When you think of heaven, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of John the Revelator\u2019s description in Revelation 21-22: New Jerusalem with walls of Jasper, gates of pearl, streets of pure gold, the crystal sea before God\u2019s throne, the Tree of Life, the River of Life, the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life, myriads of angels, millions of glorified saints, perfect peace, and continuous joy. Maybe you envision no more sin, sorrow, sickness, pain, death, devil, evil, and no more heartbreaking goodbyes. Everything in heaven is God-made and perfect in every way\u2014a pristine paradise! But there is something in heaven that is man-made\u2014the scars on the body of Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus spent forty days appearing to His followers\nafter His resurrection, showing them His scars and proving He had truly risen\nfrom the dead (Acts 1:3). \u201c<\/em>Then .\n. . Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said unto them, \u2018Peace be with you.\u2019\nAnd when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side<\/strong>. Then\nthe disciples were glad when they saw the Lord\u201d<\/em> (Jn. 20:19-20, NKJV). One small problem: Thomas was absent (maybe he overslept,\nmaybe he didn\u2019t get the memo, maybe he was scared or played hooky, we don\u2019t\nknow why he wasn\u2019t present). When they told him they saw Jesus and he missed it,\nThomas insisted, \u201c<\/em>Unless I see in His\nhands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails,\nand put my hand into His side, I will not believe\u201d<\/em> (Jn. 20:25). He wanted to see Jesus\u2019 scars with his own\neyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve dubbed him \u201cdoubting Thomas\u201d for 2,000 years but he gets a bum rap. He only asked to see the same proof all the other disciples got to see. So, exactly eight days later, Jesus appeared to them again, and this time Thomas was present. It seems to be a special appearance just for Thomas. Who is Christ concerned about the most? Those who are struggling in their faith. Those who have doubts, questions, and need reassurance. Notice Thomas\u2019 bold confession of faith after he saw Jesus\u2019 scars\u2014\u201cThen He said to Thomas, \u2018Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.\u2019 And Thomas answered and said to Him, \u2018My Lord and my God!<\/strong>\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Jn. 20:27-29) He was convinced by seeing Jesus\u2019 man-made scars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A scar is \u201ca mark left by a healed wound, a\nsore, or a burn, any blemish remaining as a trace of an injury.\u201d Scars are\nreminders of an injury or a surgery. Consider this passage in Isaiah\n49:14-16, \u201cBut Zion said, \u2018The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten\nme.\u2019 \u2018Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son\nof her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have\ninscribed you on the palms of My hands<\/strong>.\u2019\u201d<\/em> How many times a day do we look at our\nhands? Dozens? Hundreds? Well, every time Jesus looks at His hands, He is\nreminded of us and the price He paid to purchase our redemption. Here\u2019s the\namazing thing, God could have healed every scar on His body when He was\nresurrected and glorified, but He left them on purpose as eternal reminders of\nHis supreme love for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How many scars were on the body of Jesus? Hundreds! Isaiah 52:1, ETRV, states, \u201cHe was beaten so badly that he no longer looked like a man.\u201d<\/em> Isaiah 50:6, KJV, describes His suffering, \u201cI gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.\u201d<\/em> Jesus was whipped, beaten, kicked, punched, slapped, abused, and tortured for hours. He looked more like a piece of meat hanging in a butcher shop than a human. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Romans used a sadistic instrument of torture known as a flagrum<\/em> (a whip with leather thongs on a handle, lined with metal, nails, bone, and hooks). It would literally fillet the flesh off a victim\u2019s skeleton. The goal was to maximize pain. Mosaic Law only allowed a prisoner to be whipped thirty-nine times (the proverbial \u201cmercy rule\u201d\u2014Dt. 25:3). But the Romans were not bound to Moses\u2019 Law; they were merciless. Hundreds of lacerations were brutally inflicted on Jesus\u2019 battered body. Isaiah (53:5) prophesied some 700 years earlier, \u201cHe was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a song says, \u201cI should have been\ncrucified, I should have suffered and died. I should have hung on the cross in\ndisgrace, but Jesus, God\u2019s Son, took my place! Whatever sickness you have, there was a\nstripe placed on Jesus\u2019 back for your healing. There is no sin too big for\nJesus\u2019 blood to erase and there is no failure too great for God\u2019s grace to\novercome. The only man-made things in heaven\u2014the scars on Jesus\u2019 body\u2014are what\nmade it possible for all of us to go there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you think of heaven, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of John the Revelator\u2019s description in Revelation 21-22: New Jerusalem with walls of Jasper, gates of pearl, streets of pure gold, the crystal sea before God\u2019s throne, the Tree of Life, the River of Life, the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life, myriads of angels, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}