Mark 1:14-15
Jesus Tells us to Repent and Believe in the Good News
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Jesus tells us to repent and believe in the gospel and in Him...
Repentance or to repent is to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or their sins...The Bible has verses on repentance, but there is no Bible verse or verses that explains on what repentance means...The Bible also does not lay out in any detail on how we should go about repenting...But we might assume that repentance is an action word, and we need to take and make an action to repent...This action is a change of ways...A change from sinning to a following the example of Jesus...This is very, very difficult because Jesus never sinned...No deceit ever came from His mouth...He always did what was right...Our change from our sins, is the Way of Jesus...Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and the Way of Life...He is Life...He is our example of how to live...And more importantly He is our Savior...We need Him as our Savior, because we continue to sin...But He tells us He came to earth for sinners and to save us...So we are saved by believing in Him, even though we sin...And Jesus died on the Cross for our sins...
When we read and hear the Word of God, or do the right things Biblically and follow Jesus and have faith in Him- we have, in my eyes repented...So when we follow Jesus' Way, we have repented...But this earthly world, we are helpless to save ourselves...We need Him as our Savior...
Even the Great Saint Paul wrote to the Romans his own struggles with sin...But St. Paul put his faith in Jesus and repented in His Way...St. Paul turned to Jesus and knew that Jesus had died for his sins...And Jesus also has died for each of our sins...St. Paul teaches us: Although he wanted to do good, evil was right there with him...Temptations are regularly there...For in Paul's inner being he delighted in God’s law...But he also saw something else at work in him...Something was waging a war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin at work within his own self...He tells us and says what a wretched man he was...Who would rescue him from this body that is subject to death?...Thanks be to God, who delivered him through Jesus Christ our LORD!...So then, Paul, by himself in his own minds he was a slave to God’s law and God's Word...But. also, in his sinful nature on earth, he and we are actually a slave to the law of sin...
St. Paul and believers are in a better position to repent, because of reading and believing in God's Word and knowing the gospel...St. Paul knew Scripture very well...When one is following Jesus they can see things better through the Holy Spirit and better recognize when they are in situations that are associated with sin...We can pray when we are tempted by sin that we are willing to repent and do the best we can to follow and do God's Will and follow the Way of His Son...
Repentance calls for us to have a change of thinking and think more like Jesus...We must believe that we are sinners and in need of a Savior...God has given us His Grace that we might receive this Gift of Grace and to believe that we are saved by faith...As Pastor R. C. Sproul said, “There are only two ways of dying...We can die in faith or we can die in our sins.”...