Second Quarter 2005 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
Jesus Through the Eyes of Mark

Insights to Lesson 1
Introducing Jesus, the Son of God
March 26-April 1

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” With these words, the gospel writer, Mark, opens his account of the life, death, and resurrection of “the Savior of all men and especially those who believe.” With words of brevity, Mark strikes a fundamental keynote of the gospel; namely that Jesus is indeed the divine Son of God without beginning and without end. Mark confirms the eternal nature of the deity of Christ by quoting Jesus’ encounter with the scribes and Pharisees: “And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, ‘How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he [then] his son?’ And the common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:35-37).

The “most precious message” as set forth by Elders Jones and Waggoner during and following the 1888 General Conference Session in Minneapolis was crystal clear in presenting Jesus as a Savior “nigh at hand” who was “made in all things like His brethren.” It is indeed true that in order to redeem mankind, the Son of God would have to take the nature of man that needed redeeming--the fallen, sinful nature that we inherit from Adam. So God sent “His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, and condemned the sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3).

But it is equally true that the divinity of the Son of God was just as instrumental to the plan of redemption and was also the only means by which God could save the fallen race. Adam’s link with divinity was broken by his disgraceful act of transgression and that link could only be reconnected by the incarnation of the Son of God. The mystery which was kept secret since the world began was disclosed with the revelation of “God manifested in the flesh.”

The ringing echo of the words of Christ on His cross, “It is finished,” is the basis for assurance of eternal life among believers. But without the underlying truth of the eternal deity of Christ, there would be no assurance of eternal life. Moreover there would be no eternal life if Christ is not the eternal everlasting God co-equal with the Father. Ellen G. White affirms this reality: “In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’ 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer's assurance of eternal life.” [1]

No sinless angel could qualify to serve as our substitute and surety. Only Christ, by uniting His inherent divinity with our humanity, could become our all-sufficient Substitute and Surety. Deity stepped in the gap created by sin and became our Substitute; but it was literally our humanity-infected sinful flesh that died the second death at Calvary.

Let Ellen White speak: “No man of earth, no angel of heaven, could have paid the penalty for sin. Jesus was the only one who could save rebellious man. In Him divinity and humanity are combined, and this was what gave efficacy to the offering on Calvary's cross. At the cross, mercy and truth met together; righteousness and peace kissed each other. As the sinner looks upon the Saviour dying on Calvary, and realizes that the Sufferer is divine, he asks why, this great sacrifice was made; and the cross points to the holy law of God, which has been transgressed. The death of Christ is an unanswerable argument to the immutability and righteousness of the law.” [2]

A. T. Jones underscores the preeminence of the deity of Christ after quoting Hebrews 1:3. “This tells us that in heaven, the nature of Christ was the nature of God; that He, in His person, in His substance, is the very impress, the very character, of the substance of God. That is to say that, in heaven, as He was before He came to the world, the nature of Christ was in very substance the nature of God. . . . And this it is essential to know in the first chapter of Hebrews, in order to know what is His nature revealed in the second chapter of Hebrews as man.” [3]

The deity of Christ, who inherently possesses life, is the very basis upon which eternal life has been granted as a gift both to believer and unbeliever. God Himself has testified through three witnesses concerning the deity of His Son: through the Spirit [4], the water [5], and the blood [6] (see 1 John 5:6-9). And this same testimony, God has given to both believer and unbeliever (v. 10). The stunning testimony that is showered upon all is that “God has given us [believer and unbeliever] eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” But His Son has been given to the world, so eternal life has been given to the world (v. 11). “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (v. 12). We may have the Son as our own only by a full surrender of heart, mind, and soul to our divine Savior and His word, resulting in full assurance of eternal life.

When Jesus began His ministry He authenticated the Book of Daniel and the 70-week prophecy when He proclaimed “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Those who heard Jesus utter the words, “the kingdom of God is at hand,” saw the kingdom of God in their midst. God manifested in the flesh is the kingdom of God. The restoration of the image of God in fallen flesh is the kingdom of God. Jesus was the manifestation of the kingdom of God. “The kingdom of God does not come with observation . . . For indeed the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). May God grant by His grace that the kingdom of God be manifested continually in each of us.

The title of this week’s lesson is more than appropriate. The only satisfactory way to introduce Jesus is to lift Him up by proclaiming His eternal deity as well as His humanity and what He accomplished on His cross. The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life. Sabbath blessings!

—John W. Peters

Endnotes:

1. The Desire of Ages, p. 530 (emphasis supplied).

2. The Bible Echo, March 15, 1893, (emphasis supplied).

3. The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, chapt. 2, pp. 20, 22 (new ed.)

4. This passage in 1 John refutes the heresy of adoptionism, which asserts that God adopted Jesus as His Son at the Cross. The Holy Spirit testifies to all observers that Jesus is Divine.

5. At Christ’s baptism (Mark 1:9-11) the Father declared Jesus to be His Son.

6. At the cross evidence was manifested that convinced the Roman soldiers that Jesus was the Son of God (Mark 15:39).

Read the study notes for Lesson 2