IncarnationSample

How does Jesus call us to respond to the Gospel?

Question: How does Jesus call us to respond to the Gospel?

Answer: Jesus calls us to follow him by turning away from our sin, trusting in him as our Savior, and living to obey him as our Lord.

Repent! Most people are familiar with the word. We’ve all heard it at one point or another. 

Maybe we heard a pastor say it at the end of a sermon: “All you have to do is repent and believe in Jesus.”

But what does it actually mean? What did Jesus mean when he said to repent and believe?

If you want to understand Jesus’ meaning, then you have to understand what the word repent meant in Jesus’ day. Yes, it meant to stop sinning and turn to God, but it specifically meant to turn around and come home. 

But why would Jesus say that? What did he mean? You see, Israel had broken God’s covenant by disobeying his commands, had been cast out of the promised land, and had gone into Babylonian exile (enemy territory). The Jews Jesus addressed were under Roman rule, but even more important than their political bondage was their separation from God. So Jesus was inviting people to turn around and come home: to come back to God.

So, for Jesus, repent meant something like this: You’ve been separated from God. It’s time to come home.

And that is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do today. He’s calling everyone, everywhere to repent and to come back to him. And he’s calling us to follow him everyday and for the rest of our lives.

Spend some time today thinking about the ways in which you are far from God and how you can come home to him. And ask God to reveal someone who you can talk to about Jesus this week.