John the Baptist Prepares the Way
Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;”
The beginning of … This is best viewed as Mark’s title for his gospel. The historical record of the gospel message began with John the Baptist (Mat. 11:12; Luke 16:16; Acts 1:22; 10:37; 13:24). John’s preaching was the beginning of the gospel. The law prophesied until John ... since that time the kingdom of God is preached" (Mat. 11:12-13; Luke 16:16). All that John preached is part of the gospel we are to preach (see, Mat. 3:1).
Beginning (ἀρχὴ)
without the article, showing that the expression is a kind of title. It is 'the beginning, not of his book, but of the facts of the Gospel. He shows from the prophets that the Gospel was to begin by the sending forth of a forerunner.
Mark begins with a burst of information that functions as a title. The gospel here refers not to the whole book but to the content of the early Christian proclamation, which in turn centers on a person. Jesus is His given name; Christ is both a name and His Old Testament title; the Son of God points to His unique familial intimacy with the God of the Old Testament.
of Jesus Christ... Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua the Lord is salvation; Christ anointed one, is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. Jesus is the Lord’s human name (Mat. 1:21; Luke 1:31); Christ signifies His office as ruler of God’s coming kingdom (Dan. 9:25-26).
Son of God... An affirmation of Jesus’ deity, stressing His unique relationship to the Father (3:11; 5:7; 9:7; 13:32; 15:39; see John 1:34).
Gospel: The good news about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; of which the 4 gospels are written records. Good news (see Glad Tidings). The object is to emphasize the gospel itself, not so much the many events leading up to it. He does not mention the birth or genealogy of Christ and many other events about John and Jesus, as in Mat. 1-3; Luke 1-3. Such events would be out of harmony with the purpose of his gospel, which is to present Jesus as a servant of God. Genealogies of servants are never given.
We see here, in this first verse, that this is the beginning. There is no earlier writing by Mark. The gospel, as we said in Matthew, means good news. This is not just good news from anywhere, but is in fact, the good news of Jesus Christ.
We dealt with this name before, but I feel it is important to know what the name Jesus Christ implies, so bear with me, and we will get into it again. Jesus means The Savior, and Christ means the Anointed One. We discussed in a previous lesson that one of Jesus’ names, before He came to earth, was God the Word.
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
We also read in 1Jhn. 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
You see, in heaven the one we call Jesus Christ is known as the Word. He took the name Jesus Christ for His earthly stay in a human body so that He, The Anointed One, might become the Savior of the world. For His stay on earth, He was also known as the Son of God.
Jesus had no earthly Father. His Father was God. We touched on this in Matthew. The Holy Spirit hovered over Mary, and she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was the Spirit of God in fleshly form; and thus the Son of God.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.
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