Nothing Less Than Everything
Last week’s message brought us to the ending of Mark chapter 8 in which Jesus introduced the radical thought that He would soon die on the cross. If you will allow me to expand, I want to take us back there. As we examine verse 34, Jesus did not directly say His manner of death would be a cross, but rather that anyone who would follow Him must be willing to deny himself and take up his cross. Whether the disciples fully understood His abstract usage of cross was a sign of His literal manner of death is debatable. Although Jesus had spoken of the reality of His death, He had not yet defined the method by which He would die. If this way of speaking struck no chords of meaning during His life, they certainly did when the Holy Spirit came to teach them and cause them to recall all the words Jesus had spoken.
The disciples learned that cross-bearing is a sign of true discipleship, for the one who rejects this call upon his life rejects the will of the Father to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord of all. Salvation means agreement with the Father and submission to the Saviour as the one who has ultimate control over the sinner’s life. There is no salvation unless there is commitment to Him as Lord. This statement is fundamentally basic, simple, and plain, yet much of the evangelical world rejects a gospel that says the sinner must receive Jesus as Lord of our lives. They erroneously claim we can receive Him as Saviour without the necessity of knowing Him as Lord.
For the good faithful members of Berean, this thought is as foreign to us as hearing the Mormons preach that one day we will live on and rule our own planet. Yes, rejection of Christ as Lord is almost plain silliness if it not for the tragedy that many who have Baptist over their church doors believe and teach this. Thus, the plea to lost sinners goes out: “Will you receive Jesus as your Saviour?” However, the Bible never asks this question. The scriptures call Jesus Saviour ten times, while over seven hundred times they call Him Lord. Paul wrote in Romans, “Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” and Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” The connection to Jesus as Lord is the connection of doing the will of the Father. In other words, receiving Him as Lord is indispensable to the salvation of our souls.
Taking us back to Mark chapter 8, Jesus demanded for the sake of their eternal lives, the disciples must assume a life of dying to their old desires and walking in the newness of life in Him. There can be no shame or reservation in following Him else the Saviour whom we reject as Lord will reject us in the presence of His Father.
Many commentators describe Mark as a fast-paced gospel. Mark hits his doctrinal nails squarely on the head and drives them home without repeated or glancing blows. When the doctrine is this concise and spoken with such clarity, there is little room for conjecture and argument. Who can read these last verses of Mark and conclude Jesus does not demand absolute full commitment to Him? Neither the disciples nor anyone else will accept the way of the cross unless they sell out their lives fully to Him.
Pastor V. Mark Smith