In our study of Mark last time we concluded out study that explained why Jesus said in Mark 10:31; that many of the first would become last and the last first.
We saw that the reason was that the first were under the influence of the evil because of arrogance so they were doing a right thing with wrong motivation and therefore in a wrong way and as a result have no capacity from God's point of view to receive rewards in heaven. 1Cor 3:12b;
The last are those who through doctrine resident in their soul have grace orientation, and grace humility. They are the super-grace believers who avoid the influence of evil in time, build grace capacity from the PMA of God's Word and as a result do a right thing in with right motivation and therefore in a right way so they have capacity from God's point of view to receive rewards in heaven. 1 Cor 3:12a;
Mark 10:32; Jesus and His disciples continue their travel from the Sea of Galilee (-700 ft) up to Jerusalem (2600 ft). Jesus was walking ahead of them as was the custom for a teacher at the time.
His determination to go to Jerusalem the face of imminent danger amazed His disciples who were afraid of what was going to happen there. Isa 50:7;
Jesus was fully aware of what He faced in Jerusalem and He attempts to prepare His disciples for what will happen by repeating what He had previously told them.
Remember last time He told them what was going to happen Peter rebuked Him. Mark 8:32-33; This time Jesus describes what is going to happen to Him in more detail.
Mark 10:33-34; Look, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed. The Greek word "paradidomai" that means to be handed over delivered or betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes (the Jewish political religious party bosses) and they will condemn Him to death and hand Him over "paradidomai" to the Gentiles (the Romans) because under Roman rule the Jewish government did not have legal authority to impose capital punishment on their own.
v34 The words translated " will mock", " will spit", " will scourge" and " will kill" are all future tense active voice indicative mood, that means that mankind will perform the actions on Him.
The word translated "rise again" is future tense, middle voice, indicative mood shows that Jesus will participate in the action of His own resurrection along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. All three members of the Trinity will participate in raising Jesus' humanity up on the third day.
This shows us that God permitted evil men to do these things to Him, God allowed it to happen, but the final overruling event is Jesus resurrection that God actively performs Himself. God overrules man's evil with His divine good as the crowning achievement in the whole operation. Rom 12:21; Gen 50:20;
Mark 10:35; James and John and according to the parallel passage in Matt 20:20-21; their mother Salome obviously weren't listening when Jesus told them about the first becoming last and the last becoming first.
They ignored, weren't listening or more likely simply didn't understand Jesus' parable regarding the landlord and the workers so they failed to apply the doctrine they should have understood.
They failed to recognize the doctrine that reward is based upon grace, not upon legalism.
Since believing in Jesus Christ for salvation, is grace, it is axiomatic that everything in the spiritual life that follows salvation will also be grace.
They fall into Peter's error of bypassing the cross for the crown. They want to bypass the cross, and start with the kingdom and they want to have first place in it.
Mark 10:36; Jesus asks them what they want from Him.
Mark 10:37; They respond that they want to sit in positions of highest honor on His right and left hand in the Messianic kingdom that they were expecting to come next. They were asking for the highest positions in the new government.
Mark 10:38; Jesus is very gracious in His response to them and explains to them that they do not really understand what they are asking for in their arrogant ambitious request.
This was certainly an understated response. They are ignorant of the doctrine that He had just taught them and unwittingly they are trying to be first so they will end up being last.
Then Jesus asks them a question that should have stopped them in their tracks. "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
This was a backward way of telling them that if they were going to share in Jesus Glory they would also share in Jesus' suffering or "His cup" since in God's plan the cross comes before the crown.
What goes into His cup? The sins of the entire world. Who is going to drink all of the sins of the world? Christ on the cross. They are going to be poured out upon Him and the Father will then judge Him for the sins of the world.
To be first in the kingdom you have to drink the cup and the cup has all of the sins from Adam to the end of time. Jesus Christ was going to drink that cup.
He is referring to the cross, "and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" Baptism means identification. The baptism of the cup is where the sins of the world are poured out on the cross during the last three hours of darkness.
So we have the baptism of the cup or the sins that will be identified with Christ, and when they are identified with Christ the Father judges them.
That is why on the cross Jesus said, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34;) He was forsaken because at that time "He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."(2Cor 5:21;) In other words, He took our place. (Rom 5:8;)
This brings to a brief study on the Doctrine of Baptisms and the Doctrine of the Baptism of the Cup.
Baptism is one of the most misunderstood doctrines of the church because many believers confuse ritual baptism with real baptism. I have taught some of this before, but it is worth repeating.
The word "baptize" is not an English word. It is the transliteration of the Greek word "baptizo" that means to identify. There are two kinds of identification in baptism, real identifications and ritual identifications.
Every time the word "baptism" is found in the New Testament it can be one of seven kinds of baptism. These seven different baptisms can be divided into two categories: real baptisms and ritual baptisms.
Real baptism is simply being identified with something while ritual baptism is a ritual representation of a real baptism for the purpose of explanation or exegesis.
An example of a real baptism is the baptism of Moses that is discussed in 1Cor10:2. It means that Moses was identified with the cloud and the people of Israel were identified with Moses.
That is how they got through the Red Sea. The only people who were immersed with water on that day were the Egyptian soldiers, and they all died.
The only people who were immersed in water were the people actually who weren't baptized. This baptism was a dry baptism, and it says several times in Exodus and it is repeated in the Psalms, that when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea they crossed on dry land.
Believers often think of baptisms in terms of water but that means that they have missed the point because the wet baptisms can't really be understood until the dry baptisms are understood.
This is because the real baptisms are the dry ones and the ritual baptisms are the wet ones but more often than not the wet ones are emphasized because they are visible.
In our passage in Mark 10:38; we have the baptism of the cross that is also called the baptism of the cup. The point is that just as Moses was a double baptism where Moses identified with the cloud; the people were identified with Moses.
In the baptism of the cross or the cup we have a similar double identification. First Christ became identified with the human race through the virgin birth and it was the humanity of Christ that actually hung on the cross.
The deity of Christ could never be confined to the cross because the deity of Christ is omnipresent. This means that Christ first became identified with the human race.
Then having become a member of the human race, having been born without a sin nature, and having lived an impeccable life without personal sin He was qualified to become identified with the sins of the sin nature.
So in the baptism of the cup Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and this is the second identification. At the same time He also rejected the human good that comes from our OSN's area of strength so God rejects human good even though people generally don't.