Mark 1:15

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"  

I agree with Tom Patton when he said that the first word of the gospel is not grace, it is not even love, but it is repent. Many people would raise their eyebrows and ask, 'why should I repent?', 'what is my sin?'. In order for us to understand the word repentance, first we must know about the nature of sin.

 We have tackled the nature and one the attributes of God on our previous chapters. That God is holy, perfect and righteous, and He cannot tolerate sin. Now we will tackle about the nature of sin. The Bible is clear about man's transgression against God. We must understand that in Romans 5:12, we can read that sin entered to the world through one man - it is the sin of Adam. Sin came through Adam and death through sin. That's why David, in Psalm 51:5, said that 'in sin did my mother conceived me'. We are born with sin. We are born under a terrible judgment because of that sin. We are born dead - physically alive, but spiritually dead! 

We must put this in mind - we are born sinners, dead in sin. So the answer to the previous question on why we need to repent is because of our sinful condition. We are born in sin and will continue to do the work of our fallen nature- all because of sin and the dead condition of man spiritually. 

We must also know that sin creates separation for us unto God. We are under a pitiful condition of dread and condemnation. And the only answer to this dilemma is for us to repent and believe the gospel. Repentance means changing of minds. It means full submission to Christ. It means total commitment and taking up the cross and follow Christ as Lord. The Gospel is the work of God in Christ. It is believing that Christ shed His blood on the cross as the ransom for all of our sins - past, present and future. It is believing that Christ our Lord, is the Son of God that became flesh, born under the law, walk into full submission in God the Father's will, He is our sinless Savior, who died on the cross to make redemption for our sins, resurrected from the grave, ascended unto heaven and alive forever more. And one day, the slaughtered Savior on the cross will come back to judge each and everyone of us. 

Reflect: 

Have you repented of your sins and fully submitted to Christ as the only way towards salvation? If not, repent and believe the gospel!