After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” [Mark 1:14-15 NIV]
We speak of preaching the Gospel and there are many small churches in Scotland called Gospel Halls because they wanted to identify themselves with the message of the Gospel. The Gospel means 'good news' and this is what Jesus was preaching in his home territory of Galilee. The world needs good news today as much as it did in the first century AD. It is a message of good news because it can change lives for good. It can make sinners such as me ready for heaven. It is a message of forgiveness for sins. It tells of being made right with God or being justified in His sight. It is a message of redemption - the price has been paid to allow us to be set free from the burden and the penalty of our sins. All of this was made possible because Jesus the Son of God left heaven to come to this world to die on the cross of Calvary so that we could receive the gift of salvation.
There are two essential elements in this message which are highlighted in the verses from chapter 1 of Mark's Gospel. Firstly, there is repentance. This is more than just being sorry for our sins. We can be sorry for the mess we have made of our lives but this may be remorse not repentance. Remorse is where we regret our behaviour for very selfish reasons. We are only sorry because things have gone wrong and we realise that we have brought this situation about because of our actions. Repentance is much deeper than that. It is when we realise that we have offended God and this makes us ashamed and we genuinely regret our actions and our past lifestyle. We take a look within and we begin to grasp that our sins are very hurtful to God who is holy and hates sin. This is where we look at the cross of Calvary and see Jesus suffering there on our behalf and begin to appreciate that our sins were the cause of His suffering.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished.
These are the words of the hymn written by Stuart Townend. We stop comparing ourselves to others to make us seem better than other people such as our neighbours or other family members. This is repentance and it is essential if we are going to accept the message of good news - the Gospel.
The second element is faith - believe the good news. John's Gospel majors on this element but it is here clearly stated in Mark's Gospel. This is complete trust in the Lord Jesus. It is the next step in the journey of salvation. When we discover that we have sinned and offended a Holy God, we then realise that Jesus has dealt with this problem. He died on the cross and took the place of the sinner. He experienced God's anger and wrath against our sins. Of course, He was completely sinless or he could not have taken away our sins. There is a great exchange takes place. As a sinner I come with my sins to the cross and Jesus, the holy Son of God takes my sins in His body on the tree (or the cross outside Jerusalem on the hill of Calvary. He gives me His righteousness instead and I am reckoned to be righteous because I am viewed through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. God asks us to exercise complete faith in order to accept His salvation. He does not ask us to work hard to merit His favour. He reminds us that Jesus was the one who pleased Him in everything and His death is enough to make me right for God's presence. My sins would banish me from God's holy presence but because of the death of His Son, God sees me in a different way. He sees me as belonging to His Son and His righteousness becomes mine. God credits that to my account. I am totally unable to pay off the debt of sin that I owed but by faith in Jesus, the Son of God I discover that my debt of sin is completely paid and written off for good.
Notice there is a reference to time in these verses. 'The time has come;' 'the Kingdom of God has come near.' This is what the coming of Jesus into this world made possible. He came as the Messiah which literally means 'the anointed one' and emphasises His rule as king. When we become a follower of Jesus and we accept Jesus as Lord, we are recognising His right to be king over our lives. We are giving Him the place of authority in our lives. I want to suggest that if anyone who is not a Christian is reading this blog, then the message is very relevant to you - the time has come. Now is the time to take Jesus as Saviour and Lord of your life.
[Photo by Hugo Fergusson on Unsplash.]
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