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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Mark 1:14 - 1:14
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Ver. 14,15. It should seem that John had but a short time wherein he exercised his public ministry: he was the son of a priest, Zacharias, Luk_1:13, and it is probable that he entered not upon his public ministry till he was thirty years of age (it was the priestly age, and the age at which Luke tells us our Saviour entered upon his public ministry). He was but about six months older than our Saviour, and was imprisoned as soon as our Saviour entered upon his ministry, indeed before we read of his entrance upon it. Upon his imprisonment, Christ begins to preach in Galilee the gospel by which he set up his kingdom, and which leadeth men to the kingdom of God.
And saying, The time is fulfilled, the time determined of God for the revelation of the Messias, and the grace of the gospel through him, foretold by the prophets, Dan_2:44: hence Christ is said to have come in the fulness, and in the dispensation of the fulness of time, Gal_4:4 Eph_1:10.
And the kingdom of God is at hand; the gracious dispensation of God in the gospel is at hand, or hath approached.
Repent ye, turn from the wickedness of your ways, and believe the gospel, or, in the gospel: to believe the gospel is one thing, to believe in the gospel (as it is here in the Greek) is another. The former phrase signifies no more than a firm and fixed assent to the proposition of the gospel; but to believe in the gospel, is to place our hope of salvation in the doctrine and promises of the gospel, which are the proximate object of our faith, though the primary object of it be the person of the Mediator. There is a repentance that must go before faith, that is the applicative of the promise of pardoning mercy to the soul; though true evangelical repentance, which is a sorrow for sin, flowing from the sense of the love of God in Christ, be the fruit and effect of faith. Our Saviour’s preaching agreeth with the Baptist’s, Mat_3:2 Joh_3:23.