Rows of large mud bricks belonging to a mighty Eastern monarch were baking in the scorching midday sun. There could be no mistake as to whom the bricks belonged. Each one was marked with the seal of the king's name.
One day while the brick makers were away resting or taking their noon meal a dog silently stole into the brickyard and put one of his paws on an unbaked brick right over the king's name.
When the men returned and examined the bricks, then dry and hard, they found one brick which bore instead of the clear imprint of the king's name the unmistakable mark of a beast. The dogs of the East are dirty and diseased, and a brick bearing such a mark could never be used for the king.
When God created man He made him in His own image (Gen. 1:27). He placed him in a garden where everything grew that was good for food and pleasant to the eye. Like the filthy dog of our story, into the garden crept the serpent and left his mark upon man. Sinful and unclean, he was no more suited to the presence of a holy God.
In that garden was one tree that God had seen fit to withhold from Adam, saying, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen 2:17.
But Satan in the form of the serpent said, "Ye shall not surely die." Man believed Satan, disobeyed God, and brought sin and death not only upon himself but upon the whole race of man. (Rom. 5:12-19.)
What became of the spoiled brick? It lay useless for many years beneath the walls of Babylon. Hundreds of years later it was unearthed. It may now be seen in the British Museum. But it still has the same despised brand upon it—the mark of a dog.
And what of guilty man? Although God knew that man under sin and death could never make himself fit for His presence, yet for many years He in His grace tested man in various ways—in innocence, without law, under law, under judges, under kings and under prophets. The mark of the serpent still remained. Mankind was proved to be lost—ruined under—sin. (Rom. 3:9.)
Then God said, "I will send My beloved Son" (Luke 20:13; Gal. 4:4). That holy One came down and was made in the likeness of men. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:7, 8). Even as by Adam's disobedience sin and death came upon man, so by Christ's obedience in going into death all who now receive HIM may be set free from sin and death, and have eternal life in Christ (Rom. 5:12, 21).
Dear reader, whose mark do you bear—the serpent's with the scars of sins unforgiven, or the blessed sign of the cross of Christ? Can you say with the Apostle Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”