Have you looked at the Gospel of Mark in a while? If there’s anything that Mark is known for, it’s a direct, action-packed delivery. He doesn’t ease into the story of Jesus Christ. There’s no genealogy or birth narrative. He just drops an understated declaration that is actually a theological bombshell when you dig into it a little.

Mark’s gospel begins, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” (Mark 1:1). Those are very simple words, but first, consider what “gospel” meant in Mark’s world. It wasn’t a genre of religious literature like we think of it today. It was the word used for an emperor’s official proclamation. When there was a victory, a coronation, or some big news that changed the course of the nation, heralds were sent throughout the Roman Empire to announce the “euangelion.” which is the Greek word for “Good News.”

I believe that Mark borrowed that word deliberately. He’s not writing a biography. He’s issuing a royal announcement of world-changing news.

And the claim inside this declaration is actually staggering when you think on it. It’s “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” First, this Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the long-awaited Anointed One. And second, he’s not a prophet or a teacher. He is the Son of God. That’s language reserved for deity itself. Jesus is God in the flesh.

Beloved, in one little sentence, Mark makes clear who Jesus is before he’s told us a single thing Jesus did. Only then does every miracle, parable, and mile toward Calvary make sense. The opening line gives it all plausibility and purpose.

Friend, Jesus did what He did because He is who He is. I pray we would never read the story of Jesus without grasping the enormity of His identity.

Change begins in you!