This teaching comes from the King James Bible, and every verse I quote is from the KJV.
These are my own convictions from the Word of God, shared through The Prevailing Word of God ministry, and they do not speak for any local church.
To be clear, I am not making a statement about people who have tattoos. I am using a tattoo as an illustration, nothing more. A tattoo is chosen on purpose, it is written into the skin, and it is meant to stay. Those three facts help me picture three things God says about His people.
God has written His people on His hands
“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:16).
Descriptive. God spoke these words to Zion, who had just said, “The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me” (Isaiah 49:14). God answered with a picture. Zion was not written on a scroll that could be lost. Zion was graven, cut in, on the palms of His hands. A person forgets what is written on paper. No one forgets what is cut into his own hand. The promise was made first to Israel, and every believer in Jesus Christ shares the same kind of God. He does not forget His own.
God writes His law on the heart
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).
Descriptive. The old covenant was written on stone, outside the man. The new covenant is written in the heart, inside the man. The writer of Hebrews quotes this very promise and applies it to believers in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:10, Hebrews 10:16). God does the writing. The heart does not write on itself, and a man does not ink his own new heart by trying harder. God puts His law in, and the obedience that follows is the fruit of what He wrote, not the price of it.
We are His workmanship
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Descriptive. Two verses earlier Paul wrote, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Then comes verse 10. The believer is not his own work. He is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Good works are not the way into Christ. They are the path God laid out ahead of time for the person He has already made new.
Putting the picture together
A tattoo is chosen, written in, and permanent. God chose to grave His people on His hands. God writes His law in the heart of everyone He saves. God makes each believer His own workmanship in Christ Jesus. None of this is the believer’s doing. It is God’s work from the first mark to the last.
If you are in Christ by faith in Jesus Christ, you are not forgotten, you are not self-made, and you are not unfinished in His sight. If you are not yet in Christ, the same God invites you to come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28).
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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