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(**Please note that these studies are not ment
to replace Bible reading, but are ment to encourage Bible reading.
In order to actually grasp what is said and understand the context
of each verse, you have to look up the references in the Bible as
you read along**)
A Picture of Salvation
Jesus Heals A Man With An
Unclean Spirit
Mark 5:1-20 & Luke 8:26-39
When Jesus was on earth He did
many, many miracles, and not all of them are recorded in the Bible.
In John 21:25 it says that, "if
they should be written every one, I suppose that the world itself
could not contain the books that should be written."
And in John 20:30,31, that these
particular miracles were recorded in the Bible that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might be saved. Undoubtedly, by each recorded miracle,
God is teaching us something about salvation. This is definitely
the case in Mark chapter five when Jesus heals a demon-possessed
man. This little study will take a brief look at some of the
things God is teaching us here.
Probably the most obvious things
we can see in this historical parable, deal with this man's condition
before he met Jesus. He is demon-possessed and under
Satan's control. It's very interesting that we see this, because
God reveals to us that without Christ, we all are
walking "according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air," (who is Satan) "the
spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." God
says that we are "by nature," children of wrath.
We are actually slaves of Satan (Ephesians 2:1-3, see also John 8:34, Romans 6:16-18). The
fact that the man dwells in tombs reminds us of the fact that as
slaves of Satan, we are spiritually dead, unable to come to Christ
on our own (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13, and John 6:44,65, Romans 3:11). He wore no clothes
(as we see in Luke 8:27) because spiritually, we appear naked before
God with all of our sins and shame exposed (see Hebrews 4:13).
To give us a more graphic but
real picture of this man's condition, God tells us that the man
was continually crying and cutting himself. Since he was constantly
cutting himself, he must have been covered with wounds and sores.
This also points to his destructive sins, and his corrupt condition
before God. In Isaiah 1:4-6, God is speaking about
the nation of Israel who has turned away from
Him and says, "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity...From
the sole of the foot even unto the head there
is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores..."
and in Psalm 38 the Psalmist speaks
about his iniquities and says, "My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness...for my loins are filled with a loathsome
disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh."
The condition of the man with the unclean spirit is very sorrowful
and very sickly, but it is a picture of the spiritual condition
all of us are in, if we don't know the Lord.
Then we see that Jesus mercifully
delivered the man from his bondage to Satan and saved him by casting
the demons out. Colossians
1:13, when speaking of God, says this very thing, "who
has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son." As
Mark 5:15 says, the man is now seated and clothed and in his
right mind. In Ephesians
2:5,6 the Lord says that when we are saved, He has, "raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." The man is no longer a slave to Satan
but is now reigning with Christ. What a deliverance!
What a salvation! (see also
Romans 6:14)
Very significantly the man is
now clothed. Isaiah 61:10 says,
"for he has clothed me with the garments of
salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness..."
Wonderfully, no longer are all his sins and shame exposed before
God but it is forgiven and his corruptness is covered with the righteousness
of Christ (see 2
Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians
1:7).
Another thing we see is the
man is now in his "right mind". This tells us that
he is no longer spiritually dead but is sealed with the Spirit of
Life, who is the Holy Spirit. In 1
Corinthians 2:16 it says that, "we (those who are saved)
have the mind of Christ" but the context is referring to receiving
the Holy Spirit (ie: verse
12). This phrase found here in this context teaches us, that,
to "have the mind of Christ," means, to "have the
Spirit of God." 1 Corinthians 6:17 says,
"he that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit." How can this be!? Not only has God delivered
this man from bondage to Satan but God says that He has made him spiritually alive by abiding in him and literally becoming
one spirit with the man's spirit. What an incomprehensible
idea! How can
it be that Eternal God, who is perfect in His character and being,
be within a sinful man as the one we are reading
about? How can it be that this same God would dwell within
us? Only by faith can we know this is so. It is so beautiful
and so great a thing, that it is beyond the ability of our minds
to comprehend it; but I know that this is so, because I believe
that God has the ability to do what He promises us (Romans
4:20,21).
In regard to this truth about
being made spiritually alive with God, the Bible teaches us that
although our spirit is made one with Christ, our whole being is
not. 2 Corinthians 5:6 tells
us this. After being saved, we continue to possess this flesh
which is still sinful by nature (Romans
7:18, Philippians 3:3,
Romans 8) even though our spirit has been renewed
(Titus 3:5); and so Paul in Romans 7:25 says, "so then
with the mind (spirit) I myself serve the law of God; but with the
flesh the law of sin." The man in our passage is now
in his right mind, he can never lose his salvation because he is
sealed with God's Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13,14). When
he leaves this world, when he physically dies, then he will be completely
with the Lord, in the place of the highest
good, that is, in Heaven, and he will be there forever.
In verses 18, and 19, of Mark
chapter 5, the man who formerly had the unclean spirit begged Jesus
to allow him to be with Him. But Jesus said, "Go home
to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done
for you, and how he has had compassion on you." Jesus
said this to the man because He wanted the man to be a witness to
others, of the salvation God has provided through Christ -- so that those he witnesses
to may also become saved. It is the desire of every child
of God to be with the Lord, just as this man wanted to. But
God has a very good reason for not taking us to Heaven to be with
Him the moment we are saved. Just like the man we are reading
about, God purposes to use us as His tools to work salvation
in the lives of others (John 17:15,18; Mark 16:15,16; Matthew 28:19,20). Oh what an awesome
and glorious thing it is to witness the Lord's working as He saves
another soul! God's Word says, "I say unto you that likewise
there shall be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance." (Luke 15:7)
In this passage, we have seen
the horrible situation we are all in if we do not know the Lord.
We have also seen the incomprehensibly great deliverance God provides
for us, out of this shameful reality, and the awesome but unexplainable
way God uses such imperfect tools as we are, to work salvation in
the lives of others. And we have seen that these great things
happened to the man, simply, because he met Jesus.
>>click here for more on Salvation
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