Mark 1:27 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 1:27

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The effect on the people was striking. Though they were to be unrepentant, ‘they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with what authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.’ It was an intelligent amazement; it wasn’t just total baffled amazement, because they began to question and inquire and explore what was behind this. ‘What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?’ They knew that mortal men do not have authority in the world of spirits, but here he was, commanding the demons what to do, and they were obliged to obey him. Who was he? Their clergy couldn’t do this sort of thing! The message which Christ had preached, the picture of healing, seemed to say to them, ‘What I have preached is what I will do. You come to me and I will heal your souls, I will change your lives and bring you to God.’ But the people were saying, ‘Is this the Messiah, or is he a great leader given to us by God, who is going to purge out the Roman occupying army?’ They were filled with questions and wonder. His fame spread and they proceeded to bring out of every home people who were sick or possessed, and gather them to the door of that synagogue, and later to the house where Christ went, for healing. So they all believed in him as a healer from God, as one with divine authority, but believing doesn't necessarily lead to repentance. Acceptance of the doctrine, that Christ was the Son of God and the Saviour of the world doesn't necessarily lead to repentance and conversion, and new life and heaven and walking with God.

Application

Perhaps there are some who attend an evangelical church week after week, and they come because they believe in the Christian faith and message, and they assent to the person of Christ. But perhaps like the population of Capernaum, that fishing town on the north coast of Galilee, they never turn to Christ with all their hearts, and they are to be condemned. Christ will ultimately say to Capernaum, along with two other cities, that if the miracles that had been done among them had been done in Gentile Sodom years before, they would have repented, totally and sincerely. He said, ‘It will be harder in the day of judgment for you than for Sodom.’ But, says someone, I was at such and such a church, and I sat in the gallery or downstairs week after week, and I believed, but I never repented, and never yielded, and was never converted. So we are reading about Capernaum, the city of nominals, and we must apply these things to ourselves.

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Mark 1:27 Commentary and Bible Study