Bob (not me) asks this important question: “Must the gospel message include a call for people to repent of their sins?”
If by “the gospel message” we mean the message of justification by faith alone that Paul defends in Galatians, the answer is no. The words repent and repentance are not found even once in Paul’s defense of his gospel in Galatians.
If by “the gospel message” we mean the message of salvation by faith in Christ, apart from works, that the Lord Jesus taught as recorded in John’s Gospel, then the answer is no. The words repent and repentance are not found even once in the Fourth Gospel.
Nowhere in the entire Bible is one’s eternal destiny contingent upon his repenting of his sins. That is a man-made doctrine. While the intentions are good, that teaching actually contradicts the faith-alone message of the Lord Jesus and His apostles. Stated another way, that teaching actually hinders people from being born again. As long as anyone believes that his works, whether good or bad, are essential to his eternal destiny, he is not believing the faith-alone message of John 3:16.
There is only once place in the Bible where repentance is connected with a gospel message. Notice that I said a gospel message, not the gospel message. Normally by the gospel message, we mean the message of justification by faith alone as found in Galatians.
In Mark 1:14-15, the Lord Jesus preached something called the gospel of the kingdom. It reads, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”
The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that the Lord Jesus was offering that generation of Jews the opportunity to enter the kingdom. This was Kadesh Barnea 2. If all the adult Jews of Jesus’ day had repented and believed in the good news of the kingdom being offered, then He would have returned seven years after He died and rose again and ascended to heaven. He had to wait seven years because the Tribulation was prophesied in the OT. It was called the time of Jacob’s trouble.
In order for the kingdom to come, all adult Jews need to believe in Jesus for everlasting life and be in fellowship with Him. That did not happen in the first century. But the Lord wanted it to happen then (Matt 23:37-39).
Mark 1:14-15 is not discussing the condition for an individual to be born again. It is discussing the condition for the kingdom to come. Since the first century there have been untold millions of people who have been born again. All were born again by faith in Christ, apart from works of any kind, including repentance. But none of those millions have yet entered the kingdom. The kingdom has not yet come. It won’t come until Israel believes and repents.
One final point. Believing in the good news of the kingdom requires that one first believe in the King for everlasting life. You can’t believe the promise of the Lord Jesus of a coming kingdom unless you believe that He guarantees you a place in that coming kingdom because you believe in Him.
No. We do not need to preach repentance in order to evangelize people clearly. In fact, if we tell people they must repent in order to be born again, then we have preached a false gospel. We have confused them.
The sole condition for everlasting life is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for that life (e.g., John 11:25-27). Do you believe that?
