The Time Has Come

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

THE TIME HAS COME

Mark 1:14-15

14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" 

NIV

Once again Mark gets right to with not only the words of Jesus, but this is the first words that Mark records and it is the point of the whole story held within the covers of the Bible. The time has come; the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news! It just isn’t any clearer than that. Of course he said that around two thousand year ago and as far as we can tell it isn’t any nearer than it was when it said it. Now maybe it is, but it would seem many of those people were looking for some change to occur in the rule of Rome. They may have been thinking God was once again going to deliver them from their oppressors. Yet Jesus was not talking about a physical kingdom, but he was talking about God was about to truly deliver them from the oppressor of their souls. We have those same words today and each one of us has arrived at that time. Some of us have understood the truth about the kingdom of God and know that not only is it near, but it is here because we have repented and we have believed the good news. As a believer we are living in the kingdom of God because we have accepted him as our Lord, our Master, our King, our Sovereign and our Savior. True in some sense it is still not the physical kingdom where we will spend eternity with him, but nevertheless it is still as real a kingdom as ever. As citizens of this kingdom of God are duty is to serve our King. All too often we think we can be have dual citizenship, both in the Kingdom and in the world. All too often we have a tendency to serve our self far more than we serve our King. Is that because we do not believe the kingdom is here yet, and we are still waiting for it to arrive? The true is it did arrive for us the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. So let us live as kingdom children. Let us live as not just citizens of the Kingdom, but also as members of the royal family, children of God, brothers and sister of Jesus and co-heirs. So let us wear our royal robes well, standing tall with our crowns held high, for we are one with Christ, as he is one with the Father. We need not shrink back from this world, but stand tall proclaiming the good news as Jesus did and still does. The time has come!