'Where is the print of the nails?

Where is the print of the nails?

There is a strange legend of old Martin. He sat one day, busily engaged in his sacred studies, when a knock came at the door. The door opened and there appeared a stranger of lordly look, in princely attire.

"Who are you?" asked Martin, "I am Christ," was the answer. The confident bearing, and the commanding tone of the visitor, would have overawed a less wise man. But Martin simply gave his visitor one deep, searching glance, and then quietly asked, " Where is the print of the nails? "

He had noticed that this one indubitable mark of Christ's person was lacking. There were no nail-scars upon those jeweled hands. And the kingly mien and the brilliant dress of the pretender were not enough to prove his claim, while the print of the nails was lacking.

Confused by this searching question, and his base deception exposed, the prince of evil — for he it was — quickly fled.

This is only a legend , but it suggests the one infallible test that should be applied to all truth and to all life. There is much in these days that claims to be of Christ. There are those who would have us lay aside the old Christian faith, and accept new beliefs and new interpretations. How shall we know whether or not to receive them?

The only true test is that with which Martin exposed the false pretensions of his visitor, " Where is the print of the nails? " Nothing is truly of Christ, which does not bear this mark upon it. A gospel without a wounded, dying Christ — is not the Christian gospel. The substitutionary atonement lies at the heart of Christianity.

The cross is the luminous center, from which all the light of joy, peace, and hope streams. That which does not bear the marks of the Lord Jesus, cannot be of Him.

"I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus!" Galatians 6:17

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