Those Who Believe

Read: Mark 16:9-20

Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16

IN WORD

The best part of the Good News is that everyone who believes can become citizens of the Kingdom. There is no lengthy application process, no citizenship exam, no temporary green-card status. You are either in the Kingdom or you aren’t. And the requirement for entry is really simple.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Mark 16:9-14 is all about belief in something that seems hardly credible—a man raised from the dead after a brutal execution. Those who saw Him believed, but those who had to rely on the testimony of eyewitnesses didn’t. They were rebuked for their “stubborn unbelief” (verse 14). It isn’t any easier today to believe in a resurrection than it was then; skepticism is rampant in our age just as it was in the first century. And in our age, we haven’t seen Lazarus come out of the tomb or witnessed Jesus’ miracles of healing. Belief—a key characteristic of Kingdom people—is hard for some hearts to grasp.

Nevertheless, it’s a necessary dividing line between those who love the King and those who don’t recognize Him. And though we haven’t seen the miracles of Jesus in the flesh, we have numerous testimonies of miracles that point us to Him today. Whether or not we have seen something like the Resurrection ourselves, we will be rebuked if we don’t believe the eyewitness accounts of His works. Faith hears of His goodness and knows it’s true.

IN DEED

Skepticism is not a Kingdom attribute. That may be our natural inclination, and we may look down on those who believe the supernatural too easily. But the Kingdom is given to those who can see beyond the visible and accept the ways of the King. Those who believe have chosen to see into His unseen realm and have planted their feet firmly in it.

ADDITIONAL READING: John 20:29

The gospel was not good advice but good news.

WILLIAM RALPH INGE