Bumper Sticker Faith

 From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.

Galatians 6:17

In 1979, when I first came to Christ, bumper stickers were all the rage for Christians who wanted to "promote" both Christ and their faith. I had one myself, "Smile! Jesus Loves You!" Young believers like me seemed to favor them most. The problem was, those stickers told people who we said we were, but too often, our day to day behavior said something else. Thich brings to mind a story my Bible professor told. He'd witnessed a traffic altercation that took place at a congested intersection. There was a lot of honking of horns. One car in particular had a bumper sticker on it. It said, "Honk If You Love Jesus!" Someone right behind him did, and the driver/owner of the sticker jumped out of his car and berated the one who'd honked at him. 

This brings to mind what I once heard someone call "bumper sticker faith." It was what my professor was talking about. You can carry lots of logos and sayings. You can know Scripture inside and out. You can find a large number of ways to "promote" Jesus, and maybe yourself as well, but it takes more than bumper stickers to prove who it is we belong to and who it is we serve and follow.

The apostle Paul was often under attack not only from both Jew and Gentile unbelievers, but from the very church he loved and served as well. His authority and authenticity was often called into question. This was happening in the church in Galatia, which led him to exclaim, powerfully, that he'd had enough. He didn't need to prove to anyone who and whose he was. The scars he bore were all the proof he needed. Scars suffered at the hands of those who sought to oppose him, oftentimes violently. Scars from prison stocks, lashings, stonings, and more. All suffered willingly for the sake of the Gospel. For the sake of the One who was the Good News Himself. Just as Christ showed His disciples the scars He bore from the crucifixion, so did Paul's scars, physical, emotional, and spiritual as well, prove the reality of the One he lived for. He didn't have a bumper sticker centered faith. He had a scar centered one. How about you and me? Which one do we show forth?

I've said this in an earlier writing and I say it again. Scars will be the mark of the one who follows and walks with Christ. The one who bears the cross they've been given. The one who has decided it is Christ to whom they belong and no one else. The one who says that there is no boundary line in the matter of the cost of being completely His. Such a one will surely bear the scars that mark them as Christ's. They need no bumper stickers or T-shirts. The marks of Christ, of Christ Himself show through their lives. They see the scars not as a by-product of following Him. They see them as marks of honor. They mark them as bondslaves of Christ.

Someone said that there will be no scars in eternity save for the ones on Christ's hands and feet. Totally true, but until then, the proof that we are fully His will lie in the marks, the scars we bear in answer to His calling. A calling that always leads by way of the cross....and marks and scars. There will be no scars in heaven. There'll be no bumper stickers either.

Blessings,
Pastor O