I will first begin by looking at the very opening chapter of Mark, then moving on to following chapters. Now I know many of you are Muslims. And your presupposition is that Jesus is just a prophet, and not God. Well if as we know, Mark’s gospel was the first gospel to be written, then it’s wise to examine the earliest written gospel of the life of Jesus Christ, to see what the earliest gospel writer believed about Jesus.

So let’s begin with chapter 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. Now if as some claim, that in Mark’s gospel, Jesus is more of a messenger, and not deity, then why is Mark using a title like Son of God, now i know already your most likely thinking, “well other people are called son of God too”. And your correct, yes they are. But as we will see Marks point here is not that Jesus is a son of God in like manner to Genesis 6, or John 1:12. But rather Marks point here is to point to the deity of Jesus Christ.

And we see this in the following verses. 1:2-3 “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the LORD, make His paths straight”. We see that in these verses, Mark is drawing from Isaiah 40:3 and also Malachi 3:1. In which we see this same language used. But the one we see who’s way is prepared and then is coming, is the LORD God Himself. So mark here is clearly drawing on old testament passages that refer to a coming messenger (John the baptist) who prepares the way of the Lord God, which Mark identifies as Jesus. Simply read Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi along side of Mark 1, and you will see what Mark is doing here.

Let’s now look at the baptism of Jesus in Mark 1:9-11. Where we see all three persons of the Godhead (Trinity) involved. “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: You are my beloved Son, in You I am well pleased”. Here we have the Holy Spirit descending on the Son, we have the Father Himself identifying Jesus as His own Son. My friends, this is a text that shows the Trinity quite clearly. There is no way around it, it quite clearly points to the divinity of Jesus. Who else did the Father say this to at a baptism?

We continue into Chapter 2. Here we see Jesus doing something only God can do, here Jesus forgives sins. Jesus says to the paralytic in Mark 2:5 “son, your sins are forgiven”. Now already i am sure your thinking, “he wasn’t forgiving, but merely claiming they are forgiven”. Let’s look at this claim. In verse 7 we see the scribes saying “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” and they are absolutely correct. Only God can forgive sins, but notice the response of Jesus, the Lord did not say, “guys you have misunderstood me, I wasn’t forgiving, just merely claiming that they are forgiven by God”. Instead what Jesus actually said was this, in verse 10 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”. So according to the scribes only God can forgive sins, and they are correct, but according to Jesus He can forgive sins, therefore Jesus according to Mark is God, that was the author’s intent here. Now a question to ponder, what prophet can forgive sins? What prophet in the Old Testament forgave sins? Think about the conclusion we should draw from Mark 2.

Mark chapter 3 Jesus cast out demons, the demons then call Jesus the Son of God. Now you might think to yourself, why should we trust demons, and your right we shouldn’t. But we have to keep in mind, the author’s intent. As we have already seen Mark is clearly pointing to the deity of Christ. And it’s clear Mark is also doing this here.

I will finish with Mark 7, although there is far more I could mention, for the sake of brevity i will end with chapter 7. Now if a mere prophet came along and started to change some of the laws God had previously given, we would be suspect of such a prophet. But this is what we see Jesus doing in Mark 7:18-19 “And he said to them. “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? Thus he declared all foods clean“. Now people often claim falsely that it was the apostle Paul, who supposedly changed the food laws. But that is not so according to Mark. It was in fact Jesus who changed the food laws. But how could a mere prophet change the very laws of God? Well a prophet couldn’t. But certainly God Himself can. Therefore according to Mark’s gospel as we have seen, Jesus is God.

Ben Beal.

Categories: Bible, Christianity, Christology, God, Gospels, Jesus