Painting sited…. Sancoussi, Potsdam: Prussian Royal Collection

One day the Christian will see Him who is loved so completely by those who believe. The Christian will be able to see and touch the one who died for them and has brought them safely to heaven forever. What a day that will be…

The Eternal Son of God, the second person in the Godhead, took a body to Himself and is now forever identified with His beloved people. Jesus the Saviour is forever man and we will ever see God as we look on Him.

The body of Christ will bear the scars of the torture and bloody death that He endured on the cross for the sake of His own people. We can never tell the extent of what He endured, but we shall see the marks of love on that glorified and glorious body. They are not there to blame or cause guilt, but are the medals of His fight with sin, death and hell. The Saviour wears them with joy, as they are the marks of His triumph in the fight. He alone has purchased salvation for those who come and repent and believe. He has paid for sin, reversed the certainty of death, and blocked the way to an eternal hell for all who believe.

The holy God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is forever disfigured by deep and comprehensive scars. How can this be? Heaven is a perfect place. How can there be any tokens of suffering and pain? The Lord Jesus is the Lamb that was slain, before the foundation of the world. He is forever the conquering Saviour and all His people will see and know that. Those scars are not unsightly to the people of God. They are the glorious representations of a fight fought, the blood that was shed and the life laid down bringing them eternal life.

Those scars represent peace, peace with God. They are love, the marks of love laying down its life for the unworthy. They sing out songs of joy, because the song will be the Lamb, once slain but now forever glorified with the people He redeemed.

Paul speaks of his scars, which he has gathered in service to his master Christ.

“From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.”  Galatians 6:17

The scars we bear for the sake of Christ are very precious to Him and He looks on us with pity and regard for all we suffer for His sake. These scars need no treatment or disguising. They are worthy and represent the sacrifice of a life given over to God.

“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”  Isaiah 53:5

Christ suffered every kind of wound. The marks remain and will ever remain. They are the subject of the songs of the Redeemed. The everlasting song that only the Redeemed people of God can sing. Angels cannot sing it, nor cherubim or seraphim. Only those in the eternal city who have human bodies, like the King Himself – Jesus our Redeemer, Saviour, Master and Altogether lovely one….

May we regard Him and love Him with everything we are. May our words reflect our love for Him who took on the form of a Servant and was obedient to death, even death on a cross…