Mark 1:1

The style of Mark is quick-moving and dramatic, his gospel being one of swift and vigorous action, and one of his favorite expressions being straightway. The entire first year of our Lord's ministry is presented in this first chapter. He summarized the ministry of John the Baptist (Mark 1:1-8), related the baptism of Christ (Mark 1:9-11), and recorded the temptation (Mark 1:12-13) in the first brief section of things preparatory to Jesus' ministry. He then immediately launched into his narrative of the Lord's ministry principally in the vicinity of Capernaum (Mark 1:14-4:34), the following events being related in this chapter: (1) Jesus begins to preach (Mark 1:14-15); (2) he calls four disciples (Mark 1:16-20); (3) casts an unclean spirit out of a man on the sabbath day (Mark 1:21-28); heals Simon Peter's wife's mother of a fever (Mark 1:29-31); casts out many demons (Mark 1:32-34); extends his ministry to all Galilee (Mark 1:35-39); and cleanses a leper (Mark 1:40-45). The student will observe that Mark made extensive use of the historical present, as in the above summary.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (Mark 1:1)

The gospel ... always means "the good news" in the New Testament. It is the joyful word of how men may receive the forgiveness of sins and restore the broken fellowship with God, a fellowship broken by the disaster in Eden. All kinds of collateral and tangential benefits flow out to men from the fountainhead in the gospel of Christ; but they are subordinately connected with it, the primary purpose of the gospel having ever been the redemption of men from sin and their endowment with the hope of eternal life. Social, political, and economic benefits, invariably associated with the spread of Christianity, do not appear in the New Testament as primary goals at all. This is not to decry such dividends as being in any way undesirable, but to emphasize the far greater concern for the souls' true redemption from sin.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God ... The compound title of our Lord is of heavenly origin. It was announced, evidently for the first time on earth, in the Saviour's intercessory prayer (John 17:3) and was repeatedly called the "name" which God had "given" (John 17:6,11,12,26). From this, in all probability, derived the apostolic preference for the expression, "Jesus Christ."

Son of God ... is a reference to the unique sonship of Jesus and is the equivalent of hailing him as a supernatural person and as having an equality with God. The Pharisees properly understood the implications of this expression, interpreting it as "making himself equal with God" (John 5:18).