Repent and Believe

There are different ways of sharing the Gospel and different experiences people have when they become Christians. However, the core truths of the Gospel must be present along with Jesus’ call to “repent and believe,” which involves being born again of God’s Spirit (Mark 1:15; John 3:3.

Some say that in order to receive this transforming gift of salvation all one needs to do is believe, which is true. But when they use the word believe, they take it out of the biblical context, which always infers a change of heart and direction or rather the ingredients of knowledge, assent and trust. Because of this, true belief always includes repentance -- turning from trusting in ourselves to trusting in Christ alone to save us. Isaiah 30:15 emphasizes this as a basic, biblical principle. “In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength.”

Proponents of easy believism often refer to the act of making a decision to follow Christ as if they are talking about merely believing something exists and that it's good. But Scripture never talks about salvation through this lens except in a negative way. James writes, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shutter” (James 2:19). Instead, Jesus began his earthy ministry with the call to repentant faith when he said, "Repent and believe" (Mark 1:15). He is repeatedly referred to as Lord in the Gospels and calls for his disciples and us to "Take up your cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). He says that we need to carefully count the cost before putting our trust in him -- loving him so much that we are willing to forsake all to be his disciples (Luke 14:33). 

Jesus' instruction to Nicodemus are his very words to us -- we must be born again of the Spirit. While many come to faith in Christ as children and cannot remember turning from a dark lifestyle of rebellion, it's important that we all know that we have been born again. This radical regeneration is not a moving around of furniture as one pastor is known to say, but is a dying to sin and the flesh and being made new in the likeness of Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:20). This transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light cannot be missed just as one could not miss it if they were brought up from the dead and given new life in their lungs (Colossians 1:13).

The charge from the apostle Paul for all is to "examine yourself to be sure you're in the faith" (2 Corinthians 13:5). I've included a link below to a Desiring God article that provides clear evidences that a person has experienced regeneration. In reading the article I hope you will know with certainty that you have been born again. And if you realize that you are not, you will get on your knees today, repent of your sins and surrender your heart and life to Christ —  declaring him to be your Lord and Savior.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/am-i-truly-born-again

Losing Our Life to Find It

Jesus spoke in Kingdom language that was and is impossible for the unregenerate mind to understand (1 Corinthians 2:14). He explained this divine mystery to Nicodemus and the other Pharisees, who doggedly questioned and accused him of confusion and even demon possession because they could not apprehend his teaching. Jesus told them that if they were ever to understand spiritual truths and see him rightly as the Messiah King, they must be born again (John 3:1-21).

One Kingdom lesson Jesus taught the disciples and crowds that was particularly difficult for them to embrace was his call to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24-26). The cross signified horrible suffering, shame and loss and was not something anyone – even the lowest in society – wanted to be associated with. In particular, the cross represented the epitome of a defeated life for the religious, who sought to make a name for themselves and who found their identity in the praise of man.

When Jesus said we must take up our cross and follow him, he meant that we must be willing to carry the burden of sacrifice, surrender and suffering in our identification with him. Part of this, he showed, is refusing to love, cling to and seek to build our own life according to the way of the world system. Jesus warned that one who seeks to hold onto his life here as opposed to surrendering his life to build the Kingdom of God will, in fact, lose their life.

How can loss be gain?

But the one who trusts Christ and his words, who is willing to let go of and even despise his life, will find it (Matthew 10:39; Luke 14:26). How can this be? How can we experience the abundant life Jesus promised by giving up our life and our rights to live the way we want and by taking up a cross?

The word life here in Greek means vapor, which helps to explain. Since our life on earth is a mere vapor, seeking to cling to it by living for the American dream -- success, comfort, riches and the praise of man is empty and vain pursuit, which Solomon discovered at the end of his life. Declaring this life and its pursuits under the sun to be “meaningless, meaningless” or “enigma, enigma,” he implores us instead to live for God and to seek to honor him above all (Ecclesiastes 1:1, 12:13). The apostle Peter also warns us to turn away from the “empty way of life handed down…by our forefathers, since we have been bought with the precious blood of Christ and redeemed from this meaningless existence (1 Peter 1:18-19). 

Those who seek to find life by holding on to it, Jesus promises, will forfeit his grace along with his gift of eternal life (Jonah 2:8). Many refuse to connect the dots from his promise in Matthew 16:25 back to a former one about receiving the gift of eternal life through faith in him (John 3:16). While eternal life is a gift that cannot be revoked, Jesus shows that the one who is truly saved is the one who now lives and walks in newness of life like Jesus did and, as a result, takes up his cross to follow God (Matthew 7:22-24).

Jesus was not adding a work to our justification by commanding faithful, ongoing obedience to take up our cross and deny ourselves but was showing that all regenerate children will be cross bearers who have turned away from idolatry of all kinds (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Revelation 22:15).

What about you and me?

Since Jesus’ words contain a life altering message, it’s important to ask ourselves the question, “Have I yielded my life along with my family, money, possessions, reputation and plans to the Lord? Have I rejected the world’s standard of seeking to promote my kingdom and instead taken up my cross to follow Christ and make his name known? Am I willing not only to live for him but to die for him? If we have not taken this step of faith, we are not born again. As we see throughout the book of Acts and through the teaching of Jesus, John the Baptist and all the New Testament writers, the Spirit begets in us a repentant faith that changes us from the inside out and reorients our desires to live for Christ  (Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15; Acts 17:30). This saving faith radically renews and empowers us to turn away from trusting in ourselves to listen to, trust and obey the Lord and his good commands. If we have not surrendered to his Lordship, as Thomas did when he bowed the knee declaring, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), then we need to turn to him today in repentant faith – yielding our very lives to him to receive his gift of life-altering, mind-transforming eternal life. 

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).