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Scripture Reading: Mark 8:27-38; 9:1-13
In 8:27—9:13 we have a revelation of the mystery of the Lord’s Person and His death and resurrection. We may say that what is recorded here is the highlight of the Gospel of Mark. Here the account in this Gospel reaches its peak.
In chapter eight the Slave-Savior healed a blind man at Bethsaida. The Lord did more in this case of healing than in any of the other cases. For example, the first instance of healing in the Gospel of Mark is the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. This healing was easily carried out. The Lord simply came to her and raised her up, holding her hand. Then the fever left her, and she served them (Mark 1:31). From that initial healing, this book progresses step by step until we have in chapter seven the exposure of man’s heart, the exposure of man’s inward condition.
After exposing the condition of man’s heart, the Lord Jesus revealed that He is bread, our life supply. He is not only the forgiving God, but our Physician, the Bridegroom, today’s David, and the Emancipator. He is also both the Feeder and the bread.
After the Lord’s unveiling of Himself as the bread to nourish us inwardly, we have the record of healings that are carried out in a particular way. We have the healing of the ears and the tongue of a deaf and dumb man and also the healing of the eyes of a blind man. After these particular healings, we may say that we have a complete person whose organs have been healed in a particular way. Now this one is prepared and qualified to receive the revelation of Christ’s Person and His death and resurrection.
For the purpose of revealing His Person, death, and resurrection, the Lord Jesus brought His disciples away from the religious region to Caesarea Philippi. While on the way, He questioned His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I am?” (8:27). After they responded, the Lord further questioned them, “But you, who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). At this point Peter saw the vision that Jesus is the Christ, and he declared, “You are the Christ!”
The revelation given at Caesarea Philippi is the highest step, the peak, in the book of Mark. Before the disciples were brought by the Lord to Caesarea Philippi, their eyes were healed. Therefore, they had the sight to see not common things or material things, but to see mysterious, divine things. In particular, their eyes were opened to see Christ, His all-inclusive death, and His marvelous resurrection. In the realm of mysterious, divine things, the revelation concerning Christ and His death and resurrection is foremost.
The realm of mysterious, divine things is altogether hidden from the natural man. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, the natural man cannot apprehend the things in this realm: “A soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he is not able to know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (v. 14). A soulish man is a natural man, one living in his soul, not in his spirit. Such a man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Rather, he rejects them.
The Lord Jesus is a mystery to the natural man and the natural mind. Even today, certain Jewish scholars are studying who Jesus was. They are also studying His crucifixion. Because the Person of Christ and His death and resurrection are the topmost matters in the realm of mysterious, divine things, even some Christian professors of theology, as well as Jewish scholars, have not seen the vision concerning them.
We should not regard the Gospel of Mark merely as a book of stories. This Gospel is a record showing us how the Lord Jesus as the Slave-Savior serves sinners. This service begins in chapter one and continues into chapter seven, where the Lord exposes the condition of man’s heart. We may say that in Mark 7 the Slave-Savior conducts Himself as a surgeon, for He opens our heart and exposes its condition.
In chapter seven we see the Lord not only as the divine Surgeon but also as the One who feeds us with Himself as bread. This indicates that our basic need is for bread, for the supply of life. The Slave-Savior not only heals us, recovers us, and brings us back into fellowship with God; He also feeds us, and He feeds us with Himself as bread. He Himself is our life supply.
First we experience the Lord’s feeding us with Himself as bread. As the result of being fed by Him, spontaneously we experience His healing in a particular way: He heals our deaf ears, our dumb tongue, and our blind eyes.
We need to fit together various portions of the Gospel of Mark like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When the individual pieces have been fitted together, we see a picture. In the Gospel of Mark we see a portrait of certain ones chosen by God. These ones are healed not only in a general way, like Peter’s mother-in-law, the leper, and the paralytic, but also in a particular way in the organs of hearing, speech, and sight. These specific healings involve the Lord’s anointing, as signified by His spittle. Once these chosen ones were nourished by receiving the life supply — the Lord as their bread — their organs were healed. As a result, they could hear, speak, and see. Their organs were functioning properly. Therefore, at this point the Slave-Savior brought them to Caesarea Philippi, to a place where the spiritual atmosphere was clear.
We have pointed out that in Caesarea Philippi the Lord Jesus spoke to the disciples concerning Himself. As He talked with them, He opened to them the realm of mysterious, divine things. At least one of His disciples came to see that He is the Christ. However, this one saw the Person of Christ only within certain limits. He did not see anything concerning Christ’s death and resurrection. For this reason, the Lord went on to tell His disciples that He would be crucified and that after His death, He would rise up. In speaking about His death and resurrection, the Lord further opened the realm of mysterious, divine things. He showed His disciples not only His Person; He also revealed to them His wonderful death and His marvelous resurrection.
Now we come to a crucial matter. We need to see that, in the sight of God, everything in the universe except Himself needs to be replaced. Christ with His death and resurrection is the unique replacement in the universe. He is the entire, all-inclusive replacement. Christ with His death and resurrection replaces everyone and everything that is not God Himself. He replaces Moses, He replaces Elijah, and He replaces us. He replaces our self, He replaces our soul, and He replaces our mind. This One replaces everyone else, everything, and every matter in the entire universe. This is the reason we say that He is the entire and all-inclusive replacement.
When the Lord Jesus revealed to His disciples the matters of His death and resurrection, they may have been confused. Peter, in particular, did not understand, and he went so far as to rebuke the Lord (v. 32). Then the Lord rebuked Peter, saying, “Go away, behind Me, Satan, because you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men!” (v. 33). The Lord went on to say, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (v. 34). Do you know what it means to deny ourselves? To deny ourselves is to be replaced by Christ.
Here the Lord seems to be saying, especially to Peter, “Since you have seen Christ, you need to be replaced by Him. You must be put aside and allow Christ to become you. You need to deny yourself and be replaced by Christ.”
How is it possible for us to be replaced by Christ? We can be replaced by Him only through His death and resurrection. Apart from His death and resurrection, Christ Himself would not be able to replace us. Also, it would not be possible for us to be replaced by Him. This replacement can be carried out only through Christ’s death and resurrection.
We need to realize that it is necessary for us to deny our self. Our attitude should be of willingness to be replaced. We also need to see that a replacement has been prepared for us, and this replacement is Christ. In the words of Paul in Galatians 2:20, it should be no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us.
When we live, we live according to our corrupt heart. We live according to ourselves, and within us we have an evil heart. If we would be delivered from what we are in ourselves, from our evil heart, we need to deny ourselves. To deny ourselves actually means to be replaced by Christ through His death and resurrection.
Christ’s death on the cross included us. This means that when He died, we died with Him. Now we need to realize this fact and apply it to our living. To see that we have been crucified with Christ and apply this fact to our living is to take the cross. Therefore, to take the cross means to admit that we have been terminated by Christ’s death and to apply this termination to ourselves. When we make this application, resurrection life comes in.
In our daily living, the crucified and resurrected Christ is the life-giving Spirit. The reality of Christ’s resurrection is actually the life-giving Spirit. Whenever we apply the cross of Christ, the life-giving Spirit, as the reality of Christ’s resurrection, comes in to be our real replacement. Then we are able to say, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live — Christ lives in me.”
Have you seen what is revealed in 8:27—9:13? Here we have a revelation of Christ’s Person and His death and resurrection. Oh, we all need to see this! I am concerned that some of us have not seen the crucial matters of Christ’s all-inclusive Person, His wonderful death, and His marvelous resurrection. If we see them, we shall say, “Amen! Amen to Christ! Amen to the death of Christ! Amen to the resurrection of Christ! Amen to my termination! Because I have been terminated, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christ is the entire replacement in this universe. God does not want Moses, God does not want Elijah, and God does not want me in what I am. I say amen to the fact that God only wants Christ.”
God does not want whatever we are in ourselves. He does not want our flesh, and He does not want our heart in its corruption. God only wants Christ, for Christ is the unique, all-inclusive replacement.
In 9:7 God declared, “This is My Son, the Beloved. Hear Him!” We need to hear Him, not ourselves. We should not listen to our mind, emotion, or will. We should not listen to what we think, imagine, or love. We should listen to Christ. Christ is God’s Beloved, God’s Favorite. He is the One who replaces everyone else and everything. Therefore, He should have all the ground in our living. Everything in our living should be given over to Him.
As the One who is our replacement, Christ has been crucified. On the cross He died an all-inclusive death, a death that included us and terminated us. After dying such a death, Christ was resurrected. Now in resurrection He is the life-giving Spirit to be the reality of our life. When we apply His death as our termination, the Spirit has the full ground to make Christ real to us. Then we enjoy a real replacement. As a result, we can declare that we have been crucified with Christ and that we live no longer, but Christ lives in us. We can even say with Paul, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). In everything, whether in death or life, we live Christ and magnify Him (Phil. 1:20).
In order to interpret these verses from chapters eight and nine of the Gospel of Mark, we need the fourteen Epistles written by Paul. With the help of these Epistles, we can see the picture in the first eight and a half chapters of Mark. May we be so deeply impressed with this picture that we never forget it! Praise the Lord that this picture includes us! We are in a divine realm living Christ through His death and resurrection. How wonderful! Praise the Lord for this highlight in the Gospel of Mark, the place where we have a revelation of Christ with His death and resurrection!
