MARK 1.14-15: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, (15) and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (ESV)
In abbreviated fashion Mark gives us the core, central message of Jesus’ preaching, which tells us how we are to respond to His gospel message. With the unfolding of events in the life of Jesus and with everything He taught, either to the public at large or privately to His disciples, we learn the core truth of the gospel written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2.5-6: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (6) who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” (ESV)
So Jesus Himself, His sinless life and death on the cross, and His offer of salvation and eternal life, is the central message of the gospel.
And as Jesus introduces the gospel, verse 15 answers the question, “how does God want me to respond to the gospel?” It is by two imperative verbs. Repent. Believe. I’ve heard them called the “two sides of one coin”. That is, there is no genuine repentance without faith. And there is no genuine faith without repentance.
The word “genuine” I am using to interpret all of this is of the highest importance. A right relationship with God is as simple as what Jesus says in verse 15 above. But there is no playing games with God. He is a “knower” of our hearts. He knows whether we really mean what we express to Him. So we sincerely agree with and trust in the gospel in our heart.
Repent literally means, “to change your mind.” And specifically applied to our lives, it means, “change your mind about the way you think of sin.” It means that we no longer embrace sin, but rather turn away from it and go in the opposite direction. There is no place for a life of, “sin in haste, repent in leisure.”
In the New Testament the verb form “to believe” is built upon the same root word that builds the noun, “faith”. And at the heart of New Testament faith is agreement with the gospel and trusting in Jesus as God’s only Son. And so Jesus calls upon all of us to trust in Him. I posted a blog, “This Upper Room, Part 9 – Faith” on November 11, 2019. The link to this post is attached below.