tattoos failed to scare
them.
Tattoos were always used to exert
tribalism. Indeed, today, those marked with rings and ink are a “tribe,” so to
speak. They announce their existence — their inner self — that they have souls
of warriors. They use pagan artwork to make themselves seem different. Their
flesh to them is more valuable than gold to silver. That is known because they
pay good money for them in lieu of things that they need just to exist.
With that said, I admit that when
I was young and foolish, I marked my flesh. It failed and I was glad! My flesh
would not have been adorned but simply marked as “foolish.”
God helped me not to fool myself.
He erased the ink, and now my tattoo is gone. I am as guilty of adorning my
flesh as the next person, but still struggle with the mark of the beast inside,
and that is to do what I want to do, and that is to satisfy my flesh.
I could go on, but marks, just as
bad, can be on the inner self as well. That is pride and that is for another
day.
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