It’s interesting to look at how Mark’s gospel begins and how it ends:

Mark 1:1 - The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 16:20 - And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.

We can assume that if Mark set out to tell the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he would end his story once he felt he had accomplished that. Throughout the book, Mark tells the story of the life of Jesus for the purpose of conveying the gospel message and he briefly sums up that message in the last sentence of his book. The gospel is the sacred and imperishable message of eternal salvation.

There are three parts to this message. It is sacred, meant to be revered, treasured, viewed differently than all other messages. It is imperishable, it will not decay, change or lose its value, ever. It describes eternal salvation, not just a one time salvation from your sins, but an eternal existence in a restored relationship with God. Remember this is just a summary statement of the gospel, Mark describes so much more of it in his book!

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives