In the same principle, when we teach the truth, we should also preach. We should not teach in the way of dead letters. This means that our teaching should be living and not the teaching of mere doctrine. For example, if we study the virgin birth of Christ only in a doctrinal way, such a study will have a killing effect, first on ourselves, then on others. In our teaching we should have a living preaching. Whenever we teach a verse of the Bible to others, we also preach to them. In our teaching the holy Word, the gospel should go out. This was the Lord’s practice in the Gospel of Mark. Whenever the Lord preached, He taught, and whenever He taught, He preached. This combination of teaching and preaching is marvelous.
Fallen human beings need to hear both the preaching and the teaching of the gospel. What terrible ignorance there is among fallen people concerning God and the things of God! Even though our society may emphasize the importance of education, people are still ignorant of the divine truth. They do not know God, they do not know the meaning of human life, and they do not know where they came from or where they are going. Instead, in their ignorance, they care for the lusts of the flesh and the pleasures of the world. Therefore, people today need the proper teaching of the Word of God, the teaching that will enlighten them.
As a Slave serving God, the Lord Jesus preached the gospel and taught the truth to the people who were ignorant and were in darkness. The church, as the continuation of the Lord, His enlargement and increase, should do the same thing today. To the fallen people in darkness, the church should preach the gospel and teach the truth. I hope that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery will become good preachers of the gospel and good teachers of the Bible.
If we all become good preachers and teachers, the Lord will have a way to hasten His coming back. Today’s situation does not allow the Lord to come back, for nothing is ready for His coming. Therefore, we need to be faithful to follow the Lord’s steps in the matters of preaching the gospel and teaching the truth. He was a good preacher and a good teacher, and we must learn of Him also to be good preachers and teachers. Concerning this matter, I am especially hopeful that the young people will be faithful to the Lord in His recovery. Young people, there is a long way ahead of you. I urge you to be faithful in the Lord’s recovery to preach the gospel and teach the truth.
According to 1:14, the Lord preached the gospel of God. Certain manuscripts add “the kingdom of” and therefore speak of the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 1) is the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1) and the gospel of the kingdom of God (see Matt. 4:23). In 1:15 the Lord Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” The kingdom of God is the ruling, the reigning, of God with all its blessing and enjoyment. It is the goal of the gospel of God and of Jesus Christ (see notes 32 and 263 in chapter four). To enter into this kingdom people need to repent of their sins and believe in the gospel so that their sins may be forgiven and that they may be regenerated by God to have the divine life, which matches the divine nature of this kingdom (John 3:3, 5). All the believers in Christ can share the kingdom in the church age for their enjoyment of God in His righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). This kingdom will become the kingdom of Christ and of God for the overcoming believers to inherit and enjoy in the coming kingdom age (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5), that they may reign with Christ one thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6). Then, as the eternal kingdom, it will be an eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14, 17). It was such a kingdom of God that had drawn near and that the gospel of the Slave-Savior would bring His believers into. For this kingdom, the Slave-Savior told people to repent and believe in the gospel. (See notes 33 in John 3, 281 in Hebrews 12, and 33 in Matthew 5.)
As used in Mark 1:15, the word “repent” literally means to think differently afterward, that is, to have a change of mind. To repent is to have a change of mind with regret for the past and a turn for the future. To repent before God is, on the negative side, to repent not only of sins and wrongdoings, but also to repent of the world and its corruption that usurp and corrupt people whom God made for Himself, and to repent of our God-forsaking life in the past. On the positive side, to repent is to turn to God in every way and in everything for fulfilling His purpose in making mankind. This is a “repentance unto God”; it is to “repent and turn to God” (Acts 20:21; 26:20).
In His preaching the Lord told people to repent and believe in the gospel. To repent is mainly in the mind; to believe is mainly in the heart (Rom. 10:9). To believe in something is to believe into the thing which we believe. It is also to receive the things which we believe into us. To believe in the gospel is mainly to believe in the Slave-Savior (Acts 16:31), and to believe in Him is to believe into Him (John 3:15-16) and receive Him into us (John 1:12), so that we may be organically united with Him. Such a faith in Christ (Gal. 3:22) is given to us by God (Eph. 2:8) through our hearing the word of the truth of the gospel (Rom. 10:17; Eph. 1:13). This faith brings us into all the blessings of the gospel (Gal. 3:14). Hence, it is precious to us (2 Pet. 1:1). Such precious faith requires repentance to precede it.
To believe is to receive the Slave-Savior not only for forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43) but also for regeneration (1 Pet. 1:21, 23), that those who believe may become the children of God (John 1:12-13) and the members of Christ (Eph. 5:30) in an organic union with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19).
Specifically, in Mark 1:15 the Lord Jesus preached that we should believe in the gospel. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (v. 1), the gospel of God, and the gospel of the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with all the processes through which He has passed, including incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and all the redemptive work He accomplished, is the contents of the gospel (Rom. 1:2-4; Luke 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Tim. 2:8). Hence the gospel is of Him. The gospel was planned, promised, and accomplished by God (Eph. 1:8-9; Acts 2:23; Rom. 1:2; 2 Cor. 5:21; Acts 3:15), and it is the power of God unto salvation to all believers (Rom. 1:16), that they may be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:19) and regenerated by Him (1 Pet. 1:3) to be His children (John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16) and enjoy all His riches and blessings as their inheritance (Eph. 1:14). Hence, it is the gospel of God. It brings the believers into the realm of the divine ruling that they may participate in the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom (1 Thes. 2:12). Hence, it is also the gospel of the kingdom of God. Therefore, its full contents are the same as that of the New Testament with all its bequests. When we believe in this gospel, we inherit the Triune God with His redemption, His salvation, and His divine life with its riches for our eternal portion.