Mark 1v4

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

This is the first mention of baptism in the gospel of Mark, which is the shortest gospel. Straight away Mark starts talking about John the Baptist (v2). By the time he gets to his fourth verse, Mark shows us that baptism was inseparably tied together with repentance and remission of sins by John (the Baptist). Baptism was the initial outward sign of the inward repentance and the heavenly remission of sins. Mark calls this “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (v1).

This is the first of our verses that mentions the word remission, so it is a good time to explain what the word means. When used in the current day, it is seen as a ‘forgiveness’, especially of a jail sentence imposed. If somebody is sentenced to say 3 years in jail, if they ‘are of good behaviour’ they may be released after say 1 year, receiving remission of the remaining two years of their sentence. Thus remission means that the price that should be paid for our sins is forgiven. Strong’s defines the original Greek word – “aphesis” – as “freedom; (figuratively) pardon: - deliverance, forgiveness, liberty, remission.” There is a sense of freedom from the curse of sin, and no longer needing to pay the price for it, due to our sins being forgiven. Notice that this is done at the point when we repent of our sins and are baptized. Other passages of scripture expand on this further – for example Hebrews 9v14-15 shows that Jesus paid the price that we could not pay, by sacrificing His sinless blood on the cross.

While looking at the topic of remission, it is worthwhile to look at John 20v22-23 – especially the authority given to the disciples by Jesus in verse 23. Jesus had already died, been buried, and then resurrected, and made a promise that after they had received the Holy Spirit, they would have the authority to either ‘remit’ or ‘retain’ the sins of others that would follow. This God-given authority would pass from Jesus to the church on the day of Pentecost, and we shall see how firstly Peter and then others used this God-given authority in later sections.