Answering the gospel

The first step of this path read Mark’s opening line, "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). The first words Mark gives from Jesus are news and a call at once.

To repent, metanoeō, is to change one’s mind and direction and turn to God; to believe, pisteuō, is to take the news as true and entrust oneself to it. When Paul recalls how the Thessalonians "turned to God from idols" (1 Thessalonians 1:9), the turning from and the turning to are one step. Matthew Henry: "Christ has joined these two together, and let no man think to put them asunder" Matthew Henry. A commentary handed down under Jerome’s name says that whoever would keep close to the kingdom of God must repent: "For he who would have the kernel, breaks the shell" Pseudo-Jerome. Calvin summed up the gospel as repentance and the forgiveness of sins Calvin, Institutes 3.3.1.

At Pentecost those who heard Peter were cut to the heart and asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37).

Churches teach differently how baptism and forgiveness belong together. Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran churches teach that God gives forgiveness and new life in baptism; Reformed and Presbyterian churches see it as the sign and seal of a promise received by faith; Baptists and many evangelicals see it as the believer’s public confession of a faith already given. What all of them confess together is that the promise of the Spirit, which comes with the call to repent, is for "all who are far off" (v. 39). More on this in What are baptism and the Lord's Supper?

Paul puts the same answer in the heart and on the lips: "that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). "For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved" (v. 10). There is no climbing to heaven for it: "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart" (v. 8). Wesley: "Confession here implies the whole of outward, as believing does the root of all inward, religion" Wesley.

News set before the one who hears

People answered the gospel in more than one way. When Paul spoke of the resurrection in Athens, some mocked, and others said, "We want to hear you again on this topic" (Acts 17:32). "But some joined him and believed" (v. 34).

If you have not yet made up your mind, hearing again is an answer too. You can search the Scriptures day by day, as the people of Berea did (Acts 17:11). If you want to believe, the gospel asks for no qualification: you can speak to God in your own words, where you are. How can I begin to believe? may help with a first step, and so may going back to where this path began, Mark’s first line, and reading on from there.