Open the Bible UK Daily

“Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 3:35

How do you know that a person has a saving faith in Jesus Christ? The answer is simple: He or she pursues a life of obedience.

This theme runs through Jesus’ teaching: “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 7:21).

Many Christians are resistant to this teaching. They reduce faith in Jesus to a formula, an event, or a prayer. But the whole purpose of the death of Christ is that you should live a new life to the glory of God: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24).

God saves you by His grace, and you receive that grace by faith alone. But the evidence that you have received this grace will be seen in your pursuit of obedience. John Calvin put it well: "We are justified by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone."

The gospel leads to a life of obedience: “Through [Jesus] we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5). Paul’s mission is to call people, not just to “faith,” but to “the obedience of faith.”

If you’re not a Christian today, God calls you to the obedience of faith. And if you are a Christian today, God also calls you to the obedience of faith.

What is “the obedience of faith,” in your own words?

When they hear the word...

Mark 4:16

Here is Jesus’ report on what is actually going on inside people who hear the Word:

Some people are hard: “These are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word.” (4:15) The seed never penetrates this soil. Why? Because it’s been walked all over. Maybe you’ve developed a crust to protect yourself.

Some people are shallow: “These are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” (4:16-17) These people have joy and enthusiasm, but no depth. They don’t think or feel deeply. The shallow person is always making new starts that end up fizzling out.

Some people are preoccupied: “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (4:18-19) These weeds leave you feeling frustrated, like there’s not enough room for everything in life.

Some people will become fruitful: “Those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (4:20)

Soil can’t change. What if you’re hard, shallow, or preoccupied? Like the farmer, God can break up the hardest ground, dig out the largest stones, or pull out the most stubborn weeds: “I will give you a new heart... And I will remove [your] heart of stone...” (Eze. 36:26).

Ask Jesus to give you a new heart.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 1:1

Someone might read Mark’s words and say, “Well, the confession that Jesus is the Son of God is just one man’s opinion...” Is it?

It’s the unanimous confession of the New Testament

“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and Peter all say the same thing—check it out!

It's the confession of heaven

As Jesus was being baptised, “A voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (Mark 1:11). Maybe you think it would be easier to believe if you heard a voice from heaven. Well, there was a voice from heaven!

It's the confession of hell

“Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God’” (Mark 3:11). People on earth may have had problems figuring out who Jesus was, but they knew who He was in hell.

It's Jesus' own confession

After Jesus was arrested, the High Priest asked Him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said, “I am...” (Mark 14:61-62). Jesus’ answer could not have been clearer.

It's the confession of those who believe

“When the centurion... saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39).

If you confess that Jesus is the Son of God, you are agreeing with the unanimous witness of the New Testament, the one thing on which heaven and hell agree, the testimony of Jesus about Himself, and you’re identifying yourself with the faith of every true Christian.

So, what do you say?

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out...

Mark 1:23

Think about it. Here is a man going to worship in the synagogue. But his life is bound by a dark power that lurks within him, and coming to the synagogue hasn’t changed that.

This still happens today: A man goes to church, and his life is in the grip of a dark power that he cannot overcome. He has heard the teaching. He has sung the songs. But his life has never changed, because there’s a compulsion within him that’s too strong for him to overcome.

But when Jesus went to Capernaum something extraordinary happened. He confronted the dark power that was holding this man: “Come out of him” (1:25). Mark tells us that the evil spirit “came out” (1:26). The people were astonished. Nothing like this had ever happened in their synagogue: “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him” (1:27).

Many people who heard Jesus speak never followed Him. The rich young ruler would be an example. But in the Gospels, when Jesus calls someone directly, they always respond. When Jesus rebukes a dark power directly, it moves.

You won't find an occasion in the Gospels where Jesus gives a command or rebukes a demon and then He is frustrated. The disciples faced this frustration, but not Jesus. You never read in the Gospels that Jesus tried to heal someone, but it didn’t work. Why? What Jesus determines gets done. What He decrees gets accomplished. When God says, “Let there be light,” there is light. And Jesus is everything that God is in the flesh.

What's your level of confidence in the authority of Jesus?

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

Mark 3:22

These folks were not the local clergy in Galilee. These were the top brass religious leaders coming down from the capital city in Jerusalem. Why did they come? Because the Pharisees and Herodians were plotting to kill Jesus (3:6).

What does a plot to destroy someone involve? It begins with recruiting other influential people. The Pharisees probably sent word to Jerusalem about Jesus, and as a result of this complaint, an official delegation was sent to make an evaluation.

The teachers arrived with their clipboards to check Jesus out, and they came to this conclusion: “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (3:22). But that doesn’t make sense: “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end” (3:26).

Jesus gave a very different explanation of His ministry: “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house” (3:27). Satan is the strong man who holds many people captive in his house. Far from being in league with Satan, Jesus has come to raid his kingdom, and to set the captives free.

But when these teachers studied Jesus, they concluded that He was in league with Satan. This is the same conclusion many people have come to in our country today. Apart from God’s grace, there is deep antagonism toward Jesus in every heart. When holiness takes flesh and comes near, we do not like it, because it shows us who we really are.

What is your conclusion about Jesus?