Year 5, Day 148: Mark 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

When we read about Jesus’ first moments of ministry, there is something that should stick out.  Even before Jesus goes out and officially begins His ministry, he hears words of approval from God.  “You are my beloved Son.  With You I am well pleased.”  Jesus has the approval of the Father.

Have you ever wondered what the reasons for this approval are?  I think there are few broad reasons, and I think that they are very much straight-forward.  First of all, Jesus has the approval of the Father because He is sinless.  Jesus has the approval because His nature is not corrupted by the influence of sinful humanity.  This is the reason that we need Christ.  Without Christ and His sacrifice, we cannot have God’s approval on this point.  Our nature is sinful.  It is only through the sinless sacrifice of Jesus that our sins are done away with and we can know the approval of the Father.

However, at the end of this chapter I think we have a second reason for Jesus’ approval.  Jesus tells the disciples, “Let us go into the other towns, because that is what I came to do.”  In other words, Jesus does what the Father asks of Him.  Jesus is obedient.  Jesus is willing to do whatever the Father sets before Him.  That is reason for the Father to approve of Him.  If we are to be like Jesus and we are to seek the approval of the Father, we need to be obedient to Him as well.  We should be about doing what the Father places in our life before us.

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