In Mark 3:11-12, crowds are pressing around Jesus to be healed and one particular group of people are singled out. The focus falls on unclean spirits. Unclean spirits are differentiated from other ill people seemingly because of their affirmation of Jesus.
In v11, ‘whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “you are the Son of God!”’ Mark is showing us that the unclean spirits approach Jesus far more reverently and with much greater understanding than the physically sick people. The physically sick turn up unannounced, crowd in, try to touch Jesus to get well and then go; there’s no evidence they understand who Jesus is. But the unclean spirits are very clear who Jesus is. They affirm him as ‘the Son of God’. They even fall down before him, literally bowing down in submission. They understand very well who Jesus is.
This is the first affirmation of Jesus’ identity from anyone in Mark’s gospel. These unclean spirits use the same words God used about Jesus in chapter 1:11. Apart from God, the unclean spirits are the first to recognise and affirm the Messiah. That is why they fall down before Jesus and affirm his identity. Most people have no idea who Jesus is at this point, but the unclean spirits know very well.
It bears asking, does that recognition of Jesus mean that unclean spirits are saved? Have they renounced Satan and now follow Jesus? Clearly not. They’re just acknowledging the fact of who Jesus is. They’re no more saved by that than they were before they saw Jesus. All they have done is affirmed a fact – Jesus is the Son of God. Nothing more. What this tells us is that affirming Jesus’ identity is not the same as following Jesus.
This is what James 2:19 says: ‘You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe – and they shudder. Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?’ James is talking about the difference between real belief in Jesus and intellectual acceptance of facts about Jesus. His point is that acknowledging the facts about Jesus is not the same as following Jesus. Intellectual assent to gospel truth is not the same as believing the gospel. James uses the example of God being one. Demons do not believe the gospel nor do they follow Jesus. But, as Mark shows us, they do recognise true facts about Jesus; they don’t follow him.
If you simply believe facts about Jesus, if you only intellectually accept the gospel, you aren’t necessarily following Jesus. It isn’t a sign of genuine faith in and of itself. You might believe that Jesus died on a cross and rose again three days later. You may accept it as historical fact. You might believe Jesus is the Son of God. You might say faith in him means your sin can be forgiven and by faith we escape judgement and have an eternity secure with Jesus. You might nod along to all of that and, if put to you, say ‘yes, I believe those things. I think they’re true’. But just believing facts about Jesus, even affirming who Jesus is and accepting his teaching is true, in and of itself, is not following Jesus.
One of the most well attested facts of history is that a real man named Jesus of Nazareth lived about 2000 years ago, died on a Roman cross and the Christian faith popped into existence almost immediately afterwards. Just about every historian and New Testament scholar – including the ones who aren’t Christians, who reject the gospel and want to disprove it – all of them agree these basic facts about Jesus. But they don’t follow Jesus. As Mark shows us, even unclean spirits affirm facts about Jesus, but recognising facts is not believing the gospel nor following Jesus.
If you agree with the facts about Jesus, and accept the truths of the gospel, and recognise lots of what the bible says is true; that alone is not what it means to follow Jesus. We need to make sure we aren’t just intellectually agreeing with certain basic facts. Following Jesus is more than just saying I think this is probably true.