Human beings aren't morally neutral in need of behavior modification; we are, at our core, corrupt, in need of a new heart.

Jesus didn’t come to bring religion, but gospel—good news. Religion says we work our way to God; gospel says God has come to us. Religion is exclusive; gospel is inclusive. Religion tells us to be good so God will accept us; gospel tells us to be good because God has accepted us.

Only Jesus Christ can bring satisfaction and safe passage through the seas of life and death.

We must be careful that our familiarity with Christianity doesn't breed skepticism—a posture that is incompatible with the life of faith.

In a sequence of four miracles, Jesus proves he can do what no one else can. These miracles attest to his identity: he is Lord, fully God and fully man, the divine-human King of God's kingdom. And what he accomplished physically by these signs, he has accomplished spiritually by his death and resurrection.

Jesus told a parable about a sower, seed, and soils. The Word of Christ only bears fruit in fertile soil; we must, therefore, listen to it carefully, and tend to the condition of our hearts.

There are various responses to Jesus—people oppose him, try to contain him, and try to use him—but the right response to Jesus is obedience to his commands and participation in his mission.

Our understanding of authority, our community, our religious practices, our theology, and our ethics are all challenged by Jesus. We can outright oppose him for this, we can ignore his claims and try to relate to him on our own terms, or we can submit to him and let him change our paradigms.

The Gospel of Mark is focused on three major questions: (1) Who is Jesus? (2) What has he come to do? (3) How should we respond? As the introduction to the book, these first fifteen verses answer the same questions.