The Purpose of Christ

In this week’s message from Mark 9, we hear Christ plainly state His purpose: to live, to die, and to be resurrected. The disciples met it with fear, grief and blindness, and we are just as helpless apart from God’s mercy. So we go into the new year on our knees, fixed on the cross of Christ.

Well, today we’re returning to our study in Mark chapter 9. In the past month, we’ve been focusing on the Advent, contemplating the incarnation of Christ, the fullness of God in human form. We’ve been considering the purpose of Christ’s coming to earth in human form, and the implications of this union of God and man in the person of Christ.

Today, as we return to our study in Mark, what we find is a passage that is perfectly fit for the Advent season, because in it, Christ plainly states His purpose in coming to earth, which is to live, to die, and to be resurrected. So in our study of this passage this morning, we will consider Christ’s statement of His purpose and rehearse again the basic truths of the gospel message.

Primarily, we will be seeing three things in this passage:

• First, we will see the purpose of Christ plainly stated.
• Second, we will see the response of the disciples to the purpose of Christ.
• And third, we will see the purpose of Christ manifested in us.

So let’s read this passage beginning in verse 30. Mark chapter 9, verses 30 through 37.

The TextMark 9:30–37

From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it, for He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent me.”

Let’s pray.

Father, we come to you in the name of Christ, and we ask that you would grant us insight by your Spirit into the truth of your word. Let us see Christ clearly, and let us see His purpose on earth and His purpose in us. We pray this in His name. Amen.

In this passage, Christ plainly states His purpose in coming to earth. We might say His purpose or we might say His mission. He came to earth taking on the form of human flesh to accomplish a specific purpose. We can put that purpose in a very brief phrase. He came to earth to justify the ungodly.

What Christ states in this passage are the basic truths of the gospel message. In context, the fullness of the gospel is contained in just verse 31. It’s plain for us to see now, and it was plain enough for the disciples when He first spoke it.

In last week’s sermon, we heard about the union of the nature of God and the nature of man in the person of Christ. And we heard about how this was designed in order to resolve our terrible predicament before God, that because of our sin, we are alienated from God.

Today, we will begin by reminding ourselves of the three pillars of the gospel: the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. Without any one of those three, our salvation would not be possible. Only through those three can God justify the ungodly.

In verse 30, as the appointed time for Christ’s death is approaching, Christ takes the disciples out of the way in order to teach them privately about His purpose. They’re traveling through Galilee and on the road to Capernaum. In verse 31, Christ tells His disciples,

The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him. And when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.

Mark 9:31

Every moment in the life of Christ was to fulfill His purpose. From His first breath of life to His last gasp in death, Christ suffered to accomplish His purpose, to fulfill the law in perfect righteousness, to endure the eternal judgment of God and pay an infinite debt of sin, to drink the cup of God’s wrath in death, and then to be raised by the power of the Spirit in resurrection.

Christ Was Born to Die

Christ was born to die. The cross was always the centerpiece of God’s providential plan from eternity past. The Apostle Peter says in Acts chapter 4,

Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur.

Acts 4:27-28

The cross was always the centerpiece of God’s plan. From the moment God first spoke light into existence, to the moment Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, to the moment Abraham raised a knife to slay his only son, and later Moses was given the tablets of commandments and the unveiling of the law of God, to the moment the baby Jesus first cried in a stable, to the moment He last cried out in death, the cross was the point, the purpose, and the end of God’s eternal plan.

In death, Christ atoned for sin. We are told that He is the propitiation for sin, meaning that His sacrifice was the payment for a debt that is infinitely wide and infinitely deep and would take an infinity of eternities for one sinner to pay.

Think for a moment about the debt that you have accrued. In James, we are told that

whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all.

James 2:10

One failure to keep one commandment is effectively equal to a violation of all commandments, because an eternal condemnation results from just one sin. And do you know what sin James was talking about in this context? Not murder, not adultery, not even lying. James was talking about the sin of partiality, showing favor to one person over another.

He was saying, if one morning a homeless man happened to visit us at our church, and he was completely impoverished, and he hasn’t bathed in weeks, and maybe he talks too loudly, and he has nothing to offer. And on the same morning, the governor of Virginia visits our church, and you put the governor of Virginia in the front pew and you hide the homeless man away in the back because you don’t want to be associated with his poverty and you’re embarrassed by him, you have committed a sin that is deserving of eternal condemnation. You have violated the whole law. James says,

Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

James 2:5

But it’s not just this. Christ said in Matthew 5,

You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not murder.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is guilty before the court.

Matthew 5:21-22

In other words, we are judged not only by the sins of our actions, but also by the sins of our hearts. Even if you did not act on your partiality, if only you felt it in your heart and thought it in your mind, if only in your imagination and your emotions you entertained a thought of partiality, you were just as guilty. Guilty of one sin, guilty of the whole law.

But still, it’s more than this. Christ said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. And that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Even this morning, have you perfectly kept these commandments? Have you in every second of your day so far esteemed God perfectly in your heart and mind? Or have you given your mind to lesser things, or perhaps to anxiety and to worry? Have you ever been anxious or worried?

Anxiety and worry are terrible sins because they are a tight-fisted denial in your heart of the true nature of God. All anxiety is rooted in heresy. Paul writes in Philippians,

Be anxious for nothing.

Philippians 4:6

This is not a suggestion, it’s a commandment. Anxiety is your heart telling you that God is either not in control, or that He is not good, or that He does not love you or care for you. If you have been anxious or if you are anxious now, you have and are committing a sin of outright rebellion against God that merits repentance on your knees.

Are you beginning to get the picture, that everything wrapped up in us and the nature of our flesh is at enmity with God, at war with the Spirit, and at odds with the law? Every moment of our lives is tainted and unclean. Imagine every second that you have shown partiality, every second that you have been angry, every second that you did not esteem God perfectly in your heart and mind, every second that you have felt anxiety.

Every one of those seconds are sins against a perfectly holy God, a violation of His righteous law, and every instant of failure deserves eternal condemnation and judgment. And if there’s any part of you that does not believe that just one instant of anxiety or partiality or anger could be deserving of eternal punishment, that is because our vision of God is not large enough and we do not see His true nature, and that in itself is to fall short of the glory of God.

How many thousands and millions of infinite debts have we accrued? To pay them off is an impossibility. It would take an infinity of eternities. This is why Christ was born to die. This is why He says here in verse 31,

The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him.

Mark 9:31

His purpose was to be sacrificed by the hands of men as instruments of the wrath of God. And the hands of those who crucified Christ were not just the hands of the Roman executioners, not only the hands of Judas who embraced Him in treachery, not only the hands of Pontius Pilate who tried to wash them in vain, and not only the hands of the Jews who raised their fists in condemnation of Him, but the hands that crucified Christ are yours and mine. In Acts chapter 2, preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem, the apostle Peter says,

Christ, who is delivered over by the predetermined plan of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

Acts 2:23

And again in chapter 4, Peter says,

Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, you crucified.

Acts 4:10

The culpability for the death of Christ falls not only on the one or two Roman soldiers who hammered the nails into His wrists, but on every sinner whose sin made His death necessary. What nailed Christ to the cross was sin, specific individual sins of every sinner who He died to redeem. Like the modern hymn says, what held Christ to the cross was my sin until the payment was accomplished. Paul writes in Colossians 2,

Christ cancelled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Colossians 2:14

Now consider for a moment the last part of that verse. What Christ accomplished on the cross is the nailing of our debt, literally nailing the receipt of our sin debt to the cross in complete and final payment. Through His death, God can justify the ungodly, not because He overlooks our sin, but because the wages of our sin have been fully paid.

On the cross, Christ declared,

It is finished.

John 19:30

There is not one sin forgotten. There is not one debt unpaid. In the words of one preacher, on the cross, Christ drank damnation dry. Paul writes in Romans chapter 5,

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1

The terrible predicament of our alienation with God is ended. In Romans chapter 8, Paul continues,

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

Christ was born to die, to pay in full our debt of sin and purchase our justification and forgiveness.

Christ Was Born to Live

But Christ was also born to live. It was His purpose on earth to live in perfect obedience to the law and to fulfill its righteous requirement. It would not be sufficient to die a perfect death and atone for all sin. That would erase the debt of sin and leave redeemed sinners with a blank slate. But a blank slate is not sufficient to enter the kingdom of God. What is demanded of us is the righteous requirement of the law, to be holy even as God is holy.

What we are unable to do in even one second of our lives, Christ accomplished in every second of His. There was not a moment or a second of His life that He did not love the Lord with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength. There was not a moment that He was not acting in perfect love for His people. There was not a second that He was not submitting in obedience to the will of the Father. He lived, breathed, and died the will of the Father. Returning to Romans 8, Paul continues,

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending His only Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:3-4

The righteous requirement of the law demands an impossibility from us, that we be perfect, that we live out not only a sinless life, but a fully righteous one. But as we’ve seen, every second of our lives has been tainted by a failure to keep the law. To achieve our salvation, it was necessary not only for Christ to pay our debt of sin in His death, but to fulfill the law in perfect obedience in His life. Christ was born to live in perfect fulfillment of the law so that His righteousness could be granted to us.

Christ Was Born to Be Resurrected

But Christ was born not only to live and die, but finally to be resurrected. A dead Christ would not suffice to save the world. A dead Christ would leave the world still in bondage to sin and smitten by the final enemy. But the true Christ is not a dead one, because His glory requires victory over the grave.

Christ is alive to be victory for us. He is the sacrifice that lives. He is the lamb that destroyed the altar after rinsing it with His blood. His blood was the last blood that needed to bleed. By paying the full wages of our sin, Christ broke the bands of death, and by the power of the Spirit, He was raised again in life and is seated at the right hand of God.

In His perfect life, His perfect death, and His perfect resurrection, Christ righteously justifies the ungodly by imputing His righteousness to us. As Paul writes,

there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

There is no need for you to wait or to clean yourself up or to be any holier before you approach the throne of grace and accept the free gift of forgiveness and salvation. About the justification of the ungodly, Charles Spurgeon writes this:

The sinner is the gospel’s reason for existence. You to whom this word now comes, if you are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of person for whom the gospel is ordained and arranged and proclaimed. Come in all your disability. Come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. Come that you are the very sweepings of creation. Come though you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? Come, for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you.

Charles Spurgeon

God justifies the ungodly. This is the purpose of Christ, as He states it in verse 31. The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and He will be killed, and on the third day He will rise again. Now quickly note four things about Christ’s statement in this verse.

The Son of Man

First, verse 31, the Son of Man. The Son of Man is a title of divinity and a prophecy of the kingship of Christ. This is the prophecy as it’s written in Daniel chapter 7.

Behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13-14

The Son of Man is the fullness of God in human form. The Son of Man is the human Jesus who has dominion over all creation, over all men from every tribe and tongue. Moreover, seven chapters earlier in Mark chapter 2, when Jesus heals the paralytic man, He says,

The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

Mark 2:10

The Son of Man is the title of the ruler of all creation and the redeemer of mankind.

Delivered Into the Hands of Men

Second, again verse 31, this Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. The deliverance is not by the hands of men, but into the hands of men. The deliverance is by the hand of God. As we’ve seen before in Acts chapter 2, Christ was delivered over by the predetermined plan of God. John chapter 10, Christ says,

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father.

John 10:17-18

The Son of Man was delivered over to the hands of men by His own initiative and in obedience to the will of the Father, not by human cunning or strength. The deliverance of the Son of Man into the hands of ungodly men was the predetermined plan of the Father from eternity past. It was the divine conspiracy between the Father and the Son, and the divine intention in the creation of all things. John chapter 1,

All things came into being through Him, the Son, and apart from the Son, nothing came into being that has come into being.

John 1:3

All creation came into being by the Son, through the Son, and for the Son. And the crux of the matter is this moment of deliverance, where the Son of Man is handed over into the hands of men.

And when we say that something is the crux of the matter, that something is the crucial point, those words crux and crucial come from the words crucifix or crucifixion, which mean the cross, because the ancient writers who formulated our language understood that the cross is the centerpiece of all things. It is the centerpiece and the turning point in the history of man, and it is the centerpiece and the turning point in the history of salvation, when the Son of Man takes on human form and His appointed time comes to be delivered into the very hands of those He came to save. The deliverance of the Son of Man is by the predetermined plan of God.

Delivered to Be Killed

Third, again in verse 31, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men to be killed. The deliverance, according to the predetermined plan of God, was for the purpose of Christ’s death. The purpose of Christ’s death was to appease the wrath of God and become a ransom for His people. In just the next chapter, Mark chapter 10, Christ says,

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

The Son of Man is delivered over to be killed, and the crux of the matter is the crux itself. As we have seen, in His death He nailed our debt of sin to the cross. Isaiah 53,

He justifies the many, He bore our iniquities, He bore the sins of the many and interceded for us, the transgressors. He was pierced for our transgressions, and by His scourging we are healed.

Isaiah 53

The Son of Man is delivered over to become the sacrifice that justifies us and purchases our forgiveness.

Rising From the Dead on the Third Day

Fourth, still in verse 31, after He is killed, the Son of Man rises from the dead on the third day. The Son of Man laid down His life, and then the Son of Man took it up again. Christ’s resurrection from the grave is His victory over death. He could not be contained by a tomb, or as the hymn says, “Death in vain forbade Him rise.”

The wages of sin is death, and the penalty for our infinite debt of sin is infinite death. This Christ endured, and the wages of sin were paid. Death had no lasting power once defeated. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15,

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Because we have failed the law, the consequence is death. Because Christ fulfilled the law and paid the wages of our sin, He has achieved our forgiveness, obtained our righteousness, and purchased our freedom. Like Christ, whose death was only temporary, our death will only be temporary. Death is no longer a curse of sin. It is a direct gateway into the everlasting presence of Christ in glory.

In His resurrection, the Son of Man defeated the power of death. Moreover, in His resurrection, the Son of Man was glorified and coronated as king over all. Matthew chapter 28, the resurrected Christ appears to His disciples and says,

All authority has been given to me.

Matthew 28:18

Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1,

When God the Father raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:20-23

This is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel chapter 7, when the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days and is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom so that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. In this one verse, the full purpose of Christ is stated plainly and comprehensively.

• The Son of Man is the King of all.
• He is delivered by the predetermined plan of God.
• He is killed by those He came to save.
• He pays the penalty for our sin.
• He rises from the dead, achieving victory over death.

Now in the next verse, verse 32, we see the disciples’ response to the statement of Christ. How would you respond if you heard this extraordinary statement about the purpose of Christ? If you comprehend the fullness of His purpose, that He achieved righteousness in His life, forgiveness for sin in His death, and victory over death and eternal life in His resurrection, how could your response be anything but enlightenment, encouragement, and joy?

But the disciples had no comprehension. Mark chapter 9, verse 32, says that

they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

Mark 9:32

In Matthew chapter 17, we are told that they were deeply grieved. In Luke chapter 9, we are told that

they did not understand because it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask.

Luke 9:45

The response of the disciples to the statement of Christ was fear, grief, and blindness. Now this was not the first time that Christ had explained His purpose to His disciples. You might remember, just in the preceding chapter, how Christ began to teach His disciples that

the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Mark 8:31

And it says in chapter 8 that He was stating the matter plainly. And we know that in that instance, the disciples rationally understood everything He was saying. Peter understood well enough to make an argument against Him. Scripture says rebuking Christ.

Why? Because the purpose of Christ did not agree with the disciples’ concept of who He was supposed to be. The purpose of Christ did not conform to their theory of the Messiah. In their theory, the Messiah would liberate them from political tyranny on earth. But the purpose of Christ was to be publicly shamed and executed in the indignity of a common criminal.

How would that be victory? How could death be liberation? The disciples couldn’t understand. They were blind to the true meaning of His purpose, and thus they were afraid and deeply grieved.

Now, it’s important to say that they would certainly come to understand in time. You remember the passage we just read in Acts chapter 2. It was the apostle Peter who would preach that it was the predetermined plan of God for Christ to be delivered over to be killed. But for the time being, Peter and the other disciples are blind, and according to Luke, this is also the divine intention of Christ, to veil the full truth of His purpose.

Now, the reason for this veiling might be a mystery, but we do know that this is consistent with the workings of providence, that out of mercy, God does not reveal the fullness of truth at certain times, but allows His children to come gradually to a complete apprehension of the truth. Otherwise, our hearts might be hardened against it, or we might receive the truth in a state that is unworthy or unprepared to handle it.

This is why God first gave His people the law, not to condemn us, but to tutor us, as Paul writes in Galatians, to teach us the depth of our sin and our desperation for a savior. Only in the fullness of time did He shine the light of Christ in the ignorance of man’s darkened heart.

We can also note that a rational understanding of the gospel is a necessary but insufficient condition for the saving knowledge of Christ. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can the eyes of your hearts be enlightened to the truth. We will consider more about the working of the Spirit in a moment.

The Irony of the Disciples’ Blindness

But for now, think about the irony of the disciples’ blindness. Consider how much they had seen and witnessed of Christ up until this point. All the proofs and evidences of His divinity, of His sovereignty, His love, and His righteousness.

Remember how in Mark chapter 4, they witnessed Christ rebuke the wind and still the storm. They saw His sovereignty over the elements of nature. In chapter 5, they witnessed Him cast out the legion of demons, and at the demons’ own plea, out of mercy, He spared them and drove them into a herd of pigs. The disciples then witnessed Him heal multitudes of people from incurable, lifelong diseases.

In chapter 6, they experienced the very power of His name as He granted them authority to cast out demons. They witnessed Him feed 5,000 people with only a few loaves and fish. They saw Him walk on water and once again command a raging storm to cease.

In our current chapter, in chapter 9, three of them went up with Christ to the mountaintop and saw Christ in His divine glory transfigured. And they heard the voice of God declare,

This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.

Mark 9:7

And back again in the valley, the twelve witnessed Christ cast out a demon that they themselves had no power to command. They had witnessed His power, His divinity, His sovereignty, His mercy, His righteousness. In contrast, they had experienced their impotence, their weakness, their fear of death, their littleness of faith, and their shame of sin.

So after all of this, and after Christ plainly states His purpose, what is it that the disciples begin to discuss? They’re walking on the road to Capernaum and the disciples begin arguing with each other over which of them will be the greatest. Who among them will be second in command, seated at the right hand of Christ? Which of them will have earned the greatest honor and authority in the kingdom to come? Which of them will Christ appoint as leader and His chosen favorite?

Maybe they compared evidences. Perhaps Peter, James, and John pointed to the fact that they were the chosen three to accompany Him to the mountaintop. Maybe they alluded to the fact that they had seen things that Christ forbade them from telling the others. Maybe they boasted about a secret knowledge the others were not privileged to know.

We don’t know exactly what they presented as evidence or the full nature of their argument, but we do know that when at last they arrived in Capernaum and Christ asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” they fell silent in shame. There, Christ had been discussing His coming death and humiliation. Here, the disciples were discussing their exaltation and glory in the eyes of men. How could the conversation possibly have moved from the one subject to the other?

Now, to add to the irony, remember what had just preceded Christ’s statement. The demon-possessed boy had been presented to the disciples to be cast out, and the disciples had miserably failed and stood there being ridiculed and mocked by the crowd and the Pharisees. They must have been humiliated within an inch of their life, maybe even despairing of the power of the name of Christ. Suddenly, it was no longer working. Only Christ, when at last He appeared, could command the demon to be cast out. And you remember the father’s statement,

I do believe; help my unbelief.

Mark 9:24

And the disciples turned to Christ and asked Him, “Why could you drive out the demon and we could not?” Why was the father’s statement not the disciples’? Why was the disciples’ conversation on the road to Capernaum not one of amazement at the power of Christ and a renewed confidence in His purpose? Even if they couldn’t understand the full truth of His statement, why were they not still humbled and marveling at the divine nature of Christ? Why were they not saying, “I don’t understand, but I do believe, help my unbelief”?

The Two Mires

What is manifestly true is that when we lose sight of the crux of the matter, when we cease to see the cross at the center of all things, we fall into one of two mires. Either we fall into the mire of abject despair and fear, or we fall into the mire of hubris and arrogance. Either we lose hope and become slaves to worry and anxiety, or we consider ourselves self-sufficient and we trust our own strength.

The disciples, blind to the full reality of the cross and the purpose of Christ, fall into both. First, they are deeply grieved and afraid. Next, they are exalting themselves in hubris and arrogance.

Now, to entertain a bit more speculation, maybe their conversation went something like this. One of them says, “What could Jesus possibly have meant by that?” Another says, “I don’t know, but you know Jesus, always speaking in riddles and parables.”

The first one says, “But what did He mean by delivered into the hands of men and killed?” Another says, “I don’t know, what did He mean by the kingdom of God is like a seed thrown in the soil? He’ll probably explain when we get there.”

Another adds, “Well, whatever He meant, He can’t die. I mean, He is the Messiah after all. He will certainly defeat the Romans and establish His kingdom. And when He does, I have a feeling He’ll be putting one of us second in command.”

And another says, “And I suppose you think you’re the one.” So it begins. The debate ensues.

Now, all of that is speculation and just a fictional conversation, but the real one could not have been any less absurd. In His omniscience, Christ knew precisely what they had been discussing. And like any good teacher, He asks a question in Socratic and rhetorical fashion. “What were you discussing on the way?” He already knows the answer, but He makes them confess to their shame.

One theologian says that when Christ sits down, He assumes the posture of teacher. He calls the disciples to Himself and He answers their debate. “If you want to be first,” He says, “you will be last of all and servant of all.” In the next chapter, Mark chapter 10, when this question of who will be the greatest is posed to Christ again, Christ says,

Whoever wishes to be great shall become the servant of all, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:43-45

Now here in this chapter, He illustrates His point. He takes a child and sets the child in His lap, and He says,

Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent me.

Mark 9:37

The point is something along the lines of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:3, 5

The kingdom of heaven belongs to the meek of heart and the poor in spirit. Not in self-exaltation and merit can the kingdom be won. Only in the acknowledgement of one’s total powerlessness and sin can anyone receive Christ. Christ elaborates on this in the next chapter when He says,

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

Mark 10:15

Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child

What does it mean to receive the kingdom of God like a child? Unfortunately, too often we take this to mean receiving the truth of the gospel in the naivete and gullibility of a child. Blind faith, in other words.

In the past few sermons, we’ve heard about the pathetic caricature of belief that is flaunted in the Christmas season, when we are told to believe even though there is nothing to believe and no reason to believe. Believe in the Christmas spirit, believe in goodwill to men, believe in empty traditions, believe for the sake of believing.

Of course, belief must be a rational, evidence-based belief in the truth. But as we’ve seen in the disciples, a rational belief is itself not sufficient. Rationality cannot bring any thinking human to a saving knowledge of the truth or a full apprehension of Christ.

Receiving the kingdom of God like a child is not a metaphor and it’s not a parable. It’s not even really an illustration. It is the reality of our condition. We are children in weakness and impotence and helplessness. This is one picture, one example of what we are as children, from Ezekiel chapter 16.

Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born. When I, the Lord, passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were squirming in your blood, ‘Live!'”

Ezekiel 16:3-6

We are children born in a long legacy of sin, helpless and powerless, wailing in our weakness and squirming in the blood of our iniquity. We cannot do anything for ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot help ourselves. Only if God has pity on us and in His mercy tells us to live, can we live.

There is no conversation between squirming infants in a nursery about who among them is the greatest. We are helpless to do anything. Paul writes in Ephesians 2,

You are dead in your trespasses and sins, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He has loved us, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:1, 4-5

He saw us squirming in our blood and said, live. Even our belief is not an effort of our strength or an achievement of our rational minds. It is the Spirit of God bringing us to life and clothing us with righteousness. Later in Ezekiel chapter 36, God says,

I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.

Ezekiel 36:27

It is the Spirit of God that grants insight into the truth of Christ and enlightens the eyes of our hearts. We can do nothing apart from the Spirit of God. We cannot do one good work. We cannot not sin. We cannot even believe. Only if the Spirit, acting in mercy, makes us walk in His statutes, breathes life into our dead bones, and tells us to live, can we live.

Going Into the New Year

Now, tomorrow happens to be New Year’s Day, and it’s the point in time where a lot of people make resolutions to better their lives, or at least to get rid of the bad habits that they’ve developed over the course of the year. They tend to approach the new year with a kind of superstitious motivation, thinking that they can start again with a blank slate and if they put enough effort in, they can improve their lives.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with making resolutions or committing yourself to a personal covenant, either to achieve greater piety or stewardship. Even the theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote a series of resolutions. But the truth is that apart from the mercy of God, we cannot do anything, and all ambition and effort is useless.

I’m not talking about just spiritual things. I’m talking about anything. We cannot walk, we cannot breathe, we cannot will our hearts to beat apart from the mercy of God. The truth is we are as powerless and as helpless as the demon-possessed boy earlier in the passage, who foamed at the mouth and seized on the ground and threw himself into the fire and sea to destroy himself, because we are also possessed by a nature, the flesh, which is at war against the Spirit.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t try harder to improve or to be more ambitious in your good works. This has nothing to do with antinomianism or legalism, whether you should try or not. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try. I’m saying you cannot, not in yourself and not in your own strength. Zechariah 4:6,

Not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

Zechariah 4:6

We are completely at the mercy of God. Whether we fall into ruin or are made prosperous, whether we die or whether we live, whether we do a good work or fall again into bad habits, we are completely and utterly at the mercy of God. And what Christ says of the demon-possessed boy is also true of us.

This kind cannot be delivered by anything but prayer.

Mark 9:29

The trouble is, you can’t even pray unless the Spirit moves you. You are totally at His mercy. So as the author of Hebrews writes, remember what it says,

Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

If by mercy you are moved to pray, pray for deliverance and pray for mercy. Go into the new year on your knees. Otherwise, you will fall into one of the two mires. You will either go into the new year in anxiety and despair, or you will go into the new year exalting yourself in hubris and ambition and blind like the disciples.

The Spirit moves most powerfully through the Word of God and Scripture. So turn to the words of God as breathed by the Holy Spirit. Read the Word, pray the Word, preach the Word, and keep your eyes fixed on the crux of the matter, on the cross of Christ. Preach to yourself the purpose of Christ on earth and the purpose of Christ in your hearts. Rehearse the statement of Christ’s purpose as He says it in this verse, Mark 9:31.

The Son of Man is the King of all and the ruler of all creation. He was delivered by the predetermined plan of God. He was killed by the hands of those He came to save. He paid the penalty for our sin. He rose from the dead and achieved victory over death. And now He is seated at the right hand of God,

and by the power of His Spirit, being rich in mercy, He has made us alive by grace and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:4-8

Let’s pray.

Father, we ask that you would grant us insight into your truth, that you would not veil from us the purpose of Christ, but that you would manifest your Spirit in our lives and let us see His glory. We thank you for the justification and forgiveness He achieved in His life and His death and resurrection. We trust Him and we pray in His name. Amen.