THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospel according to Mark
Message One—The Service of the Slave-Savior
Scripture Reading: Mark 1:14-45
I. Christ as the Slave-Savior did not come to be served, but to serve; He served us in the past, He still serves us in the present, and He is going to serve us in the future—Mark 10:45; Luke 22:26-27; 12:37:
A. The story of the gospel and the meaning of salvation are that Christ loves and serves us first, and then we love and serve Him; whenever we have a need, we can come to the Lord and let Him serve us so that He can serve others through us—Matt. 26:13; 1 John 4:19; John 13:12-17; Rom. 1:1; Gal. 6:17; 1 John 3:16.
B. As the life-giving Spirit, the Slave-Savior serves us by the dispensing Himself as life into us so that we can become the means by which He dispenses Himself as life into others—John 10:10b; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 John 5:16a; 2 Cor. 3:6.
II. We need to see and enter into the reality of the contents of the Slave-Savior’s wonderful and excellent gospel service—Mark 1:14-45:
A. The first thing the Slave-Savior did in His gospel service was to proclaim the gospel—vv. 14-20:
1. Christ Himself, with all the processes He passed through and all the redemptive work He accomplished, is the content of the gospel—v. 1.
2. Christ came not only as the Messenger of God, bringing a word or a message from God to God’s people, but also as the message sent by God; He Himself is the living message of God—vv. 1-8; Mal. 3:1-3; cf. 4:1-2.
3. The Slave-Savior’s proclaiming was to announce God’s glad tidings to the miserable people in bondage; His teaching was to enlighten the ignorant ones in darkness with the divine light of the truth—Mark 1:21-22.
4. His proclaiming implied teaching, and His teaching implied proclaiming—Matt. 4:23; Mark 1:38-39; 3:14; 6:12; 14:9; 16:15, 20.
B. The second thing the Slave-Savior did in His gospel service was to teach the truth—1:21-22:
1. The truth is the shining of the divine light on the facts of the Bible to televise a heavenly vision of those facts into our being; the truth is the shining of the light, the light is the light of life, and the life is the Spirit; thus, truth, life, and the Spirit (which are all Christ Himself) are inseparable-John 8:12, 32, 36; 1:4; 14:6a; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8, 17; cf. Rom. 8:2.
2. The Lord’s teaching of the truth was to bring people out of the satanic darkness into the divine light; the Slave-Savior, as the light of the world, came as a great light to Galilee, the land of darkness, to shine on the people who were sitting in the shadow of death—Mark 2:13; 4:1; 6:2, 6, 30, 34; 10:1; 11:17; 12:35; 14:49; Acts 26:18; John 8:12, 9:5; Matt. 4:12-16.
3. His teaching released the word of light to enlighten those in the darkness of death that they might receive the light of life—John 1:4.
C. The third thing the Slave-Savior did in His gospel service was to cast out demons from the possessed people—Mark 1:23-28:
1. The demons’ possession of people signifies Satan’s usurpation of man, whom God created for His purpose.
2. The Lord Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, and His casting out of demons was for people to be delivered from Satan’s bondage, out of Satan’s authority of darkness, into God’s kingdom—Mark 1:15; 1 John 3:8; Mark 1:34, 39; 3:15; 6:7, 13; 16:17; Luke 13:16; Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13.
D. The fourth thing the Slave-Savior did in His gospel service was to heal the sick—vv. 29-39:
1. Sickness issues from sin and is a sign of man’s abnormal condition before God; the Lord healed people’s sick condition and restored them to normality that they might serve Him—v. 34: 3:10; 6:5, 13, 56.
2. We must learn to preach the gospel and teach the truth like a physician, giving people a heavenly prescription and the divine medicine for their healing—Matt. 9:11-13; Luke 10:33-37; cf. Prov. 4:20-23; Exo. 30:25.
E. The fifth thing the Slave-Savior did in His gospel service was to cleanse the leper—Mark 1:40-45:
1. Leprosy signifies the sin of rebellion, the serious of sin issuing from within man, such a willful sin, presumptuous sin, and opposing God with determination—1 John 3:4; cf. Isa. 14:12-15; Lev. 13:2; 14:9.
2. In Leviticus 14:33-57 the house typifies the church as our real home, and the leprosy in the house signifies sins and evils in the church; the priest signifies the Lord or His deputy authority, and the examining of the house is not for condemnation but is a grace for healing—1 Cor. 1:11:
a. The removing of the infected stones after seven days (Lev. 14:40) signifies that after the observation of a complete period of time, if the problem of the church is still spreading, the believer or believers involved in the problem should be removed from the fellowship of the church and be considered unclean, like the outsiders; this is done to stop the spread of the disease and to eliminate the disease—Rom. 16:17; Titus 3:10; Lev. 14:40.
b. Putting other stones in the place of the removed stones signifies using other believers to fill in the gap; the replastering of the house with other plaster signifies the renewing of the church with new experiences of the Lord’s gracious works; this is needed for a new start in the church life—Lev. 14:42a; 1 Pet. 2:5.
c. If no sin is spreading after the renewing of the church with the new experiences of the Lord’s gracious works, the church is clean and has no problem; the whole church needs to be cleansed with the eternally efficacious blood of Christ and His eternal and living Spirit so that the church is fully clean to be the mutual dwelling of God and man—Lev. 14:48-53; Heb. 9:14; 10:22; 1 John 1:9; Titus 3:5; John 14:2, 23.
Ministry Excerpts:
A GROUP OF FIVE INCIDENTS
In 1:14-45 we have seen that the contents of the gospel service include five matters: preaching the gospel (vv. 14-20), teaching the truth (vv. 21-22), casting out demons (vv. 23-28), healing the sick (vv. 29-39), and cleansing the leper (vv. 40-45). Following this, in 2:1—3:6 we see the ways of carrying out the gospel service. In this section of the Gospel of Mark we have five incidents: forgiving the sins of the sick (2:1-12), feasting with sinners (2:13-17), causing His followers to be merry without fasting (2:18-22), caring for His followers’ hunger rather than for the regulations of religion (2:23-28), and caring for the relief of the suffering one rather than for the ritual of religion (3:1-6). These five cases form a single group.
It is difficult to make an outline of the Gospel of Mark. In this Gospel one case follows another without any apparent order or arrangement. For this reason, we may read Mark a number of times and still not be able to make an outline of this book or divide it into sections. But by the Lord’s mercy I believe that we have a useful outline, an outline that helps us get into all the sections of this Gospel. According to this outline, chapter one presents the complete contents of the gospel. Then in chapter two and in the first part of chapter three, we see the Lord’s way of carrying out this rich gospel.
The five incidents recorded vividly in 2:1—3:6 form one particular group, showing how the Slave-Savior as the Slave of God carried out His gospel service to care for the need of fallen people, who were captured by Satan from God and the enjoyment of God. The Lord cared for their need so that they might be rescued from their captivity and brought back to the God of enjoyment.
First, the Lord forgave the sins of the victim of sickness. He did this as God with divine authority so that He might release the sick one from Satan’s oppression (Acts 10:38) and restore him to God. The scribes considered this to be against the theology of their religion (2:1-12).
Second, as a physician to the sick and miserable people, He feasted with the tax collectors, those who were disloyal and unfaithful to their race, and with sinners despised and isolated from society, that they might taste the mercy of God and be recovered to the enjoyment of God. This was condemned by the self-righteous yet merciless scribes of the Pharisees (2:13-17).
Third, He caused His followers to be merry and happy without fasting, as a bridegroom with the sons of the bridechamber. Thus, He annulled the practice of the disciples of John (the new religionists) and the Pharisees (the old religionists), so that His followers might be delivered from the practices of their religion into the enjoyment of God’s Christ as their Bridegroom, with His righteousness as their outer clothing and His life as their inner wine in God’s New Testament economy (2:18-22).
Fourth, He allowed His followers to pick the ears of grain in the grainfields on the Sabbath that they might satisfy their hunger. Thus, they apparently broke God’s commandment concerning the Sabbath. But actually they pleased God, for the hunger of Christ’s followers was satisfied through Him, as the hunger of David and his followers was satisfied with the bread of the presence in the temple. This indicates that in God’s New Testament economy it is not a matter of keeping the regulation of religion, but of enjoying satisfaction in and through Christ as the real Sabbath rest (2:23-28).
Fifth, the Lord healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. He did not care for keeping the Sabbath, but rather cared for the health of His sheep. Thus, He indicated that in God’s New Testament economy it is not a matter of keeping regulations but of imparting life. For this, He was hated by the Pharisees—the religionists (3:1-6).
All the five merciful and living ways taken by the Slave-Savior to carry out His gospel service contradicted the formal and traditional religion and were thus abhorred by its fleshly and stubborn leaders, who were spiritually dead. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that chapter one of the Gospel of Mark is concerned with the gospel. This chapter tells us what the gospel is, when the gospel began, and what the contents of the gospel are. In this chapter we see the nature, substance, essence, element, contents, and reality of the gospel. I believe that the churches will carry out this rich gospel through their gospel service.
Having seen the contents of the gospel service in chapter one, we need to see the ways of carrying out the gospel service in 2:1—3:6. It is significant that in Mark the Lord Jesus does not teach us in words how to carry out the gospel service. Instead, in the Gospel of Mark He is portrayed as a working One, a serving One, not as a speaking One. Therefore, in Mark it is mainly by the Lord’s acts, not by His words, that we learn how to carry out the gospel service.
In 2:1—3:6 the Lord does not tell us how to carry out the gospel service. Instead, He does certain things, and the five incidents recorded in this portion of the Gospel of Mark show us how the Lord carried out the gospel service. If we would know how to carry out this service, we need to consider what the Lord does in forgiving the sins of the sick, in feasting with sinners, in causing His followers to be merry without fasting, in caring for His followers’ hunger rather than for religion’s regulation, and in caring for the relief of the suffering one rather than for the ritual of religion.
Many readers of the Bible enjoy the stories in the Gospel of Mark. The five incidents recorded in 2:1—3:6 may be taken merely as stories, stories used in children’s meeting or for reading to children at bedtime. No doubt, these incidents are very good stories. The Bible is a sacred book, a holy writing, and therefore it contains the best stories. However, we should not be satisfied merely to know the stories in the Gospel of Mark.
Because I was not satisfied with such knowledge but was looking to the Lord for light concerning this Gospel, the Lord showed me that in Mark 1 the gospel is fully displayed in His gospel service. In no other chapter of the Scriptures do we have such a full display of the gospel as we have in chapter one of Mark. Not even in the writings of Paul can we find a single chapter that gives us such a detailed and full display of the gospel in its nature and contents. However, we need to be enlightened in order to see what is revealed in chapter one of Mark. Someone may memorize this chapter, yet still not have any light concerning it. Someone else may thoroughly study this chapter in Greek, knowing the meaning of every Greek word, and nevertheless not have any light concerning the gospel displayed in this chapter. I believe that, by the Lord’s mercy, we have seen a clear view of the gospel displayed in chapter one of Mark. Now we also should have a clear view of the Lord’s way to carry out the gospel service, that is, a clear view of what the Lord practices in His gospel service. Let us now go on to consider the first incident related to this, the incident of forgiving the sins of the sick (2:1-12).
FORGIVING THE SINS OF THE SICK
A Sinner Paralyzed by Sin
While the Lord was in a house at Capernaum, speaking the word to those who were gathered together, a paralytic carried by four men was brought to Him (2:1-3). This paralytic signifies a sinner paralyzed by sin, one who is unable to walk and move before God.
Mark 2:4 says, “And not being able to bring him to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof where He was; and having dug through, they lowered the bed on which the paralytic was lying.” Their zeal in seeking the Slave-Savior’s healing compelled the seekers to break through the proper barrier—something which might be considered a wild deed. Then through the roof they lowered the bed, a small mattress or pad, on which the sick man was lying.
Verse 5 says, “And Jesus, seeing their faith, says to the paralytic, Child, your sins are forgiven!” This faith, issuing from hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17), indicates that the seekers had heard of the Slave-Savior. Seeing their faith, the Lord called the paralytic a “child.” This loving word of the Slave-Savior implies kindness. Here the Lord’s human virtue was expressed. The Lord said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven!” Sins were the cause of his sickness. The Slave-Savior’s word here touched the cause so that there might be a different effect. Once the sins were forgiven, the sickness was healed. It is important and meaningful that the first incident in this section on the carrying out of the gospel service is a case of forgiving the sins of a sick person. This indicates that in carrying out the gospel the first thing that must be done is to help people have their sins forgiven.
Our Basic Problem
In 2:1 through 12 we have a case showing us that the first task done by the Lord as the Slave-Savior in carrying out His gospel service was to forgive sins. This was the reason the Lord said in 2:5, “Child, your sins are forgiven!” This word was probably a shock to the paralytic and to the four who had brought him to the Lord. They no doubt had never thought that the cause of his sickness was sin. But much to their surprise, the Lord told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.
In their hearts the scribes accused the Lord of blaspheming God. They seemed to be saying, “Who is this claiming to forgive sins? Only God has the authority to do such a thing. We know that this man is a Nazarene. How can a despised Nazarene forgive someone’s sins?” The reasoning scribes, who considered themselves “scriptural” and “theological,” acknowledged the Slave-Savior merely as a man, even a despised Nazarene (John 1:45-46). They did not realize that the One who forgave the sins of the paralytic was actually the forgiving God incarnated in the form of a lowly man. The scribes, assuming that they knew the Scriptures, thought that only God had authority to forgive sins, and that Jesus, who in their eyes was only a man, blasphemed God when He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” This indicates that they did not realize that the Lord was God. By uttering such a word, they rejected Him. This was the first rejection by the leaders of the Jewish religion.
The scribes did not realize that the Lord knew what they were reasoning in their hearts. Concerning this, verse 8 says, “And immediately Jesus, knowing in His spirit that they were reasoning this way among themselves, says to them, why are you reasoning these things in your hearts?” Literally, the Greek word rendered “knowing” means fully knowing. The Slave-Savior knew the seekers’ faith, the sick one’s sins (v. 5), and the scribes’ inward reasoning. This indicates that He was omniscient. Such omniscience, manifesting His divine attribute, unveils His deity as the omniscient God.
A striking point in the Gospel of Mark is that this Gospel presents the Lord in the likeness of man and in the form of a slave. The scribes did not realize that within the humanity of this Slave there was deity. The Lord behaved Himself in such a way as to indicate that within His humanity there was deity. The Lord was a Nazarene in the form of a slave; yet He had omniscience. Because He was omniscient, He knew what the scribes were saying in their hearts. Instead of arguing with them, He simply spoke the facts.
The Authority to Forgive Sins
According to verse 9, the Lord went on to ask the scribes this question, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, and pick up your bed and walk?” Here the Lord did not say, “Which is more difficult,” because to Him nothing is difficult. For Him to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” was easier than to say, “Rise, and pick up your bed and walk.”
Verses 10 and 11 say, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—He says to the paralytic, to you I say, Rise, pick up your bed and go to your house.” The Slave-Savior was the very God incarnated, not regarding equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was outwardly in the likeness and fashion of man, even in the form of a slave, but inwardly, He was God (Phil. 2:6-7). He was the Slave-Savior and the God-Savior as well. Hence, He had not only the ability to save the sinners, but also the authority to forgive their sins. In this incident He forgave people’s sins as God, but asserted that He was the Son of Man. This indicates that He was the true God and a real Man, possessing deity and humanity. In Him men could see both His divine attribute and human virtue. These verses indicate that in order to show that He had authority to forgive sins, the Lord said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go to your house.” This was the healing of the paralytic. The Lord’s salvation not only forgives our sins, but also makes us “rise and walk.” It is not rise and walk first, and then be forgiven of our sins; that would be by works. Instead, it is to be forgiven of our sins first, and then to rise and walk; this is by grace. In verse 12 we have a concluding word concerning this incident: “And he rose, and immediately, having picked up the bed, he went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we have never seen anything like this!” Here we have the fulfillment of the Slave-Savior’s word, “Rise, pick up your bed.” To say, “Your sins are forgiven,” was easier than to say, “Rise, pick up your bed and walk.” Since the latter was fulfilled, the former, the easier one, was surely also fulfilled. This is strong evidence that the Slave-Savior has authority to forgive sins on earth. The paralytic rose, picked up his bed, and went out before all. The Lord enabled the paralytic not only to walk, but also to pick up his bed and walk. Formerly the bed bore him; now he bears it. This is the power of the Lord’s salvation. Moreover, this paralytic was brought to the Lord by others, but he went home by himself. This indicates that it is not that the sinner can come to the Lord, but that the sinner can go forth from the Lord by the Lord’s salvation.
Helping Others Have their Sins Forgiven
According to the incident in 2:1-12, the first thing we must learn in our preaching of the gospel is to help others have their sins forgiven. It is significant that the Lord did not say to the paralytic, “I am sorry that you are sick. But I want you to know that this sickness comes from sin. Because you are paralyzed, you must have sinned in some way. You know what sins you have committed.” If the Lord had preached to the paralytic like this, he may have argued with Him, saying, “No, I have always been a good person. I have been kind to others. But suddenly I became paralyzed.” We should learn of the Lord Jesus not to argue with others concerning their sins. That will only stir up their anger and cause them not to care for what we have to say. We should follow the Lord Jesus to tell people that their sins are forgiven. Of course, this does not mean that we should literally repeat the words, “Your sins are forgiven.” My point is that we need to follow the principle seen here.
When we approach people for the preaching of the gospel, we need to be inwardly praying. However, we should not let them know that we are praying. Then the Lord may lead us to say something like this: “Dear friends, only the Lord Jesus, as the Son of God and our Redeemer, has the authority, power, and ability to forgive our sins.” Instead of saying “your sins,” we should say “our sins.” The Lord could speak of “your sins” because He was not a sinner. We, however, must include ourselves, for we know that we too are sinners. This means that we should not tell people that they are sinful. Instead, we should tell them that only the Lord has the ability to forgive us our sins. We may go on to say, “In our human life, all troubles and problems come from our sins. We need to have our sins forgiven, and only the Lord Jesus has the authority to do this.”
If we present the gospel to others in the proper way, the Holy Spirit will honor our speaking. Then those who listen to us will be deeply impressed with the word that only the Lord Jesus can forgive our sins. The result is that this word concerning forgiveness will be sown into them as the seed of the gospel. We may take out a pocket version of the Gospel of Mark and read it in a prevailing way in order to impress others with the fact that only the Lord Jesus can forgive a person’s sins. Then we may help them see that peace comes as the result of having our sins forgiven. (Life-Study of the Gospel of Mark, msg. 7)