Mark 5;2. 1-12.
There are four remarkable scenes grouped together in these passages, which, taken together, form a most instructive picture of Christ’s work with and in man.
There is little more than a passing notice of the temptation of Christ. It is casually mentioned in chapter 1:13. It has, however, an immense significance. In the temptation we find Him as God’s Man upon earth—not putting forth His power to overcome and bind the strong man, but conquering him by simple obedience to the word of God. The strong man, Satan, had kept his palace and his goods in peace, but here was a stronger than he, binding him and leaving him utterly powerless by simple obedience to God’s word—by the word of His lips, keeping Himself from the paths of the destroyer. (Psa. 17:44Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. (Psalm 17:4)). Man had fallen under the dominion of Satan, hearkened to him at the beginning and taken him for his God; and was driven out of God’s presence for his sin. The fear of death and a coining judgment possessing his heart, which, do what he will, he cannot shake off. Liable, too, in such a state, to be drawn deeper into ruin and destruction by the enemy. The Son of God comes in to deliver him out of this terrible bondage, and becomes a man: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death (for He must die to accomplish it) he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb. 2:14,1514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15).) He entered into the last stronghold of the enemy, breaks its bars asunder, and rises out of it in the power of endless life that was in Him, having borne all that the righteousness of God required against our sin when entering into the place of death.
“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, ‘Let us alone, what have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.’ The effect of the presence of the Lord in the midst of sinners here is that it brings out distinctly that Satan had undisputed dominion over man. Where sinners are all down at the common level under his power, it needs someone upon whom he has no claim to discover this. The moment then that Christ, who had bound him, came into the synagogue, the possessed man cried out in the presence of his deliverer.
If this scene discloses that Satan had dominion over man, the next describes the condition of man under Satan’s power. “But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them,” (v. 30, 31.) A fever aptly figures the restless condition of man under the power of the enemy—running to and fro after pleasure, or gain, or vice, or folly—the corruptions of the world governing the heart, which has no response for aught else. As the proverb describes the ways of the world’s corruption to keep the heart busied in this busy scene, “Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable that thou canst not know them.” (Prov. 5:66Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. (Proverbs 5:6).) A busy, shifting, variable scene is dazzling the hearts of men, the enemy uses it to fill the heart, to the exclusion of Christ lest the soul should ponder the path of life. The Lord Jesus comes and lifts up the fevered one out of this condition. Another atmosphere dawns upon the soul, which now is set free to minister to Christ.
All this gives us the power of Christ in breaking the fetters with which Satan has bound poor sinners, and the deliverance He gives, without showing how the soul is brought into the value of His work. Neither heart or conscience are in exercise in these two cases. It was God Himself, active in His love, coming down to poor sinners to snap the chains, and, unsought, to deliver them from the enemy. But God deals morally with the heart and conscience of sinners.
In the third scene we find a soul in this state. A poor leper, conscious of uncleanness and defilement, comes to Jesus. Observe that here it is the leper who came to Jesus. Jesus had gone to the possessed man, and to the woman in the fever. Here he came to Jesus. Thus we have the two sides of the picture. This poor defiled one comes and beseeches Jesus, kneeling down to Him with the cry, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” Jesus is the One who can meet his case, and he is conscious of this. How many souls are in this state, convinced of sin, and that Christ alone can meet their sin and yet they are not able to say, He has cleansed me. Now, this man came and made his request and got his request. “Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.” Now, this man came with a request to Jesus, embracing the need of which he was conscious. He limits his faith to the measure of his consciousness. Many err thus, and fail to learn the extent of the salvation of God.
In the next narrative we find a much more blessed lesson. The soul does not come with the request, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst.” The need was simply brought to Him and laid at His feet—no suggestions made as to how He was to meet it. The Lord was not thus limited. Faith here makes no limitations or suggestions, and leaves Christ room to act according to His knowledge of the need, and His way of relieving it, in full character with Himself, and according to the full dictates of his own heart.
This scene of the paralytic illustrates the incapacity of man to come to Christ! If the sinner is incapable of coming to a Saviour full of power, and love, and grace, to meet his case. If he has no power to come and take the blessing, what is to be done? Faith must come in! He “saw their faith.” The thought in many souls before deliverance is, “I see the goodness and mercy of the Lord to meet my need, and I am conscious of my own sinful state. I have discovered that in God’s sight 1 am a sinner, and without excuse; yet I don’t know how to lay hold upon Him or His work. I am invited to lay hold of him, and I can’t do it.” This very state of soul is a proof that God has applied the work of Christ to you. If you have, by divine teaching, discovered your sinful state, and that your only hope and trust is in Christ, God has applied his word to you. A soul in this state has need to learn that it has no strength to lay hold on Him. It is not when you have strength to accept Him that His work applies. It is “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6).)
This paralytic does not limit the Lord as the leper did to the relief of the need which he had discovered. The case, in all its misery, was laid at his feet. The world hinders a soul too in thus getting near Christ. But where faith is, it is not stopped by the difficulties. The Lord can now act according to the fullness of His heart; and He looks to the root of the matter, relieving what the conscience needs first, with, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” But this is not all His work; this is only the relief of the conscience that it may learn more; and the Lord does not stop there. His work is not merely relieving the conscience of its sins, and letting the soul go on again in the old condition of things. Much of the presentation of the gospel goes no further than this.
The Lord new communicates life by His word to the paralyzed limbs. Hitherto the helpless nature had yielded to its weakness and lay on its bed. Now, with one life-giving word the helpless one has strength, life is communicated, and he goes away in the power of this new life, bearing the couch before them all! It is not only that sins are put away, but life is communicated—the two cannot be separated. Until the second is learned there is no practical result, and no glory to God. Thus the very thing to which nature, in its helpless state, yielded—a temper, or lust, or folly, becomes the very thing I resist most. It becomes the burden for my shoulder in the power and possession of eternal life.
Beloved friends, may you learn the extent of His work—God’s work—in your souls. It is not only relieving you of your sins, but uniting you by the Spirit of God with Him who has so relieved your soul. Then you learn the power for your walk here. He has bestowed upon you a life which not only can, but which, if you allow it to act, must live to God. The law did not bestow life. It prohibited the evil nature from which Christ died to deliver you. The gospel, on the other hand, first bestows the life, and then directs and guides it. Once I learn this I am conscious that whatever Christ bids me do I am bound to do. I do not stop to look at my ability to do what He directs, but I look at the power of Him who works through the weakness and incapacity of man. He who Himself is my life, and “when I am weak then am I strong.”