And he said to them, Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
He that believes and is baptised shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned.
Mark's closing commission raises a question people still argue over. Faith and baptism stand together on one side of this verse, but only unbelief stands on the other — so why?
Note: some older translations read "damned" where the ESV reads "condemned."
Mark's account of the Lord's final charge is the plainest one:
Mark bears testimony to the ministry, to the service of Christ in the gospel. Here the word to them is, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." This is the most simple, the most general mission… It was quite simply the preaching of the gospel for the salvation of souls, and the judgment of those who would not believe.
So everything turns on how the hearer responds:
Matthew's commission implies faith. Here it is insisted on: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." On the other hand, "whoever does not believe" — no baptism affects the case of such a person — "will be condemned."
The second half of the verse names only unbelief. Baptism cannot rescue anyone who does not believe:
The text says, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." But whether a man is baptized or not, it asserts that "whoever does not believe will be condemned." So baptism does not save the unbeliever. No, it does not in any degree exempt him from the common doom of all the ungodly. He may have baptism, or he may not have baptism, but if he does not believe, he will in any case most surely be condemned.
Baptism by itself settles nothing either way:
Nothing is said of baptism in this case, for one might be baptized and yet be judged; or one might not be baptized, and not be judged.
If baptism does not save, why does the Lord name it at all? Because what a person believes is meant to be openly confessed:
What matters is not only the truth, but that it should be openly and formally confessed before God and man. Baptism, after all, clearly does proclaim in symbol the death and resurrection of Christ; that is the value of it… Do not pretend that you have received Christ, and then dodge all the difficulties and dangers of the confession… Still, a man might profess to believe as much as he liked. If he shrank from publicly owning Him in whom he believed, his profession of faith was good for nothing. It could not be accepted as real.
One writer applies this to someone outside Israel who believed but held back from baptism:
Mark 16:16 brings in faith on preaching. Now, if a person outside Israel believed Jesus was Son of God, and refused to be baptized, he refused to be a Christian when he knew he ought to be. For him it was refusing the confession that leads to salvation. It has nothing to do with any power in baptism.
Commentators differ over the order of the words. Some take "saved" here to cover more than the soul's eternal standing:
Notice He does not say that he who believed and was saved should be baptized. Rather, there is an aspect of salvation that is found in being baptized. Compare 1 Peter 3:21 and Acts 2:40. In this latter verse the Jews were urged to save themselves from "this crooked generation." In being baptized they were saving themselves (not saving their souls) from a generation that had rejected the Lord Jesus.
Others hold that the act only announces what faith has already secured:
The salvation is proclaimed in the act as it is secured by the faith.
The harshest word in the sentence deserves attention for whose mouth it came from:
People say, "I don't like preachers to use that word 'damned'; it is not loving, or gracious." Let me ask you a question. From whose lips did that terrible word fall? From the lips of the Son of God. From Him who came down from heights of glory beyond compare. From Him who laid aside all His glory, and came into this world as the carpenter's son.
- Preach — Mark's commission is the simplest: the gospel goes to everyone, and the hearer's response decides everything.
- Believe — faith is the hinge of the verse. The second half drops baptism, so no ritual spares an unbeliever from judgment.
- Confess — baptism proclaims Christ's death and resurrection before God and man. A professed faith that will not own Him openly "could not be accepted as real."
- Distinguish — commentators differ. Some see a real outward salvation in baptism (see 1 Peter 3:21 and Acts 2:40). Others see the act only proclaiming what faith secures.
- Heed — the warning came from the lips of the Son of God, the same lips that sent the good news to every creature.
And these signs shall follow those that have believed in my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mark's Gospel closes with the risen Jesus sending His disciples out to preach. He attaches a list of visible signs to that sending. Two questions still divide readers: who are the signs promised to, and how long were they to last?
Casting out demons comes first, and it happens in the name of a Master who has gone away. One writer shows why His absence would leave His servants stronger, not weaker.
"In My name they will cast out demons." He begins with power over Satan. They were to go out in the power of His resurrection. He was going away, but that would not cost them power. They would gain instead… The Jews thought that all the great works were to be done while the Messiah was on earth. Not so. In His name, while He is absent, His servants would cast out demons. "They will speak in new tongues." What a wonderful testimony of God's grace towards all men! They were now to speak of His wonderful works in the languages by which God had confused men at the tower of Babel. This was fulfilled first on the day of Pentecost to the Jews, then to the Gentiles in due time.
Demons come first on the list for a reason. One writer points to what stood behind the religions of the ancient world.
Satan had taken the world for himself, largely through the religions of men… "What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God," says the apostle (1 Cor. 10:20). In Egypt, when God brought His people out, the judgments that freed them fell on Egypt's gods. It is the same now in Christianity. "In My name they will cast out demons" proclaims Christ's supremacy over the religious rulers of the pagan world.
Taken together, the five signs are not a random assortment. They make one double announcement.
The first sign should be their dominion over evil spirits, the second, the proof of that grace which went beyond the narrow limits of Israel, addressing itself to all the world. They should speak various languages… In a word, it should be the overthrow of the power of the enemy over man, and the proclamation of grace to all men.
The verse ties the signs to believing, not to any qualification in the preacher.
Second, the Lord states that these signs will follow, with no conditions to be met first by the preacher. There is no requirement that he must have a special "baptism of the Spirit," as people often insist. If men believe, these signs will follow. That is what the Lord says. All you could conclude from their absence is that no one has truly believed.
That last line is deliberately absurd, and the same writer answers it. The promise never said what readers add to it.
Some people seem to read words into this statement that are not there. It does not say that these signs will follow all who believe, in all places, and for all time. If it did, we would be forced to conclude that hardly anyone today has believed the gospel — and that we have not even believed it ourselves!
One writer works from an older translation, which reads "those that have believed" where the ESV has "those who believe." He compares Mark's ending with Matthew's.
There is not a word here about time. It is not all who believe, but "those that have believed." And it is not said of those who believe right on to the end of the age. Nothing of the kind is hinted at. In Matthew it is different. There the Lord tells them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them, and He promises them His presence to the end of the age… Our Lord's word came true to the letter in the particular period when these signs were given. But nothing bound them to last forever.
Commentators differ on why the signs faded. Some say the signs had finished their work:
They had miraculous gifts to give them credentials with the people they preached to. But the main thing was not these gifts. It was what God placed in people's hearts through them. The miraculous gifts served the spiritual part of their work — evangelizing, pastoring, teaching — the way scaffolding serves a building. The scaffold comes down once the building is finished.
Others blame the failure of Christians, and read the open wording as a test:
Why is the power in the church now not the same as in the days of the apostles? Clearly because of man's unfaithfulness. The promise in Mark is not made to the apostles, but to those who believed through the apostles' ministry. It did follow those who believed, and that promise was fulfilled. It is left vague, because it was to be the proof of the church's faithfulness with what God entrusted to it — and the church failed.
- Name. The signs work in Christ's name. His going away cost His servants no power. They went out in the power of His resurrection.
- No rivals. Demons are cast out first. That announces Christ's supremacy over the powers behind the world's religions, just as God's judgments in Egypt fell on Egypt's gods.
- Nations. New tongues undo Babel. They carried God's works to the Jews at Pentecost and then to the Gentiles — a testimony of His grace towards all men.
- Not the preacher. The promise is tied to believing, not to a special experience first. And it was never given for all places and all times, so missing signs today prove nothing about anyone's faith.
- No clock. In Matthew the Lord promises His presence "to the end of the age." In Mark He sets no such limit on the signs. Writers differ on why the signs stopped: some say they had finished their work as credentials, others blame the unfaithfulness of Christians.
they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink any deadly thing it shall not injure them; they shall lay hands upon the infirm, and they shall be well.
Mark's Gospel ends with five signs promised to those who believe, and the two strangest of them sit in this verse. Readers ask what these signs meant, whether they happened, and whether they belong to believers today.
The serpent is not chosen at random. One writer takes it as the visible symbol of Satan's power in the world:
"They will pick up serpents with their hands" — the outward symbol of Satan's power in this world. Man has hated the snake by instinct since the fall, unless he is so foolish as to worship it. "And if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them." No power in nature, living or lifeless, could prevail against them. Instead, "they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." The good power in His name overcomes evil and drives it out.
Taken together, the promises form a pattern. One writer traces them all back to a single victory:
Picking up serpents, and taking no harm from any deadly drink, would fence life round against the sly attack of the destroyer. The miraculous healings showed power over the working of death in others. All of it together testified to the Lord's victory over Satan, over death, and over sin. Sin was what gave power to both death and Satan. Nothing that had not gone to the bottom of the question of sin could touch these.
The promise was not left as theory. Watching islanders once drew the wrong conclusion twice over:
Paul laid a bundle of sticks on the fire, and a viper, roused and angered by the heat, fastened on his hand. God arranged it to verify the promise of the Lord Jesus (Mark 16:18), and as a sign to the kind islanders. It was all the more a sign because at first they misread it and left God out, as unbelief so often does. When they saw the poisonous creature hanging from his hand, they were certain he must be a murderer who had escaped the sea only to meet just punishment. But he shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm. They watched long and in vain for violent swelling or sudden death. Then everything changed, and they called him a god.
The last sign in the verse is the gentlest. One writer sees in these signs a preview of the coming age:
The signs of Christianity are marked by kindness. They are samples of the power that in the coming age will banish the evil one and drive away the terrible effects of sin. Then mankind as a whole, and Israel above all, will sing, "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:2-3). That day has not yet dawned on Israel and the nations. But meanwhile, to launch the good news and in honour of Him whom men crucified and God has now exalted in heaven, there was a display of the powers of the coming age wherever it seemed fitting. It showed not only power over a defeated enemy, but pity for his poor victim, suffering man.
The promise sets no time limit, and it never says the word "all." That silence carries weight:
The Lord tells His disciples that signs should follow those who believe... Notice that He does not say these signs would follow all who believe, or that they would continue for all time. The sign-gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 are not the same as the nourishing gifts of Ephesians 4:11. The sign-gifts came to the early church as a public testimony, to catch the attention of an unbelieving world. The church has broken down entirely in its responsibility. So the Lord no longer calls attention to a ruined church by outward and miraculous signs. But though the church has lost her outward ornaments, the Lord does not stop loving and feeding His body, and the gifts of Ephesians go on to the end.
People who claim these signs today pick and choose. One writer notes which parts they leave out:
It is telling that they stress the parts that suit them. They stress the speaking with tongues and the divine healing. They say little about casting out demons, and even less about picking up serpents and drinking poison. Even the most eager among them is not keen to put these last two to the test.
- Victory — every sign traces back to one triumph. Christ went to the bottom of the question of sin, so death and Satan lost their grip.
- Serpent — the snake stands for Satan's power in the world. In the hand of Christ's servant it did no harm.
- Shield — poison and venom could not cut the messenger's life short. God fenced him round until he had carried the message.
- Kindness — the signs never destroy. They heal, and give a taste of the age when God will sweep sin's effects away.
- Silence — Christ promised the signs would follow, but He named no time limit and did not say all believers. That silence warns us against demanding them, and against daring God to prove them.