The life 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.
After Christ’s ascension, His disciples continued His life, a life of preaching, teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the lepers. This is the significance of 16:20: “But those went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the accompanying signs.” Here we have the continuation of the life of the Lord Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Mark. This life, a life according to and for God’s New Testament economy, has not ceased, for it is continued by those who believe in the Lord.
In the past nineteen centuries, many matters have come in to frustrate, damage, and even replace in the lives of Christians the unique life that is according to God’s New Testament economy. These hindering matters include culture, religion, ethics, morality, philosophy, the improvement of character, and the effort to be spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious.
We need to have a clear view of the kind of life we should be living. Are you living a life of culture and religion? A life of ethics, morality, philosophy, and the improvement of character? Are you trying to be spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious? All of us have been distracted from God’s economy by certain of these things. Where can you find Christians today who are not living a life of one or more of these ten items?
All Christians have been frustrated and damaged by the good that is related to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree that is versus the tree of life is not merely the tree of the knowledge of evil; it is the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil. In fact, the word “good” is mentioned before evil in Genesis 2:17. This indicates that good things as well as evil things can keep us from enjoying the tree of life. In our experience as Christians, good things may actually hinder us much more than evil things. Those who love the Lord may not touch what is evil, but day by day they may allow something good to replace the tree of life in their experience. Are not culture, religion, ethics, morality, philosophy, and the improvement of character good things? Certainly they are. To be sure, trying to be spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious is good. Nevertheless, anything apart from the life-giving Spirit is a frustration to the life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy.
God has put us into Christ not that we may live a life of good things, but that we may live a life that is uniquely, wholly, and absolutely of Christ. God has put us into Christ so that we may live a life of Christ to carry out His New Testament economy.
Although more than nineteen centuries have passed since Christ’s ascension, He still has not come back. God’s people are not yet ready for the Lord’s coming. For centuries those who love the Lord Jesus have been hindered by different kinds of good things. These good things have occupied those who love the Lord and seek Him. Christians who love God and seek the Lord do not care for worldly things. Once they have been caught by the Lord to love Him and seek Him, they may be hindered by things they think are related to being spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious. Some Christians are preoccupied with ethics, morality, and improvement of character; others are distracted from the Lord by their efforts to be spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious. How few really care for the living Person of Christ Himself!
We have emphasized the fact that the Gospel of Mark presents a portrait of a life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. In eternity past God the Father put us into the One who lived such a life. Now we should be the continuation of this life. This means that the life we live should not be a life of culture, religion, ethics, morality, philosophy, or improvement of character. It should not even be a life of trying to be spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious. The life we live today should be Christ Himself. Only a life that is Christ is fully according to the New Testament economy of God. Any other kind of life, no matter how good it may be, is short of God’s economy.
In Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians Paul deals with certain things that hinder us from living Christ. In Galatians and Philippians we see that the religion founded according to God’s Word was keeping the believers from living Christ. The hindrance dealt with in Colossians is philosophy, perhaps a kind of Gnosticism. Galatians and Philippians deal with the frustration caused by Judaism, and Colossians deals with the frustration caused by philosophy. We may say that this religion and philosophy were the highest products of man’s culture. But these were the very things that were keeping God’s chosen people from living Christ. Therefore, in Philippians Paul declared, “To me to live is Christ” (1:21). In Galatians 2:20 he said, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Then in Colossians 3:4 he spoke of “Christ our life.”
As we consider the life portrayed in the Gospel of Mark and the definition of this life in the Epistles of Paul, we need to see the kind of life we should have today. This picture needs to direct, preserve, and control us in a life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. As those who have been brought through all the chapters of the Gospel of Mark, we should be the continuation of the life presented in this Gospel.