Alexander Supertramp was the name he gave himself. His real name was Chris McCandless. He grew up in a high achieving family: his father worked for NASA and his mother worked for Hughes Aircraft. That high achieving family caused pressure on him to go to college, get good grades, and find a respectable upper-class job like his parents.
But after graduating from Emory University in Georgia, Alexander Supertramp surprised everyone. He sold all his belongings, donated all the money in his savings account to a charity, hitchhiked across America, canoed down the Colorado River, then he hitchhiked to Fairbanks, Alaska. He was done with the pressure from the world: from his parents, from his professors to get good grades, and from his friends that all were getting good jobs out of college. He wanted freedom. And he found it, so he thought.
Many of us can relate to that external pressure from the world that Alexander Supertramp felt. It comes from our parents that want to be proud of us so they push us to get an education and get a good job. It comes from school when every teacher insists that success in life requires that you do well in their specific class. It comes from our jobs where no matter how good our work is, there is always someone pointing out how we could have done better.
As we come to the last words of Paul in Galatians he summarizes for us the freedom we experience because of our faith in Christ. “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:15-17, NASB).
When we are liberated by Christ we are a new creation. Galatians 6:15 is the apex of the final chapter of Galatians. We are a new creation by God’s transformative grace. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The new creation has taken the place of the world.
An encouraging part of church ministry is seeing people’s lives changed. A woman named Mona used to attend a Sunday School class that I taught for new believers. Throughout that class I was able to learn about how God liberated Mona from twenty years of drug addiction and dysfunctional relationships. Was it because of something she did? Not really. She would tell you that God was the source. God miraculously removed her addiction and provided her a way out of the abusive relationships she had. Now she has a full-time job, takes care of her mom, and lives a peaceful life. Stories like that are encouraging because you see how God changes people into a new creation.
When we are liberated by Christ we experience peace.We experience peace because we are free from the world’s pressures on us. No one is telling us what we have to do in order to gain others favor. We don’t have to put pressure on others to perform at work because of the pressure put on us. We don’t have to climb the ladder of success only to realize it’s leaning on the wrong wall. We have peace because we know where we are going and we know God’s Spirit walks with us along the way. The path might be difficult and painful, but we know the path ends with us spending eternity with God in heaven forever. And that gives us peace.
But when we are liberated by Christ we will experience regular persecution. The word Paul uses for “brand-marks” (v. 17) is the Greek word, στίγμα, which comes from a verb that means “to prick, to sting, or to stick.”[1] In the first century slaves and some military soldiers had the name stamp of their owners placed on their bodies. Paul uses this Greek word to describe physical scars that Paul had on his body (cf. 2 Cor 6:4-6; 11:23ff). Paul saw his scars as proof that he was a true believer. This provides a reminder to believers today that we too experience persecution for our faith. The brand marks for us because of our faith might be coworkers that mock us and call us weak because of our faith, not getting a promotion because we refuse to cut corners on our job, or a family that ridicules us because of our faith.
Alexander Supertramp was looking for freedom from the pressures of the world. He thought he found it. In Alaska he was living the life of freedom in the wilderness by himself (at least so he thought). But in that life he ate some bad seeds that prevented his digestive system from absorbing nutrients. And eventually he died from starvation. He was looking for that freedom, but never truly found it.[2]
For us as believers, we experience freedom from the world, but that freedom doesn’t come because we sell everything, abandon our family, and go live in Alaska (even though that might be appealing at times). It comes from our liberator, Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for us and freed us from our sins that enslaved us. Now, we are liberated by the liberator and we enjoy peace.
[1] Robertson, A.T. Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933).
[2] Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild (New York, NY: Anchor Books, 1997).