Scarred for Life
Introduction
In the likeness of Christ “Scarred for Life” mean carrying a permanent wound to bring life to others. Jesus exposed his wounds to his disciples after the resurrection, and he retains the marks of his slaughter as Lamb even in heaven (John 20:20, 27; Rev 5:6 etc.). Christ’s eternal scars testify that our salvation is forever secure. “By his wounds you have been healed.” will always be real to us as the glory of God pours through the lacerations of the Lamb in the new creation (1 Pet 2:24; Rev 21:22-23). If we make the Lord’s scars the prism through which view the world we arrive at spiritual insights vastly different from other ways of understanding reality. If the Chinese Church needed the communist revolution to expel Western missionaries to enjoy exponential growth, if the Persian Church needed the Islamic revolution for the Lord to convert thousands of Iranians, and if remarkable kingdom fruit is being born today all across the Middle East because of ISIS, then the Western Church is remarkably arrogant to think we do not need an anti-Christian social revolution to shock us into serious discipleship. Interpreting his own life Jesus taught there is no glory apart from suffering (Luke 24:26). This is why I believe same sex marriage (SSM) must become law in Australia, with all its progressive difficult implications for true disciples of Jesus.
Which will of God?
We must understand the difference between the “must” of historical inevitability and the “must*” of divine indispensability. Jesus taught his disciples, “the Son of Man must* suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31). Christ did not die through force of political circumstance but because it was the only way God’s love could save the world (Matt 26:53). We must accept that the crucifixion was both the will of God, in the sense of sovereignly decreed by him (Isa 53:4, 10; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28), and something which was not pleasing to his will. It was willed for a higher good. As such God can say “No” to SSM and sovereignly permit it to come to pass for the higher purpose of his glory (cf. Rev 17:17). This is what I believe we are faced with in Western nations today. This is a tough call, and only if we look through a wide angled lens can we understand how the Lord of all can allow his moral will to be trampled underfoot (Rev 19:16). The book of Revelation especially helps us with this.
The healing of a “mortal wound”
In Revelation we hear of a beast with a head whose “mortal wound was healed” (Rev 13:3). Having apparently conquered death this antichrist figure is an object of marvel amongst the inhabitants of the earth (13:4). The healed beast is a satanic imitator of the slaughtered and resurrected Christ (Rev 5:6). In the context of today’s post-Christian nations, like Australia, we are witnessing the resurrection of pagan godlessness under the form of militant secularisation. In my childhood the default religion in our nation was always Christianity, but when we witness numerous corporations publicly championing “equal marriage”, our major sporting codes running Pride Games, the Australian Medical Association campaigning for SSM, the NSW Bar Association doing likewise, a majority of federal parliamentarians supporting the cause etc. it is obvious that all the spheres/mountains of culture have effectively capitulated to the beast whose scars testify to the incredible resuscitating power of evil. ““Who is like the beast and who can fight against it?”” is in today’s SSM advocates, “No one can hold back the cause of human rights, justice, love-is-love because history is on our side.” Ascending from the abyss this demonic power clothed in human form seems to be progressively conquering the saints in Western countries being “allowed” by God to do this (Rev 13:7). This is a divine judgement on a Church that has failed to take seriously Christ’s command to disciple the nations (Matt 28:19). Obsessed with its own success, comfort and prosperity the Church has largely ignored its vocation to be salt and light in “the world” (Matt 5:14-16). Through repentance we are being called to re-disciple our nation, but this can happen in only one way.
Sharing the wounds of Christ
The God we worship through the slain but living Lamb testifies, ““I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal”” (Deut 32:39). Today he is working to put to death the comfortable “Laodicean” forms of Western Christianity in order to revive the apostolic spirit (Rev 3:14-22). Paul boasts, “I bear on my body the marks (i.e. scars) of Jesus” (Gal 6:17). Peter likewise has learned the way of the cross, “it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s wil….If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Pet 3:17; 4:14). Astute political observers know that the legislation of SSM is only the beginning of the progressive elimination of Christianity from the public square. This may be alarming but it is also necessary. If our Saviour was slain outside the city gate to inherit the eternal city of God we too must* be excluded from public honour in order to share Christ’s resurrection power (Phil 3:10; Heb 13:12). If Christians are to live and look different from our secular neighbours this must* happen. As “all the tribes of the earth will mourn” in repentance at the sight of the “pierced” Son of God only when the Church in Australia begins to seriously suffer for her Saviour, and loves her enemies, can many preciously apathetic neighbours turn to Christ (Zech 12:10; John 19:37; Rev 1:7; 5:9).
Conclusion
Many contemporary Church leaders have ““taken away the key of knowledge”” (Luke 12:51) because they have not taught the wounds of the cross as the wide angled lens through which we see the wider purposes of God. No wonder then many Christians are scared of what is coming on the world. The good news however is that the greater the scarring for Christ the less the scaring by men. This bold reality permeates the New Testament. “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:14-15). The pagans said of the apostolic spirit the lord wills to release again today; ““These men who have turned the world upside down …they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”” (Acts 17:6-7) Whereas Western Christianity has long been identified with the status quo truly living under the reign of the crucified risen King end our preoccupation with bedroom morality and release numerous initiatives in the re-discipling of all the spheres of culture. This vision of reengaging workplace and neighbourhood with the all surpassing presence of Christ is exciting beyond words. But the cost of seeing this vision come to pass will involve a period of mourning over the loss of many dear things, including the sanctity of marriage and the freedom of religious conscience. This is a wound we must accept so that the Lamb who was slain may receive the reward of his sufferings (Moravians). “Who is sufficient for these things?….but our sufficiency is from God” (1 Cor 2:16; 3:5).