Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Mark 1:14-20 | Date: April 26, 2026 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Christianity Explained

Mark chapter 1, I will read verses 14 through 20. “After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, John, his brother, who were in the boat, mending the nets. Immediately he called them, and they left their father’s abode in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we have been attempting in this brief series of messages to expound the essence of the gospel, the reason for Christianity. We have seen the uniqueness of Jesus. We’ve seen the wonderful significance of his death and resurrection. We’ve seen that he has accomplished salvation for sinners, and that salvation can come to us then by grace through faith.

Lord, we pray once again that you’ll give us a clear understanding of this, that you’ll seal these truths to our heart. Focus our faith, we pray, on Jesus alone, that we may be saved. And today, as we look at this last subject in this series, help us to understand the importance of this doctrine of repentance and this demand that Jesus gives. We pray as we have sung this morning that you will give us a truly repentant heart. We pray that you’ll focus us so on Jesus that we follow him with all of our hearts. We pray in his name. Amen.

We have been attempting to explain the essence of Christianity. The title of the series, Christianity Explained. What is Christianity all about? And we saw that Christianity is given to address the fundamental problem of every man and woman, and that is the problem of sin.

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times before now in this series, that’s a rather forbidden topic. Sin has become something of a snicker word. We don’t take that seriously anymore in our culture. The Bible takes it very seriously, and that is the occasion for Jesus, the reason for the incarnation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and it is this problem of human sin that he has come to address.

Men and women, all of us, in our natural condition, are in rebellion against God, and in that rebellion we find ourselves alienated from him and under his condemnation. And Christianity has a message to proclaim. The reason for Christianity’s presence here in this world is to proclaim a message. And that message is what we call the gospel, a word that simply means the good news.

And that good news focuses on the person of Jesus who has come to answer this problem of sin. Jesus is the Lord from heaven, the unique one who has authority from heaven to forgive sins because he has come to deal with that problem himself. We saw that that was the meaning of his death. He died and gave his life in the place of sinners, paying the ransom price to purchase the freedom of sinners, freedom from their sin, freedom from the condemnation of God because of their sin. To declare that God has accepted that work as sufficient for sinners, God raised him from the dead and has established him then as judge over all.

And so we saw then that Jesus is the all-sufficient Savior. Now the last two weeks in this series, we have taken up the question: how can that salvation that Jesus accomplished become mine? He’s the all-sufficient Savior, he accomplished salvation all by himself, how then can I have it? And we saw the first step in answering that question centers on this doctrine of grace. One of the biggest words in the entire Bible: grace.

That is, Christ has come, he has done the work of salvation. There’s nothing a sinner can do to merit a standing before God, and the whole essence of our faith is to say, Jesus has done it all, and we look to him and to him alone for it. Christ has done for us everything that God requires of us. The whole point of his saving work is to do for us what God demands.

And so we go to God by way of Jesus, recognizing that salvation must be of grace because we cannot contribute anything to it, and so we come by faith alone. In fact, there’s a fascinating statement, an important statement in the book of Romans to that effect. The justification is by faith, so that it may be of grace. That is, if salvation is by grace alone, then the only way we could ever approach God is by faith alone, trusting in Christ to do for us all that God demands of us. And so last time we saw this matter of saving faith, trust, a helpless resting in Jesus Christ for divine mercy. We saw that there’s an important connection between those two well-known Reformation slogans: grace alone, and because it is by grace alone, we are saved through faith alone.

Jesus is our whole hope, and we go to God pleading nothing but what Jesus is and has done for us. Now what I have not pointed out yet—we’ve only skimmed over it—is that here in Mark chapter 1, Jesus’ gospel message of salvation is cast in terms of the kingdom of God. It’s important for us to recognize that.

Verses 14 and 15: “After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying”—and here’s the summary of what Jesus had to preach—”the time is fulfilled. And the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” Now the kingdom of God, that brings us to really the entire Bible story. And in fact, in reality, the story of history.

We saw in Genesis chapter 1, at the outset of history, God created man and woman as his vice-regents to rule under him in the earth faithfully. They are his image bearers to reflect his rule, exercise dominion for him all over the globe. We saw already in Genesis chapter three that man failed miserably in that and rebelled against God. And God made a promise in the aftermath of that saying that he would send a champion who would come and fulfill for humanity what humanity has already failed to do. He’ll send someone to defeat the tempter. The implication is this whole mess will be fixed by this seed of the woman who will come. And so, the promise making its way all through the Old Testament and then announced in the New Testament is that God is reasserting his rule in the earth. And we have to be careful how we understand that.

God has always been king over all, and there’s never been anything in this world outside of his control. But this kingdom of God theme that runs through the Bible has to do with God reasserting his rule in this rebellious world. God is king over all, but his subjects are in rebellion against him. His rule is being contested.

And God has set out through promise and through historical event after historical event, culminating in the person and work of Jesus, he has set out to reestablish his kingly rule in the earth through the appointment of his King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is, what this does in essence is brings us to the whole sweep of the Bible. God is reasserting his rule over humanity, the world over, and now Jesus has come to do that. Now that kingdom of God has, as we find it throughout the prophets in the Old Testament and in the Psalms and other places as well, but particularly there, the kingdom of God has two aspects to it. He will vindicate his people and save them, and he will also destroy his enemies. God will save his people, he will destroy his enemies.

At this present time, in grace, God is bringing willing subjects into his kingdom through faith, and re-establishing his kingdom in that way. And these people who come are his subjects, they belong to the kingdom. This is what it is to be in the kingdom of God. It is someone who has surrendered to the rule of the king, Jesus Christ.

And throughout this age, Jesus is rescuing people out of the domain of Satan, and he’s bringing them willingly through faith into subjection to the king. But in the end, there will be this great separation; his people will be saved and his enemies will be destroyed. We are reminded of that throughout the Old Testament, we’re reminded of it from John the Baptist, and we’re reminded of it from Jesus himself. And so verse 15 is a summary of Jesus’ message.

“The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” That is, God is now coming good on his long promise. He has said that he would establish his kingdom and accomplish his purpose in the earth, his purpose to save his people, to destroy his enemies. All of that is coming good now. And Jesus here then presents himself as that king, and he offers acceptance on these terms.

Verse 15: “Repent and believe the gospel.” Now, last time we saw what this matter of faith was, believe in the gospel. In essence, what it comes to is trusting in Jesus Christ alone. And today, now, we look at the R word, repentance. I’ll warn you ahead of time, prepare to be pushed. This is a term, a concept that has all but completely fallen out of vogue. We don’t like the word sin, and we certainly don’t like the word repentance. No one wants to be wrong, no one wants to be told he is wrong, and certainly no one wants to admit that he is wrong.

And that brings us to the heart of repentance; the kingdom of God that Jesus announces has a distinct moral dimension to it. Jesus is announcing that kingdom, and he says that God will save his people, but he will destroy his enemies. Therefore, you must repent and believe in the gospel.

What Does It Mean To Repent?

So then the first question is, what does it mean to repent? The word repent, I’m sure you’ve heard this before, connotes a change. In fact, the etymology of the word means simply a change of mind. A change of mind. First, it’s a change of mind with respect to your sin. It’s not just regret because of bad consequences that have come because of what you’ve done, but there’s a recognition of guilt.

And I don’t mean guilt in simply a felt sense; objective guilt that you have done wrong before God and that you stand justly condemned, as we have sung wonderfully this morning in a vivid way. This is connected in the Scriptures to another concept that we find particularly in the New Testament, and that’s summed up in that word, convict. The Holy Spirit, Jesus tells us in John 16, has come to convict the world of sin, to convict the world of sin. And the idea there is not just that he has come to make you feel remorse for what you’ve done because of the consequences that have come about of it, but that he has convinced you of the guilt that you have incurred because of your sin, and convicting us of sin in such a way, he brings us to cry out, “I’m guilty.”

And that brings us to the essence of repentance at first. The first thing is that it is a change of mind with respect to our sin. Change of mind also with regard to yourself. This follows from that. I am guilty. I bear the responsibility for what I’ve done. It entails sorrow, it entails regret, but it’s not just that merely. It’s a recognition of my guilt and wrongdoing before God the judge.

And therefore, it is also a change of mind, not only with respect to sin, and not only with respect to yourself. Repentance entails a change of mind with regard to Christ. There’s a realigning of loyalties from ourselves and from our pursuit of sin; we declare our allegiance to our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so then, this is important to point out, repentance is not merely a change of mind. That’s the etymology of the word. But repentance, as it’s taught in the Bible, is not just a change of mind and a change of thinking.

It entails that, and that’s basic and it’s important. But repentance is a change of direction. That famous story of the young boy outside of London years ago: someone drove by and stopped and said, “Young man, does this road lead to London?” The boy responded, “Yes it does, but you have to turn around and go the other way.” That’s repentance.

In the Old Testament and the New Testament, this concept of repentance is spoken of with a simple word, the verb, to turn. Turn and be healed. Turn from your evil ways. Turn to God and be healed. Turn from your sin. Old Testament and New Testament, that’s the language of repentance, a change of direction. And therefore, we have to say repentance entails also a change of behavior. It is a change of mind with respect to our sin, change of mind with respect to ourselves, a change of mind with respect to Christ. It’s also then a change in direction that entails a change of behavior. This is the word conversion that we find sometimes in the New Testament.

Now I should clarify at this point too that we should not confuse this word repentance or penitence with the Roman Catholic rite of penance. To do penance in Roman Catholic theology is to do something to make amends for your sin. A horrible doctrine. It flies in the face of the gospel itself. That is not, as an act of penance, to make up for what you have done. That is not repentance. This was at the essence of Martin Luther’s famous 95 Theses. Repentance is essentially a change in mind that entails a change of behavior. And so we have in verse 15 then, this twin demand. Repent and believe the gospel. The king has come. He says God’s promise is coming to fulfillment. Here I am. Here are the demands.

A twin demand. Repent and believe in the gospel. As Pastor Greg mentioned this morning earlier, faith and repentance are intimately related. They are, as it’s often said, two sides of the same coin. They are not two separate demands. I’ve believed, but I haven’t repented. Or I’ve repented, but I haven’t really trusted. No, these are a twin, two-sided demand.

Faith, you can look at it this way: faith is a turning to Christ to find in Him the answer to your sin. But that turning to Christ entails a turning from your sin from which you need to be saved in the first place. So these are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have the one without the other. Repentance then is a renunciation of sin, a turning to Christ for salvation from that sin, and renouncing that sin and all kinds of self-hope, and turning to Jesus as your only hope.

John Murray, the famous theologian from Westminster Seminary in the last century, said it this way: that we are justified by faith alone, but saving faith is a penitent faith. It is of the nature of faith itself. We cannot claim to be trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin while holding on to that sin. Saving faith by the nature of it is a penitent faith. And interestingly, when we come to the book of Acts, where we have the first historic history of the spread of the gospel from its earliest days, we find these two terms, repent and believe, used almost interchangeably—not interchangeably in the fact that they mean the same thing, but used interchangeably as shorthand for the full “repent and believe.”

And so sometimes as you read through the book of Acts, you’ll see the demand. Well, sometimes you’ll see them both together. There must be a repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They’re there. They’re mentioned together. But often when you read through the book of Acts, most often you’ll find one or the other. “What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” “What must we do? Repent.” And you find one or the other as shorthand for the two.

Now it’s often brought up in theological discussion, which is first, faith or repentance? And there’s a sense in which that question is misleading because it assumes you can have the one without the other. Now, if you’re pushed, you have to say that repentance flows from faith. But there is no true faith without repentance.

The two are inextricably bound together. Roger Nicole, another famous theologian of the last century, said these two terms, faith and repentance—this is a helpful summary—these are the two names for one radical turn by which our original course is reversed away from sin and toward God. So repentance is a change of mind, it’s a change of life direction toward Jesus Christ and away from sin. To put it in simple terms, it means you are no longer calling the shots. Jesus is. He’s acknowledged as king. You’re looking to him. You’re following him and turning away from all that he forbids and following his lead as he demands. That’s included in the Great Commission itself, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded.

An Illustration Of Repentance

Now, in Mark 1, verses 14 and following, we have an illustration of this matter of repentance. It’s a real-life situation. It doesn’t bring up this word repentance. But notice how we come to it. In verse 14, we have the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and he’s proclaiming the gospel of God. In verse 15, we have the essence of his message, his very first words: “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” That’s a summary of Jesus’ message. And then verses 16 and following provide an illustration of what that means. Here he calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and he says, “Follow me. Leave your father. Leave your family business. Follow me.” And there’s an illustration of what repentance is, an illustration of the gospel call that goes to every man or woman. Repent and believe.

What that means is, in practical terms, you follow Jesus. You might remember in our first study in this series, we saw that Jesus claims authority over every man and woman. And here we have that illustrated. He calls them to submit to his rule and to his lead, and submitting to that rule is to be part of the kingdom of God. It is to become his subject. Jesus is acknowledged as king, and we follow him. Now look at Mark chapter 8. Jesus stresses this point in a graphic kind of way. Mark 8, verse 34:

“Calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

Jesus here says we must take up a cross. Obviously, it’s a metaphor. It might be that some will be called to be crucified for their faith, but that’s not his point. It’s a metaphor here. Take up your cross. What’s the point of a cross? The whole purpose of a cross is execution. Putting to death. That’s the whole point of it.

And in verses 34 and 35 here, he defines what it means to take up our cross. And that is, verse 35: deny yourself, follow me, lose your life for my sake and the gospel’s. That’s what it means to take up your cross. Often this term cross-bearing is used in Christianesque language as referring to any kind of suffering. “You have cancer, that’s my cross to bear.”

That’s really not the point that Jesus is making. What cross-bearing is in the teaching of Jesus is a deliberate choice of a painful alternative, turning from your own direction to follow his. I might have preferred this, or it is inconvenient to do that, but I’m going to do that because that’s what the Lord Jesus calls me to do. It is a deliberate choice of a painful alternative.

And that’s the demand of repentance. Acknowledge Jesus as King, surrender to him, and cut off from yourself anything, any pursuit that would interfere with his call to serve him and be faithful. Now this is a fascinating thing that we would do well to recognize.

Particularly in our day when we want to make evangelism easy, and we tend, and we are tempted to, make the gospel more palatable. Here Jesus says, if you want to follow me, take up a cross. Die. Give up everything for my sake and for the gospel’s. Now there’s a selling point. How’s that for sales? How’s this gonna cost you? You can come, but it’s gonna cost you everything. Put yourself on a cross, as it were. Put yourself to death and surrender all that you are to Jesus.

You may remember in our first study in this series, I mentioned that one of the most important questions for you to keep in mind as you read through the Gospels is, who does Jesus think he is? Now, what we think of him and what his followers think of him and his enemies think of him, all that’s important too. But what does Jesus himself think of who he is?

Who is he to talk like this? “Give up everything for my sake.” Who talks like that? Only a king. Why does he make such a demand? Why doesn’t he make it more palatable? And the answer is just that. He’s the king. I have to tell you this, he does not need you. You need him. He offers forgiveness of sins, he offers acceptance before God, but he demands submission. He will not tolerate any rival to his authority.

And that’s repentance. You’ve heard me say many times, make reference to Frank Sinatra’s, one of his signature songs, “I Did It My Way.” There’s actually something about that I like. It reflects the American independent spirit. I won’t let anybody interfere and I’ll do what I want. And there’s something about that that’s admirable.

But God will not have you on those terms. That is exactly what God will not allow. You must follow Jesus. We like to think that we are our own little kings and we can direct our lives the way we want. Jesus won’t have you on those terms. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the famous pastor, longtime pastor of Westminster Chapel in London in the last century, at one time was asked, “What is a Christian?” Now there’s much more to it than this, but his answer was very perceptive. He said, “A Christian is one who has been broken.” That’s perceptive. Jesus demands at the outset, you surrender to me or I won’t have you. And until a man is broken and bows before the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus won’t have him.

Most of you know what it is to move into a new home, whether you’ve bought it or you’ve rented it. You know what it is to move into a new home. And basically, there are two stages, we could call it that, to the experience. There’s the first day, and then there’s the rest of your life there. We call it ours, our home. The first day, you’ve bought it.

You sign the papers, you get the keys, you move in. You put in the furniture, hang the pictures—this is ours. That’s not really yours, it’s the bank’s. The last guy said it was his too, but it was the bank’s; he was paying him, now you get the privilege of making the payments. But this is ours, I’ve moved in. And I’ve put in my furniture, and I’ve hung the pictures. It’s ours.

And then there’s the rest of your time there. And you’re not just rearranging furniture. You’re getting rid of some furniture, and you’re putting in new furniture. And you might put in a new floor, and you might put in a new closet, and you might add a new room. You might change the walls. You might add a garage to make it yours.

And sometime along that way, you feel like this has really become mine. This looks like us now. And becoming a Christian and being a Christian is a lot like that. There’s that first day. In grace, God leads us to see our sin and our condemnation, and we run to Jesus in faith, turning from our sin. We acknowledge him as king, and there’s a new direction in life now. There are new appetites. There’s a new direction. I want to follow Jesus. And that’s the first day.

And for the rest of your life, Jesus says, “You’re mine now.” And he starts rearranging furniture. And he throws out some furniture that ought not be there in the first place. And he brings in some new furniture that you never had before, but you need to have. And there’s this battle for the mind going on.

From then forward, you recognize that you must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And to do that, the Lord Jesus says, “You’ve got to get rid of that. You’ve got to quell that pride. You’ve got to get rid of that feeling of self-sufficiency. And you’ve got to stifle that greed and that lust. None of that belongs here.” And for all the rest of our life, Jesus moves in and takes over the house and makes it his. We find out that there’s more to give for Jesus. There’s more to give up for Jesus. There’s more service to render for Jesus.

We’ve got to learn to talk all over again. We don’t just bite our tongue. We have to find a whole new way of expressing ourselves and speaking in kindness and encouragement and speaking to bless. And there’s this new struggle for our mind and our affections and our emotions. We’ve got to change how we feel, changing our will and what we do, changing how we think about certain courses of action. And when we fail, we repent.

And Jesus says that’s the demand every day. And he says, “If you will not comply, I will not have you. You’ll have no place in the kingdom of God.” We should notice verses 36 and following. He’s deadly serious about this. Jesus asks the question, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his own soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever’s ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” So Jesus draws a line in the sand. Repent, follow me, or lose everything. Give up everything for Jesus. Jesus says if you are not willing to do that, then in that culminating day of God’s kingdom, you will find yourself on the outside.

Those are the terms. You’re familiar with the passage. I don’t think I need to read through it. Mark chapter 10, if you would like to glance at it. We have another vivid illustration of this idea of repentance and commitment to the lordship of Christ. Mark chapter 10, verses 17 and following. We have this rich young man. Well, I’ll take time to read it. Verses 17 and following:

“As he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these I’ve kept from my youth. Jesus looking at him loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor. You’ll have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.”

So this man comes with a simple question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And he claims to have done pretty well. Commendable life behind him, he’s willing to do, he says, whatever it takes, I’ll do it to inherit eternal life. And Jesus says, in essence, give up everything and follow me. And he’s willing to follow Jesus enough to ask him important questions.

But that cost was too high. Give up everything and follow Jesus? That’s too much. And we have to be careful here in all of this because it would be very easy in all this that I have said to leave a wrong impression. Christ demands surrender. He demands that we acknowledge him as king. We must be owned now by him. But if we’re not careful in saying all of that, it might sound like in order to be a Christian, we’ve got to trade in a good life in order for a good life later. We’re gonna have a miserable life now, but don’t worry, in the end it’ll be okay. And it can leave the impression that following Jesus is a miserable thing, but somehow in the end worth it. In verses 28 and following here, Jesus provides a fuller perspective.

Verse 28, Peter says, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Okay, this guy wasn’t willing to pay the cost, commit everything and follow you. We’ve done that. What do we get out of it? Verse 29, Jesus answers, “Truly I say to you, there’s no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.” So Peter asked, “We’ve left it all for you. What do we get in return?” And Jesus makes two promises. Number one, verse 30: “Whatever it may have cost you to follow me, I will repay many times over.” Now, not in the same exchange identically, of course. There’s something of a metaphor here. But whatever it has cost you to follow Jesus—popularity in some circles, wealth perhaps, humiliation of repentance—whatever it is that costs you to follow Jesus, Jesus says, “I’ll give you much more than that in return.”

Now, in this time, along with persecutions, yeah, that’s gonna happen. But throughout it all, you will have been more than repaid through it all. And that is just an amazing claim. You’ve given up everything to follow me. And in fact, you’ll have persecution for it. But in this time, you will be repaid more than you ever gave up. Did Jesus overspeak? Is he saying too much?

I would say this is exactly the testimony of every genuine believer. We all want to say there is no joy anywhere in this world to be compared with the joy of following Jesus. Christians are not people who feel like they have been miserably cheated out of a good life, that life of frustration and unfulfilled joys, no contentment. That’s not us.

In fact, there’s what you’ve heard me say many times, what we call the Christian enigma. That even though this Christian is undergoing persecution or suffering in whatever way, there’s some kind of a joy that’s just inexplicable to those on the outside. And they look on and they say, they’ve got something. It’s puzzling to them.

Jesus says in effect here, you don’t know joy until you follow me. That’s what he says in Matthew chapter 11. “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden. I’ll give you rest. Take my yoke on you.” There’s discipleship. There’s the call of repentance. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Why? “Because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” And so Jesus says, you give it all up for me and you’ll find in this life that it’s worth it.

Many times over. And then he says, the rest of verse 30, “and in the age to come, eternal life.” That is, there are unparalleled joys in this life and in eternity in the presence of God. Jesus promises then the best of both worlds. Those who submit to my rule will be repaid a thousand times over. Jesus will not have you unless you acknowledge him as king, but neither will he be ever indebted to you. Whatever we’ve lost for him, he says, “I’ll repay a hundred times over in this life and then in the age to come eternal life.” Christianity then is given to answer the question of the problem of human sin. Christianity comes with good news to proclaim, and the good news is there’s an all-sufficient Savior.

He’s the Lord from heaven. He has done for sinners all that God ever required of sinners, and we may have him freely by trusting in him. He’s taken the place of sinners. He’s paid the ransom price, and we may have salvation freely in him. He’s the coming judge. Make no mistake of that. But in these days, he offers salvation freely.

No work left for us to do. Just come, join yourself to him in faith, acknowledge your sin and your ill desert, recognize him as your rightful king and ruler, and surrender everything to him. I have to tell you again, he will not have you on any other terms. He’ll receive you freely, he’ll do everything for you that God requires of you, but he will not have you coming to him boasting of what you have done to earn it. And he won’t have you rivaling his authority.

He’s king. So the call of the gospel is: come and bow before your king, declare your allegiance to him, acknowledge him as your soul-sufficient and only Savior, and ask him to save you. And Jesus says, you may then be in the kingdom of God with joys that you’ve never imagined before. Amen.