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Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1-11, 35; 10:45
I. In the Gospel of Mark we see a person, the God-man, who lived a life that was fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy; the Lord’s life was His work, and His work was His move; His work was His living and His move was His being — Mark 1:35; 10:45; cf. John 6:38; 4:34:
А. The Lord Jesus lived in a new dispensation, having the old dispensation terminated; the New Testament dispensation, the dispensation of grace, that is, the dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, began from the preaching of John the Baptist — Mark 1:1-8; Matt. 11:13; Luke 16:16; Acts 10:37:
1. Instead of serving with his father Zachariah in the temple, John stayed in a wild place, wore wild clothing, ate wild food, and did a wild work; where he lived, what he wore, what he ate, and how he worked ended the Old Testament priesthood; his work was the beginning of the priesthood in the New Testament — Mark 1:1-8.
2. The first New Testament priest of the gospel of God was John the Baptist; he did not offer bulls and goats as sacrifices (Heb. 10:1-4), but he offered sinners saved through his preaching as sacrifices, bringing them to Christ as the One stronger than he was and as the One baptizing the repentant people in the Holy Spirit for imparting life (Mark 1:4-8).
3. In the New Testament the saved sinners are spiritual sacrifices offered to God in Christ, with Christ, and one with Christ as members of Christ, the enlargement and increase of Christ — Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
B. When the Lord Jesus was about to begin His ministry, He had Himself buried, baptized, by John the Baptist — Mark 1:9-11:
1. John came in “the way of righteousness” (Matt. 21:32); to repent and be baptized according to John’s preaching and practice was ordained by God according to the righteous requirements of God’s eternal economy; hence, it is to fulfill the righteousness of God as a matter of eternity (2 Pet. 3:13).
2. As a man in the flesh (John 1:14; Rom. 8:3), the Lord recognized that He needed to be a dead man buried in the death water to fulfill God’s New Testament requirement according to His righteousness, and He did it willingly, considering it as the fulfilling of God’s righteousness (Matt. 3:15).
3. By His baptism He declared to the whole universe that He did not depend at all upon the flesh for God’s ministry; instead, He rejected Himself, put Himself aside, in order to live by God; this is the intrinsic significance of the base of Jesus’ baptism.
4. We all should declare in our life and work: “I am a person in the flesh, worthy of nothing in the eyes of God but death and burial; so I want to have myself terminated, crucified and buried.”
C. Immediately after His baptism the Lord Jesus was thrust into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:12-13); from that time onward He fulfilled His ministry by living, moving, and working in the Holy Spirit:
1. He preached the gospel (vv. 14-20), taught the truth (vv. 21-22), cast out demons (vv. 23-28), healed the sick (vv. 29-39), and cleansed the leper (vv. 40-45); the result of such a life, fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy, was for people to experience the Lord as their forgiveness (2:1-12), enjoyment (vv. 13-17), joy (vv. 18-22), satisfaction (vv. 23-28), and freedom (3:1-6).
2. While the Lord Jesus was carrying out such a gospel service, He was also binding Satan and plundering his kingdom (vv. 22-30), denying any natural relationship (vv. 31-35), suffering the world’s rejection and hatred (6:1-6), and exposing man’s inward evil condition (7:1-23).
3. Then He presented Himself as the bread of life to be the life supply to His seeking one — vv. 24-30.
4. He healed the hearing, speaking, and seeing organs of the enlivened ones — vv. 31-37; 8:22-26.
5. He revealed Himself as our universal and entire replacement through His all-inclusive death and wonderful resurrection — 8:27—9:13.
6. He accomplished an all-inclusive death to bear our sins (1 Pet. 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:3), condemn sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3), crucify the old man (6:6; Gal. 2:20), terminate the old creation (Col. 1:15; Exo. 26:31; Matt. 27:51), destroy Satan (Heb. 2:14), judge the world (John 12:31), abolish the ordinances (Eph. 2:15), and release the divine life (John 12:24; 19:34).
7. He then entered into His wonderful resurrection to regenerate His followers and germinate the new creation — 1 Pet. 1:3; 2 Cor. 5:17.
8. After His resurrection the Lord Jesus “was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19); He now remains in His ascension to execute what He has accomplished through His death and resurrection.
9. By bringing His followers into His death, resurrection, and ascension (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:6), He brought forth the new man (v. 15) as the reality of the kingdom of God, issuing in the church, developing into the millennium, and consummating in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth; this will be our eternal destiny, and this is also the conclusion of the Scriptures (Rev. 21:9—22:5).
II. The Gospel of Mark conveys a heavenly vision of a life that lives and expresses God as a complete, whole, perfect, and entire pattern of God’s New Testament economy; this governing vision directs our steps, controls our living, and brings us into God’s consummation — Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19:
А. The life that the Lord Jesus lived is now our life; today we are His expansion, increase, and continuation, and we should continue to live the kind of life He lived; God has put us into Christ that we may live a life of Christ to carry out His New Testament economy — 1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 2:20.
B. This life indwelling our spirit is a law that automatically lives and expresses Christ to produce the Body; any other way of living is a factor of division that damages the Body — Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 4:3-6.
C. The life we live today should be Christ Himself; only a life that is Christ is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy — Col. 3:4; Phil. 1:21a.
