This morning I want to talk about marks. Most of us are familiar with marks. When you mark something, you want to identify it. For instance, people that cut down trees will mark which ones stay, and which ones get cut down. Auto parts stores will mark the parts they sell that have lifetime warranties. Usually they will be painted a certain color. When I went to summer camp, my mother used to mark my clothing with my initials. And it didn’t stop there. When I joined the Air Force, we still had to mark our clothes, including our shoes and boots. I had “T1234” on every article of clothing. There was not problem identifying whose clothes were whose.
This morning’s text also talks about marks. Paul describes what the marks of a true believer are. Sometimes its helpful when you are defining something to first define what it is not. That is what Paul does here. He begins by describing what the “un-marks” of a believer are.
“But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written (Rom 2:17-24).”
The first “unmark” of a believer is mere membership.
Paul is speaking to those Jews who place confidence in belonging to the Jews. It was a good place to be. After all, they were God’s people and possessed God’s written will in the Torah. Because they possessed truth, notice how it affected them. They were confident that they were a guide to those in blind darkness and a corrector of the foolish and immature.
Can you identify with this feeling? We know the truth and have the responsibility of admonishing others to obey his will. There are a lot of foolish and immature people around us and it is our responsibility to teach and correct them with the word of God. After all, we have the instructions, and many people do not read the instructions. We are surrounded by “unenlightened people” who do not know their right hand from their left. We live among people who need us to show them right and wrong according to God’s will.
Notice Paul’s serious of questions to those of us who know God’s will. Do you do what you teach others not to do? Then he has the nerve to answer our question for us! He assumes that we all break God’s laws. In addition to this, he accuses us of being responsible for unbelievers speaking badly of our God!
It is sort of like brother Brighton. Brother Brighton was a pompous man who was meticulous about his appearance, especially when it came to his reputation as a Christian. He was a member of the most prestigious church in town. He felt very strongly about the appearance of other members of the church as well. He had no tolerance for those little boys who were anything less than perfect in church or in the community. So he volunteered to teach the Bible class of young boys. On his first day of class, he decided to begin by teaching the boys the importance of living the Christian life. He began with this question: "Why do people call me a Christian?" After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, "Maybe it’s because they don’t know you."
Brother Brighton knew about appearances, but those who knew him knew that this was all it was. Appearances. Oh sure, condemning those who were not a member of his prestigious church made him look and feel better. Putting down those who did not meet up to his standards made him feel superior. He felt it was his responsibility to enlighten everyone. But that is as far as it went. That is precisely the sort of thing Paul is talking about. Just knowing what it looks like to be a true Christian is not enough. Teaching others what it means to be a Christian is not enough. Just bearing the name “Christian” or being a member of the “Church of Christ” is not enough. The loudest most impressionable sermon a person will ever hear is the one they don’t hear. It is the one they see and witness in your own actions even when there is not a crowd to applaud you. So mere membership is an unmark of a true Christian.
The second unmark is ritualistic practice.
Rom 2:25-27 – “For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?”
The Jews believed they were a distinct people. They were right because God told them they were to be a distinct people. In Exodus 19:5 he to them were his special possession out of all the peoples of the earth. They were also a holy nation to the Lord.
There was a mark that went along with God’s choice of them as a nation.
One of the marks of that distinction was the sign of circumcision. It all began in Genesis 17. Every male among them had to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant between them and God. That was a distinctive mark of their special relationship with God.
Many people today bear marks to set them apart from other people. For instance, when you go to a department store, the employees will wear either a nametag or even a special colored vest to set them apart from the customers in the store. You can tell they are a part of that store by their distinctive mark. At a ball game people wear certain colored clothes or baseball caps that distinguishes them.
So what is our distinction as Christians? We are not to practice circumcision any longer as a matter of doctrine. Circumcision went out with the sacrificial system and the temple. Could it be baptism? After all, doesn’t Paul compare baptism to circumcision in Colossians 2:11? There he calls it the “circumcision of Christ made without hands in baptism.” Circumcision was a sign of God’s special relationship with his people. Isn’t Christian baptism similar to this?
But Paul limits the value of ritualistic rule-keeping. He says circumcision is of value only if you keep the law. If you do not, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. Do you see what is happening. Baptism is only of value if you obey God. But if you do not obey God, your baptism becomes unbaptism!
What Paul says next is hard to swallow. He says that those who were uncircumcised “physically” yet obeys the law, his uncircumcision becomes circumcision. As a matter in fact, his obedience will stand in judgement over your disobedience!
Now, don’t go away from here saying, “John doesn’t believe in baptism!” That is not what I am saying!
Do you see Paul’s point? What made the Jew distinct was not circumcision the sacrificial system or any other of their practices. As a matter in fact, you can find similar practices in many other of the religions of the day. What was supposed to set them apart was their faithful loyalty to Yahweh, not some ritual.
The bottom line of what sets us apart as Christians is our loyalty to our Lord Jesus Christ. We can’t rely on mere outward marks to identify us as a Christian. If we claim to be a Christian simply because we have been baptized yet do not live faithfully to Jesus, our baptism becomes unbaptism. Why do you think people get baptized again sometimes? Because sometimes they look back and realize that they were not making a serious commitment. They did not give up their lives in total obedience to God. They made an outward gesture, with no inward commitment.
Mere ritualistic actions are not a mark of a true Christian. You can go through all the motions mindlessly, and it will do you no good. It is not an outward mark that designates us as a Christian.
So, just what are the marks of a true Christian?
Rom 2:28-29 – “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
You see, it is not about membership, wearing a distinct name, or ritualistic rule keeping. Those are all outward things. Outward appearance will not measure up.
It’s like the packaging on some of our groceries. Have you checked the labels on your grocery items lately? You may be getting less than you thought. According to U.S. News & World Report, some manufacturers are selling us the same size packages we are accustomed to, but they are putting less of the product in the box. In other words, some companies would use the same size cereal boxes, but put less cereal in the boxes. It may have a nice, promising looking box. But when you open it up and get to what is really important on the inside, it is deficient. We buy the bag cereals. They do not look as nice as some of the flashy boxes, but they are more inexpensive and have more substance. As a matter in fact, you can see right through the bag to what is on the inside, and what is on the inside is what matters.
That is what Paul is talking about. A true Christian is not one with a fancy brightly colored box. A true Christian is one that has substance inside. A true Christian is one that is loyal to God from the heart. Instead of, “What a great looking box” people will say, “What great tasting cereal.” It is not about outward things such as circumcision, baptism, church membership, or any other thing such as this. You can be baptized and be a “member” and still not be pleasing to God even if the package looks nice but there is nothing inside.
In other words, the mark of a Christian is one who is faithful to God from the heart. He is not out to look good to people, but to please God.
So what does this mean? It doesn’t mean we stop baptizing stop worshipping or stop taking communion. What it does mean is that our faith is not something we do for show on Sunday. It means that our faith is integrated with every area of our life. Even when we think no one is looking, we still are loyal to God.
Do you bear the unmarks of a Christian, or the mark of a Christian? Do you worry more about what God thinks, or what your brethren think? I’d like to close with a passage from Jeremiah that expresses the same sentiment Paul is talking about.
Jer 3:21-4:4 – “A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten the Lord their God. "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness."
"Behold, we come to You; For You are the Lord our God. Surely, the hills are a deception, A tumult on the mountains. Surely in the Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel. But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God."
"If you will return, O Israel," declares the Lord, "Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver, And you will swear, ’As the Lord lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds."
Israel looked like they were responding well, but God replied with “If you will return…” This suggests they were bearing the “unmarks” of a believer. God was not interested in a short-lived display of sorrow and shame. He wasn’t even interested in a confession. What he was really interested in a change of heart that would show itself in a change of their habits. We call this conversion.
The word, “conversion” means a change over to something else. So when you are converted, you don’t just add going to worship on Sunday mornings. You completely change your life.
What sort of changes are we talking about here? You have been listening, but now it is application time. This is where you come in. If we were set up this way, this would be a great time to have breakout groups were we can apply the message to ourselves in a more personal way and share them with each other.
Since we don’t do that, let me ask you to ask yourself these few questions.
What is the mark of my Christianity? Is it that I go to church on Sunday? Or is it my loyalty to Christ. How often do I consciously consider God’s will when I make my decisions? When it comes to what activities I will participate in and when, do I consider God’s will? When it comes to how I react to those who do not treat me right, do I consider God’s will? How much do I pray when I am faced with tough decisions? Do I need to consider God’s will more often?
Last big question. What does God want me to do now?
Do I have the mark of a Christian, or the unmarks?
