All who confess the true doctrine of Christ will bear these marks. They are marks of the Lord Jesus. They are a brand of Christ Jesus to show his ownership of a person. There are many marks in many different forms. They scar the body of the believer, scar his mind, and scar his soul. In Paul’s case the marks were physical, mental, and spiritual scars from being beaten, whipped, chained, and stoned and from other torments he endured. Those marks were inflicted on him because he carried into the world the gospel of Jesus Christ that a man is saved by faith alone and not by works at all. Paul preached the fulfillment of the promise in Jesus Christ and declared that all who are in Christ by faith are truly saved from all their sins and are heirs of eternal life wholly apart from their works. He declared that salvation is of the Lord through God’s eternal choice. The apostle declared that the man whom God saves is ungodly and dead in trespasses and sins. He taught men to depart from iniquity not to merit salvation but to give thanks to God. All of these declarations of the gospel offended the devil, the world, and the false brethren. So the devil, the world, and the false brethren slandered and defamed the apostle, and they hounded and harried him all over the Roman Empire, and frequently they caught him.

What did Paul say? “Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day” (1 Cor. 4:11–13). And he said, “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor. 11:23–27).

The false brethren teach assurance by obedience, justification by repentance, and fellowship by works “lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.” The false teacher well knows what the cross of Christ brings. The false teacher knows that the cross brings marks of Jesus Christ. The false teacher says that he is interested in holiness; he says that he is only being faithful to scripture; he says that he is teaching the truth; but he preaches righteousness by repentance because he will not suffer persecution. For so soon as he proclaims Christ crucified, he becomes the target of the world, the false church, and their leader the devil.

All these things are the glorious brands of Jesus Christ. He marks that he owns you and you are his. And so these marks must come to all who glory in nothing save the cross of Jesus Christ. Because you are Christ’s, the world hates you. Because you speak Christ, the false brethren slander, accuse, ridicule, and despise you. And bearing these marks, you may say with the apostle, “Henceforth let no man trouble me. Show me your marks of Jesus Christ, and I will believe you that you are his.”