My younger son discovered his birthmark last week while looking in a full-length mirror. He’s 14 years old. It’s understandable that it’s taken him this long to discover it since the darker crescent-shaped mark is located on his lower back. His dark summer tan has caused the discoloration of the mark to be more pronounced.

When I was born I had a birthmark on the left side of my forehead, just on the edge of my hairline. The doctor called the mark a doubling of the skin tissue. The series of raised marks were never an issue until I entered those self-conscious teenage years. It was embarrassing to have someone see the mark and ask, “What’s that?”

I kept my hair long enough to keep the birthmark covered. When I was 17 years old, I went to our family doctor, who performed a simple surgical procedure in his office, cutting out the ugly mark.

Removing a birthmark is a good metaphor for what Jesus does when we place our trust in Him and seek to live obedient lives as disciples.

The Bible teaches that all of humanity is marked by sin and death. We learn this in the first few chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve chose to ignore God’s way and choose their own way. Their sin was to please their own desires while disregarding God’s charge not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Their disobedience resulted in their being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Death was established upon God’s creation.

Even though we often know the difference between right and wrong, as did Adam and Eve, we often make choices based upon our own selfish desires. We are marked by a strong desire to do things our way and not God’s way. This is sin. Sin leads to death. From our birth into this world, sin and death are marks common to all humanity.

Many people will acknowledge the mark of sin on their lives but believe that such a mark can be erased by being a good person and living a moral life. This is a concept foreign to the teaching of the Bible.

During the first century, the people of the church of Rome believed that by keeping the law they were earning their way into the kingdom of God. They had been taught that as they entered into a covenant with God by their circumcision, as long as they kept the law, they would be accepted by God. This led to a sense of pride and to the belief that salvation was a matter of selection and works.

Paul blasted this belief with these words: “We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.'” Rom 3:9a-10

People who believe they are good enough to remove the mark of sin on their lives are only being fooled. The purpose of the Ten Commandments, according to the book of Romans, was to make people conscious of their sin. If we are honest, we cannot even read the first command, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” without saying “Oops, I’ve broken the first one.” We are all marked by our sin against God, for “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23.

So how is the birthmark of sin cut out of our lives? It’s done for us by Jesus. It is a gracious gift from a loving God. To prove this to his Jewish friends, the Apostle Paul used the same Hebrew scriptures that the Romans were using, to correct them of their poor theology.

It was Abraham who first embodied the mark of circumcision as a reminder of the covenant that God had made with him. Paul pointed out that technically, Abraham was a Gentile when he first put his trust in God because he had not yet been circumcised. Therefore, it wasn’t Abraham’s act of circumcision that covered his mark of sin. It was the grace of God. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3 (NIV)

The mark of sin on Abraham’s life was lifted by God’s grace, activated by the faith Abraham placed in God. Abraham was made righteous by God, which means that his sin no longer counted against him. Quoting King David, Paul wrote: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” Rom 4:7-8 (NIV).

It was a happy day when that ugly birthmark was carved out of my forehead. Never again did I have to worry about people seeing it and feeling the embarrassment that came with their curiosity. It was a much happier day when I placed my faith in Jesus, whom I trusted to forgive me of my sins and cleanse me of all unrighteousness. When I admitted my sin, believed that the Lord Jesus died and rose again to cover the debt of sin that I had acquired, and confessed that Jesus was my Savior, those sins were no longer held against me. They were covered by the blood of Jesus.

Our sin will never leave an eternal mark on us if we have been given the mark of righteousness by the Lord. It’s the only way we will be allowed to enter the gates of heaven. We cannot earn our way there. We cannot be good enough to get there. We cannot keep enough of God’s laws and get there on our merit. We enter those gates only by invitation. The Lord will invite all to enter whose account has been credited with righteousness.

Speaking of Abraham, Paul wrote: “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Rom 4:23-5.

Today, God stands ready and willing to bestow the birthmark of righteousness to anyone who would come to him by faith through his Son, Jesus Christ. Paul told the Corinthians that those who are in Christ are “a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Cor 5:16-17 (NIV)

Should we choose to ignore this invitation, the mark of sin remains upon us, as do the wages of sin, which is death. Just as Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, we too will be thrown “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt 25:30 (NIV)



(The Rev. Michael Helms is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Moultrie.)