Indelible Marks

       Years ago, when I was in dental assisting school, was the first time I had ever heard of the word, 'indelible'. Personally, I did not like it. If your skin came in contact with indelible ink, it would never come off. It sounded like something permanent. I'm not even sure what the indelible item was in dental assisting school. Perhaps the amalgam we worked with?
   When I was preschool age, we lived in the Garden State. In our yard were all kinds of flowers and I like to pick them and study them. But one of them I was told not to touch because the color in the petals could come off and permanently stay on my skin. That would be like a natural tattoo, but without a pretty design!
   As a Christian, I see two meanings to the word 'indelible'. One of them is scary, and the other is great beyond measure. The first one is like sin. We sin because we are sinners. When a person robs a bank, it is because there is the sin of greed in his heart. When a woman shares her body with a man whom she is not married to, most of the time, it is for fear of not being able to keep her man. It is easy for us to give in to other's wishes upon us when we don't want them to leave us or reject us.
   When we sin, it is like an indelible mark on our souls. We can't see it, but God can. One day, when we stand before God, all of the sins we have committed will be like indelible marks on our souls. Even if we just had one indelible mark, that would be enough to send us to hell. We can't clean off the indelible marks, for they are permanent.
   There is one thing that can remove the indelible marks of sin, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Two thousand years ago, God came to earth as a baby, and grew up into a man. He did this so that He could take our place/punishment for our sins. He never sinned and obviously would have no indelible marks in His soul. But His blood is powerful enough to cleanse every indelible mark in all of our souls, should we repent and trust in Him as our Savior. He gives us robes that are completely spotless.
   The other meaning of the indelible mark is one which happens when we come to Christ and respond to the Gospel. When we come to Jesus Christ and receive forgiveness of our sins, all our marks of sin are gone, but, not only that, we are engraved in the palms of His hands. We are permanently engraved in His hands and nothing can undo that. When Jesus was nailed on the Cross, He took our punishment and now is able to save anyone who comes to Him. The nail holes are still there in His hands and will remain that way throughout eternity. Our names are written in the Book of Life and will never be deleted.
   So, every person either has indelible marks of sin in their souls, or, their names are written in the palms of God's hands. It is either one or the other. In eternity, it will be permanent. If we still have the marks of sin in our lives, we can repent, and turn to Jesus Christ and ask for cleansing of our souls. As long as we are on earth, it's not too late. Once we are in eternity, we cannot go back and change it.

This permanent ink will be used
on your permanent record

The indelible marks of sin can be completely wiped away by only one thing; The blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from sin.

The indelible marks in the hands of Jesus will always be there to show us what He did for us on the Cross.

To those who know God and have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, they are engraved in the palms of God's hands.

* Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."

* Isaiah 49:15, 16 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me."

* Revelation 3:5 "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life."
* Revelation 20:12 "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done."
* 1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."
All above verses are from the ESV.