Good News for Today

KEY VERSE: “There came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” —Mark 1:11

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:1-20

OUR LESSON BEGINS with John the Baptist in the wilderness, preaching “the baptism of repentance” (vs. 4) as forerunner of Jesus. Mark also quotes Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isa. 40:3) John fulfilled this prophecy. When he saw Jesus approaching him at the river Jordan, John proclaimed to all waiting there to be baptized: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”—John 1:29

What was this sin that was to be taken away? The original sin of disobedience was committed by our father Adam in the Garden of Eden. It was there that Adam partook of the forbidden fruit and brought upon himself and all his posterity the wages of sin, which was death. Adam knew what the penalty would be, for it was God who told him in the beginning, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) The Apostle Paul tells us that “in Adam all die,” and that “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.”—I Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12

Mark added to this the story of good news for today with Jesus as the main theme. He revealed who he was and why he came into the world. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus came into the world by the power and authority of God. Quoting Jesus’ own words, he said: “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”—John 6:38

The acceptance of our Lord’s consecration and sacrifice to do the will of his Heavenly Father was evidenced when John the Baptist witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit, coming down like a dove upon him, and immediately the heavens were opened unto him and it was revealed what he must do to finish the work of God.—John 1:32; John 5:36

The will of God for Jesus was to carry out the plan of salvation and redemption, so that the sin of disobedience by father Adam would be atoned for, thus satisfying the requirements of God’s justice. Paul affirms this by saying, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:22) God’s justice was satisfied, and also fulfilled, when the man Christ Jesus gave himself as a ransom, or corresponding price, for Adam, and all mankind. This we are told is to be realized “in due time.”—I Tim. 2:6

With the present turmoil and trouble in the world, when men’s hearts are failing them for fear, the good news for today comes only from the Word of God, which tells us that the ‘due time’ will introduce an era of peace the world has never known. It will usher in the long promised kingdom, for which all Christians have prayed, saying, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth.”—Matt. 6:10

“Many nations shall … say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain [kingdom] of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”—Micah 4:2

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