In 8:27—9:13 the Lord Jesus is revealed as our universal and entire replacement. It is through His all-inclusive death and wonderful resurrection that we can take Him as such a replacement.
The Gospel of Mark presents the Lord Jesus as the One who accomplished an all-inclusive death. In His death He bore our sins, condemned sin, crucified the old man, terminated the old creation, destroyed Satan, judged the world, abolished the ordinances, and released the divine life.
After the Lord accomplished this all-inclusive death, He entered into His wonderful resurrection. In and through His resurrection He regenerated His followers and germinated the new creation.
After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus “was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God” (16:19). He now remains in His all-surpassing ascension to execute what He has accomplished through His death and resurrection.
In previous messages we have pointed out emphatically that the Lord Jesus did not enter into His death, resurrection, and ascension alone. Rather, He brought His followers into His death, and then He ushered them into His resurrection. As those who have been ushered into the Lord’s resurrection, His followers may now enjoy Him in His ascension as their life and life supply, the Lord of all, God’s Christ, the Head of all to the church, the Head of the Body, the glorified One, the enthroned One, the One who is above all, and the One who fills all in all.
Through His death, resurrection, and ascension, and by bringing His followers into that death, resurrection, and ascension, the Lord Jesus has brought forth the new man as the reality of the kingdom of God. First, this new man issues in the church. Then, in the coming age, the new man will develop into the millennium. Ultimately, in the new heaven and the new earth, the new man will consummate in the New Jerusalem. This will be our eternal destiny, and this is also the conclusion of the Scriptures.
The Gospel of Mark is not merely a storybook. This Gospel conveys a heavenly vision, a vision that should direct our steps, control our living, and bring us into God’s consummation. This vision is able to keep us in God’s economy so that we may live the church life with the goal of reaching the millennium and the New Jerusalem.
Such a vision from God will always direct our steps and control our living. This was true even in the Old Testament, where we are told that without vision the people will perish (Prov. 29:18a). Under the heavenly vision we are directed toward God’s destination, and our life is controlled according to God’s economy.
If we would know the truth, we need to see the vision of God’s economy. I can testify that years ago I was caught by this vision. Because we have seen it, we can press on in spite of suffering, defamation, and all kinds of trouble.
This vision has become the principle that directs our steps and that governs our way. Why do we take the way of the Lord in His recovery? We take this way because we have been caught by the vision of God’s economy. Because we have seen this vision, throughout the years heavenly light has been flooding into the Lord’s recovery. The reason for this light is that we are under this vision. Whenever we come to the Word of God, the light shines because we are in this directing, controlling, governing vision.
My burden in this message is that we would see that the Gospel of Mark reveals a life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. This life is not merely righteous, holy, spiritual, and victorious. Many Christians know that we should live a righteous, holy, spiritual, and victorious life. But have you ever heard of a life lived according to God’s New Testament economy? The Gospel of Mark presents the Person of the God-man, the One who lived, acted, moved, and worked step by step according to God’s economy.
The author of the Epistle of James, on the contrary, was not fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. Instead, James continued to live according to certain Jewish traditions and practices.
The Gospel of Mark records how the Lord was examined by different parties. But no one could find fault with Him. As we consider the Gospel of Mark, we also are not able to find any fault, defect, or deficiency in the Lord’s living related to God’s economy. The chief priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians tried to find fault with the Lord Jesus according to Jewish law and practice, and according to Roman politics. Let us examine Him according to the measure of the New Testament economy, of a standard that is much more strict. If we were to examine the Lord in this way, we would not find any shortcoming with Him. He not only fulfilled the law—He fulfilled God’s economy.
Actually, the life of the Lord Jesus recorded in Mark is a complete, whole, perfect, and entire pattern of God’s New Testament economy. For this reason, if we would understand what is revealed in Matthew, Luke, or John, we need to consider the pattern presented in Mark. This pattern will then become a key that opens the other three Gospels.
Among today’s Christians there is a great deal of debate and division. This is the result of being in darkness and of not having the vision of God’s New Testament economy. The spiritual sky above many believers is dark. Their talk and study are in darkness. How much we need our spiritual sky to be clear! I hope that this Life-study of the Gospel of Mark will cause heavenly light to shine upon you, light that will grow until it shines in full (Prov. 4:18).
Praise the Lord for the clear view concerning God’s New Testament economy! This view should become our vision to direct, control, keep, and preserve us and also carry us on. Furthermore, this vision should become the yardstick, the standard, by which we measure matters related to the Christian life. If we have this vision, we shall see that it is not sufficient simply to be righteous, holy, spiritual, and victorious. James was such a godly person, yet he was short with respect to God’s New Testament economy. May we all see the vision of God’s New Testament economy and see in the Gospel of Mark a portrait of a life fully according to and for God’s economy.
[see The Progressive Steps of the Gospel of Mark chart]