MARKS GREAT COMMISSION

THE EVANGEL TO CREATION

"Go ye into all the kosmos, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is bap­tized shall be saved; but he that disbelieves shall be condemned."—MARK 16:15, 5, 16.

            The events recorded by Mark, and those recorded by Luke and John, oc­curred on the first day in the resurrec­tion life of Jesus. That was a day full of start­ling surprises for the disciples. The Cross had been to them the disaster of disasters, blighting their hopes, and scattering them like chaff before the wind. With the dawn of the first day of the week there had come to a little company of wait­ing, weeping women the consciousness that Jesus was not dead, but alive. A little later He had appeared personally to Mary of Magdala. Peter and John had together looked at the place where He had lain, and had been convinced of super­natural resurrection by the remarkable way in which the grave-cloths still lay undisturbed, as they had been wrapped about His body. At some hour in the day Christ had found Peter, and had a private interview with him.         In the same day He had joined two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and to them had opened the Scriptures, finally making Himself known to them in the breaking of the bread. These two, immediately after He had passed out of sight, had hastened back to Jerusalem to tell the ten that they had actually been in company with the risen Lord. Before they could recount what had happened to them, the ten had a account to tell them. They had not seen Jesus, but having heard of the in­terview with Peter, declared "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." (Luke 24:34) Some of them doubted. They were all on the borderland between the light and darkness, and nothing seemed clearly defined or certain.

            Suddenly, without the opening of a door, or the shooting of a bolt, or the turning of a key, Jesus stood materially manifest in their midst. Mark, Luke, and John tell the account of that appearing. These stories do not contradict each other. They are quite different in many respects, but they are complementary; and all are needed to a full appreciation of what took place in the upper room on that occasion of His first meeting with the ten. Mark, who in all likelihood received his account from Peter, recorded those words which had absolutely impressed Peter.

            Luke, the artist historian, gathering up the testimony of eye-witnesses and putting them in order for his friend Theophilus, recorded the words which he accounted of utmost importance. John recorded words, the deepest and pro­foundest, omitted by the others in all probability because the mystic note was beyond their com­prehension.

            The Gospel according to Mark is that which preeminently reveals Jesus as the Servant of God. It is interesting to remember that the book of the Old Testament which reveals the Servant of God is the prophecy of Isaiah. To that prophecy Mark made reference in the very first sentences of his Gospel, when introducing the herald of Messiah he declared that he came in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which fore­told the sending of a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord.

            In the messages of the ancient prophet there are evidences of his almost overwhelming sense of the polluting effect upon the whole earth of the sin of man. Perhaps this is most pointedly and clearly declared in the twenty-fourth chapter. When we turn to the Gospel of Mark we find that he recorded the words in the commission of Jesus which reveal the fact that the ultimate purpose of His mission was that of the redemp­tion and renewal of the whole creation through the salvation of individual men.

            In our consideration of this aspect of the com­mission we shall again seek to discover the deposit, the debt, and the dynamic.

            First, then, as to the deposit, that particular truth committed to the Church, for the proclama­tion of which she is held responsible. This is only suggested by one inclusive word, which, stand­ing alone, is characterized by indefiniteness. The word "Gospel" is inclusive, but it needs ex­planation if we would understand the nature of the deposit suggested.

            The inclusive context illuminates the indefinite word, until it becomes perfectly clear. We must, however, take time to consider that context patiently, in order to understand what our Lord meant by the term "the Gospel" on this occa­sion. Now if we can read this account with the same naturalness that would characterize our reading of it for the first time, we shall be greatly helped.             This is not easy to do, the reason being that we have constantly recited the commission in separation from its context. Indeed, it may safely be affirmed that very few without careful examination are at all conscious of the fact that while the commission is a separate and distinct

command it nevertheless here constitutes one link in a continuous account; and it is perfectly certain that it can only be accurately interpreted as that is remembered. To treat the commission

without reference to the context makes it neces­sary to attempt to formulate an exposition of

what Jesus meant by the term "the Gospel." To consider the commission as a part of a continuous account is to discover the fact that He meant one thing.

            Let us first, then, examine that account in order to discover the sequence of events. We need go no further back than the ninth verse. Beginning there we discover the sequence. Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdala. She carried the news to the mourning disciples that she had actually seen Him alive, and they disbe­lieved.

            He appeared in another form to two on the way to Emmaus. These also returned and told the account, and still they did not believe.

            Finally, He stood in the upper room, and His first words were those in which He rebuked this unbelief, and then immediately said, "Go ye . . and preach the Gospel . . . he that believeth . . . shall be saved . . . he that disbelieves shall be condemned."

            In order that we may be perfectly clear about this, let us mark the sequence in other words. Mary of Magdala declared she had seen the liv­ing Lord. The disciples did not believe this. Two men who walked to Emmaus declared that they had seen the living Lord. The disciples did not believe it. Jesus upbraided them for this un­belief, and then said, "Go . . . and preach the Gospel . . . he that believeth . . . shall be saved . . . he that disbelieves shall be condemned."

            What then is "the Gospel"? It is the good news that the Lord is risen. It may be affirmed that this is a narrowing of the intention of the great word in this commission; that nothing is said of the teaching of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the Cross of Jesus. As a matter of fact all these are involved in resurrection, and become parts of the Gospel because of the resurrection. If we only have the teaching of Jesus, we have no Gospel. If we only have the account of His per­fect life, we have no Gospel. If we only have the Cross, we have no Gospel. All these become part of the Gospel because of its central truth, which is that of the resurrection. The deposit, then, the essential and central truth referred to in this phase of the commission, is that of the actual resurrection of Jesus from among the dead. The resurrection of Jesus was the demonstration of His perfect victory over all opposing forces; and of the fact that His victory enabled Him to baptize such as believe in Him into union with His life.

            In demonstration of the truth of the latter part of this assertion, let His words immediately fol­lowing be carefully considered. "He that be­lieveth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieves shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe, in My Name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It is of the utmost impor­tance that we carefully observe that the Lord did not say that these signs should accompany the preacher. The idea is not that those who pro­claim the resurrection shall work these signs as evidences of the truth of resurrection. The actual statement is that "these signs shall follow them that believe." All men believing on Him were, as the result of His resurrection, to be brought into possession of that life whose forces operate in the ways suggested. By this I do not say that the preachers were not able to do the things described, but that the signs were not peculiar gifts bestowed upon men, equipping them for work. They were rather evidences of the new ability granted to such as believe the evangel.

            Let us mark the suggestiveness of all this when taken, as it must be taken, in connection with the term "the Gospel." "The Gospel" is that of the risen Lord. His resurrection means that He has mastered death, and therefore has overcome all the destructive forces operating in creation—such forces as have spoiled and blighted human­ity, and through the spoiling of humanity have blighted and spoiled the whole creation. Whether these forces are supernatural, those who believe in His Name shall be able to cast them out. Whether they are the forces of social dis­order, which began with Babel and its confusion of tongues, those who believe shall have the new articulation, "they shall speak with new tongues," and thus come to new mutual under­standing. Whether they be the forces that are destructive in the material realm; serpents, or poison, or sickness; serpents and poison, the symbols of the destructive forces of nomadic or savage peoples; or sickness, the destructive force resulting from civilization; those who believe enter into the realm of mastery over the former, and receive healing for all the latter.

            The risen Lord is Himself the Master of all destructive forces, and those who, coming into living union with Him through His resurrection receive of His strength, are also to gain victories over these forces.

            What, then, is the picture that rises before the mind as one reads this commission in its neces­sary relation to the context? It is that of the risen Lord as the Renewer of creation, as the One Who, passing through death into the place of resurrection victory, becomes not merely the Savior of the spirits of men, but the Renewer of the whole territory of human life and therefore the One Whose power will be felt in all the crea­tion that lies beneath man which has been polluted and spoiled by his touch. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, to which we have already made reference, these words occur, "The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Let us place by the side of that word of Isaiah the word of Paul, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."

            If the first phase of the Missionary Manifesto was that of the absolute Lordship of Jesus, which the Church is to affirm and declare the second is that of the risen Jesus Who is Renewer and Re­storer of the whole creation.

            This is the great glad news committed to the Church, and we have been in danger of mini­mizing the meaning of the Gospel. Our outlook has been appallingly narrow, and we have disas­trously failed to see the application of the fact of the resurrection of Christ to the whole creation. Our failure to discover His meaning does not mean His failure to work His purposes out to final fulfillment. He is the risen Lord, and is therefore Master of death. He is also, therefore, Master of all the forces that spoil, and is able to renew everything that has been corrupted.

            What, then, in this respect is our debt? At this point the commission leaves us in no doubt. The words of Jesus are perfectly clear. "Go ye into all the kosmos, and herald the evangel to the whole creation." A natural reading of these words should immediately arrest attention by reason of the inclusive nature of the terms, "the kosmos," and "the whole creation."

            By translating the former "the world" we have been at least in danger of thinking that our Lord's reference was to humanity only. As a matter of fact it is a far more comprehensive term, which He interprets by the second of the phrases referred to, "the whole creation." To take the first term, "the kosmos," and to trace the history of the word, is to be admitted to the larger outlook. The Greek word kosmos origi­nally signified an ornament, or something beau­tiful. It was a word used entirely in the realm of art. In process of time, long before the min­istry of Jesus was exercised or these Gospel stories were written, the word acquired a more spacious meaning, and was used in reference to the whole universe, because the Greek mind came to an understanding of the fact that the universe is beautiful and orderly. Then again, as the Greek mind failed to grasp the truth of the spiritual, the word passed back into a more restricted use, and was applied to the material frame in the midst of which man lives his life. In the days in which John made use of it—and it was peculiarly his word among New Testament writers—it referred to the earth and the heavens enwrapping it, the heaven of the atmosphere and the heaven of the stellar spaces, that system of which our planet is so small a part.

            It will thus be seen that the word stands for much more than the people who lived upon the surface of the earth. It refers to the whole earth in its order, its beauty, and its forces. The declaration of the Old Testament: “The earth is Jehovah's, and the fullness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein," suggests all that is included in the term "kos­mos."

            Jesus made use of the word in this simple sense as including the earth and the fullness thereof, all its hidden treasures, its boundless re­sources, and its yet undiscovered secrets. He recognized that the whole earth in all its fullness needed His evangel, not merely men and women, but beasts and birds and flowers, in order to the discovery and utilization of the secret resources of the earth. So that the whole may become a thing of glorious beauty, the earth needs the re­demption of the King.

            That we may have added light on this subject let us turn to other passages of Scripture. In the Book of Genesis we have a wonderful picture of creation rising by the will of God, and by His power, scale upon scale, ever higher, until at last by a new and distinct act of God, He, taking the highest thing in the lower creation, by inbreath­ing separated it by infinite distances from every­thing that lies beneath it. He created man, and by the last act in the creative process made him infinitely more than an animal. Having thus created him, He gave him dominion over all the creation beneath him to which he was linked by the earlier processes of his making. That creation was placed under his control in order to its development and perfecting. Man in the image and likeness of God, was placed where he might act in fellowship with God for the discovery of the hidden secrets of the earth, and the bringing of them to ultimate perfection.

            Turning to the Book of Psalms, that wonder­ful literature of Hebrew expectation and hope and confidence, we hear one of the singers of Israel as he first inquires —

"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?"

and then, as in harmony with the original account of creation, he declares —

"Thou hast put all things under his feet;

All sheep and oxen,

Yea, and the beasts of the field;

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,

Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas."

            We pass to the New Testament, and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, a logician as well as a poet, declares, after quoting from the singer of Israel, that all the Divine intention is seen real­ized in Christ as representative Man. "Now we see not yet all things subjected to Him. But we behold Him Who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus." He thus confirmed that while all things are not yet seen under the perfect dominion of man, Jesus is seen, the risen Christ, and the vision of Him is the assurance that the whole creation will yet be redeemed from its groaning and travailing in pain, and realize the fullness of its beauty and glory.

            If that threefold picture or rather that one picture presented in the three parts of our Bible be clearly seen, then the meaning of this com­mission will be correctly understood. Man in the economy of God is king of the kosmos, but he has lost his scepter, has lost the key of the mysteries of the world in which he lives, and cannot govern it as he ought to govern, is un­able to realize the creation that lies beneath him. Therefore the kingdom of man is a devastated kingdom, because he is a discrowned king or in the language of Isaiah, "the earth also is polluted under the inhabitants thereof." (Isa. 24:5) Man's moral disease has permeated the material universe; or as Paul said, "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now . . . waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." Man's moral regeneration will permeate the material universe, and issue in its remaking.

            In the upper room on the day of His resur­rection, Jesus stood in the midst of a group of disciples who were so filled with fear that they had gathered within barred doors. He stood there as the Man of God in the midst of crea­tion, Who had regained the scepter, and had mastered death and all the forces destructive of the creation. He was there as Redeemer, Re­generator, Renewer, "the First-born from among the dead," communicating His victorious life to others, and through them to the whole creation.

            To this group of men He spoke words of re­proof for their unbelief, and commanded them that they should go into the kosmos and herald the Gospel of His resurrection to the whole creation. Thus He gave to these men, the first rep­resentatives of the Church, as He also gives to the Church today, the charge to pass out into contact with the kosmos, and to proclaim to the whole creation the triumphant account of His victory.

            Our responsibility to Him is that we obey. Our debt to the world is that we obey. Chaos created the agony of the Cross. Wherever He came into the midst of disorder, He suffered. He, before Whose vision there flamed perpetu­ally the glory of the Divine ideal, felt the anguish of God in the presence of the degra­dation of that ideal. All wounds and weariness, all sin and sorrow, not only of man, but through man in creation, surged upon His heart in waves of anguish. He called His disciples into fellow­ship with Himself in this suffering. That for­ever settles the question of the monastic ideal, as it reveals how completely it is opposed to the method of Jesus. The suffering of the flowers can never be cured if we do not touch them. The agony of the birds can never be ended except as we care for them. The earth can never be lifted from its dullness and deadness, and made to blossom into glorious harvest, except as it is touched by the life of renewed humanity.

            That is the account of the sufferings of Christ. He came into the world, Himself of the eternal Order, full of grace and truth, and in the consciousness of chaos and disorder He suffered. To press that far enough, and to consider it long enough, is to come to the profound and ultimate note in the mystery of atonement. If we indeed have crowned Him, and His life is in us, we shall be "partakers of His sufferings." To present Him as Lord and King among other kings brings persecution.

            Such suffering results in healing, as it makes possible the communication of the virtue of the strong life to the weak, in order to its strength­ening. In our former article we referred to the words of Jesus, "be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." (Matt. 10:28) That great injunction has many possi­bilities of application. Let us reverently remember that Jesus Himself is the ultimate expo­sition of it; and moreover, that its ultimate value is discovered in this application. He gave His body to bruising and buffeting and death, having no fear of such as killed the body; but by doing so He liberated the forces of His life that by their liberation they might become the re­newing, regenerating forces of men, and through men of the whole creation. The Cross will never have won its final victory until the new heavens and the new earth are established as the result of His redeeming and regenerating work. That is the goal towards which we are to look in all our service.

            Therefore the perpetual principle of missionary endeavor is that of passing into the kosmos, and so into the suffering, and thus into ability to communicate renewing forces. The principle is supremely illustrated occasionally, but is con­stantly manifested in the Christian life.      The highest illustrations are contained in the account of those who, like their Lord and Master, have laid down their lives. Through them the spirit­ual forces have been liberated, and the results in the world have been far greater than can be measured. It is by virtue communicated, the actual expenditure of force through suffering that the Gospel is preached to the whole creation.

            All this work must be done in the right order. The Church must always commence by the proc­lamation of the evangel to men. To go to the material world, either in garden or city and to attempt to reconstruct it in order that it may re­make men is to invert the Divine order, and to fail.    The Church must always begin with man, but she must not forget that the emphasis of this commission is that the ultimate result of man's remaking is that of the renewal of the whole creation. The kosmos will be redeemed when man, who is king of the kosmos, is regene­rate. He will be able to restore it to its order, and lead it to the fulfillment of Divine purpose.

            Many practical illustrations of this might be given. Take one of the simplest. The garden of a truly Christian man ought to be the most beautiful in the whole district. When it is not so, it is because he is not living in the full power of the risen Christ. When the garden of the un­godly man flourishes it is always because he is availing himself of discoveries that have come as the result of the cooperation of renewed men with God. I sometimes think that if I am to judge the Christianity of America or London or Japan by looking at its gardens, it is an extremely poor thing. Let us keep hold of the philosophy of the simple illus­tration. That conception of Christian responsi­bility which aims at the saving of individual men, while it is utterly careless of the groaning of creation, is entirely out of harmony with the meaning of this commission. The home of the Christian man ought to be a microcosm of the Millennial Kingdom; and all the things of God's dear world—and how He loves it, flowers, and birds, and forces—ought to feel the touch of re­deemed humanity, and be lifted into fuller life thereby.

            We pass finally to the subject of the dynamic. This is no more clearly revealed than is the de­posit, but it is as certainly involved. When Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned," He suggested a response on the part of God to a certain attitude on the part of man. The alternative attitudes are described in the phrases, "he that believeth," "he that dis­believeth." The ultimate results are described in the words "shall be saved" and "shall be condemned." The dynamic phrase is "and is baptized." That refers to the work of God. No man can baptize himself, or be baptized by another. Essential baptism is baptism in the Spirit. Water baptism is symbolic. In the moment in which a man believes, he is baptized by God in the Spirit, and so into the resurrection life of Jesus, and therefore he is saved.        If a man disbelieve, he is not saved, but rather condemned because he does not enter into the regenerate life, seeing that he lacks baptism in the Spirit. The suggestion of these words is that as we herald the evangel of the Cross we do so in cooperation with the risen Lord, so that when men, hearing the evangel, believe, they are immediately bap­tized into living union with the living Christ, and so come into possession of the regenerative forces, which being applied, produce the restora­tion of creation.

            The revelation of these words, then, is that those who fulfill this commission shall be accompanied by the Lord Himself, cooperating with them in the communication of life by the Spirit, to those who believe their message. Men who hear and believe shall receive this power.   The man who believes shall gain victory over spiritual forces; he shall cast out devils; over all social disorder, he shall speak with new tongues; over all destructive forces, poisons, and serpents, and sicknesses. The man who hearing, disbe­lieves, will remain in the grip of devils, in the confusion of Babel, the prey of the destructive forces which work in Nature. The mastery of the forces in Nature that spoil is possible through regenerative men. We must not neglect any force which God has put in the universe, nor count the healing virtues of trees and plants as outside His economy. In the power of His resurrection life man discovers and uses the whole creation by mastery over it, in order that it may minister to him, according to God's first intention.

            In order to fulfillment of such responsibility the first necessity is that of a living experience of the risen Lord. There is no healing virtue in the doctrine of resurrection. The healing virtue flows through the risen Lord. No healing virtue can be communicated by orthodox announcement of the fact of His resurrection. The healing vir­tue can only be communicated by those through whom the life of the risen Lord is flowing.

            Not only must there be this living experience of the risen Lord, there must be obedience to His command. We must go into the kosmos, plac­ing our lives in contact with creation, and pour­ing them out therein, in order that by such sacri­fice creation may be renewed.

            If the first note of the Missionary Manifesto be the proclamation of the Lordship of Christ, the second note is the proclamation of the risen Lord as the Renewer of the whole creation; and the only way in which that proclamation can be made is by passing into the kosmos in order to communicate to it through sacrificial service the forces of our own Christ-renewed life. We have done nothing to heal the groaning of creation when we have discovered the glory of the Gospel. We have done nothing towards the final victory until in fellowship with our Lord we have put the actual forces of our life so at the disposal of the debased and the degraded as to know the experi­ence of suffering, and that weakening by the way, which is of the nature of death. It is when the Church begins to see the suffering of creation with eyes washed by tears, and when she puts herself into such close relation with the wounded world as to share its agony, and as to release her own life blood to heal it, that this commission will be obeyed.