Who is the “He” that shall be saved, according to Mark
16:16?
In Mark 16:15-16, we have the great commission
according to Mark. Jesus issued this commission first to his
apostles. He commanded them in v. 15, “Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Then, Jesus
set forth the conditions for salvation in v. 16. He stated, “He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned.” Verse 16 is a complex declarative
sentence. “He” is the simple subject. “Shall be saved” is
the main verb. In the first half of this sentence, there is one
restrictive (necessary) clause, composed of two aorist
participles in the Greek. These are “believeth” and “is
baptized.” The significance of believeth and is baptized being
aorist participles is that these actions occur before the
action of the main verb. In other words, believeth and is
baptized cannot follow the action of the main verb, which is
“shall be saved.” The coordinating conjunction is “and.”
“And” being a coordinating conjunction means that
“believeth” and “is baptized” are equal in rank and
importance. In other words, you can’t have one without the
other. “Believeth” is joined together with “is baptized.” They
can’t be separated. In very simple terms, who is the “he”
that “shall be saved?” The “he” that “shall be saved” is the
he “that believeth and is baptized.” Jesus did not say, “He
who believes shall be saved.” He did not say, “He who is
baptized shall be saved.” He did not say, “He who believes
shall be saved and is baptized.” He did not say, “He who is
baptized shall be saved and believes.” He simply said, “He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Here, my
friends, is a statement so clear that it looks next to
impossible for a man to misunderstand it. You take just
what God says about it, and there can be no
misunderstanding it.