“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” Mark 1:14-15 ESV
Reflection: have you made a U-turn in all areas of your life?
The GPS technology has become pretty advanced. What amazes me is how accurate a GPS system can calculate the arrival time, down to the minute, even if driving 100s of miles. There are a lot of factors that go into that calculation, of course, like traffic, road construction, road conditions, speed limits, weather, and so on. But interestingly, one of the most important factors, that the system cannot calculate, is of course you as a driver, whether you follow the directions. If you take a wrong turn, miss or ignore a turn, the system has to recalculate the route and the added time. And, you might have noticed that, if there is no alternate route, the system will tell you to make a U-turn. To literally turn the car around 180 degrees to get back to the point where you went off track.
I like to compare GPS to how the Holy Spirit leads us in life. While we might hear the voice of the Spirit, it is still our choice to listen and to do what He says. And, the Spirit will lead us on the best route in life, the best route for us. Now, if we ignore the advice and directions from the Spirit, and He will “recalculate” a new route for us. Will not necessarily be the best route, might be longer and more challenging. But He will still get us there. We all know that although you might have started your trip with a GPS, you can turn the system off any time. To “end route”, basically say that you think you know better. And, we certainly see that many that have “turned off” the Holy Spirit. Think they know better, and chart their own route in life.
Jesus started His ministry with a very simple message, saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” Mark 1:15 ESV. We have seen this important idea before, about “time is fulfilled”, such as “fullness of time” in Galatians 4:4, it means fulfillment of God’s conditions spoken through the prophets. And Jesus makes it clear that, by God’s grace, He has brought the kingdom of God to man. The purity, the glory of Truth and Grace, present with man, as John wrote “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 ESV
And, with this background in mind, we have come to what Jesus therefore says to man. It is a simple, twofold message. 1) repent, and 2) believe in the gospel. The first is critical for the second to take place. Why? Because, you first have to realize and accept that you are completely off track, before you can get corrected and believe in something else, right? If you don’t accept that you are on the wrong path, why is there a need for you accept and believe in anything else? F. F. Bruce wrote “Repentance (metanoia, ‘change of mind’) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.” (F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles[Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.). The word for repentance in Norwegian is literally “turnaround”, like doing a U-turn on a road.
Bible commentator Gill wrote, “repent ye, and believe the Gospel. He called them to repent, not only of their former sins and vicious course of life, but of their bad principles and tenets, concerning a temporal kingdom of the Messiah; concerning merit and free will, justification by the works of the law, and salvation by their obedience to the ceremonies of it, and the traditions of the elders: these he exhorts them to change their sentiments about, and to relinquish them, and give into the Gospel scheme; which proclaims liberty from the law, peace, pardon, and righteousness by Christ, and salvation and eternal life by the free grace of God.”
Many don’t want to hear that they are wrong. That they need to repent; make a complete u-turn from their former life. They want salvation, but not to change anything in their lives. But that is not at all what Jesus taught. He said “repent and believe in the gospel.”
