The Missing Message of Repentance

In our country, we tell people that it’s easy to become a Christian. All you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart. But there’s no such thing in the Bible! The Bible speaks of repentance toward God.

The Bible says:

“Without holiness no one will see the Lord”

Consider King David

David stole another man’s wife, committed adultery with her, and then arranged to have her husband killed. When the prophet Nathan confronted David, did he say, “God has a wonderful plan for your life”? No! What does that have to do with anything? David had sinned against God!

Nathan approached David with a story about a rich man who stole a poor man’s only lamb. When David heard the story, he became furious and declared that the man deserved to die and must restore fourfold what he had stolen. Then Nathan looked David in the eye and said:

“YOU ARE THE MAN!”

Nathan confronted him directly:

“Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?”

David was convicted of his sin and cried out:

“I have sinned against the Lord.”

Then Came the Good News

Nathan told David:

“The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”

That is the pattern we need to understand.

We Need to Do What Nathan Did

We live in a nation filled with adulterers, fornicators, and people consumed with bitterness, with no fear of God before their eyes. And what are we telling them? “God has a wonderful plan for your life!” That has nothing to do with confronting the problem of sin!

We need to do what Nathan did. We must be faithful to confront people about their sin. We can do this with gentleness and compassion, just as Nathan did. He began with something natural and then moved to the spiritual. We must speak about judgment day, the reality of hell, and the consequences of sin. But then we bring the glorious message of the Gospel!

Nevertheless — God Has Provided a Savior

NEVERTHELESS! God is holy and just. His righteous wrath is against sin, but He is also rich in mercy. And He has provided a Savior!

God became a human being. Jesus of Nazareth, the perfect, sinless Man, the express image of the invisible God, gave His life on the cross to take the punishment for the sins of the world.

The Bible declares:

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The wrath and judgment demanded by God’s holy law fell upon Jesus Christ. Because of His suffering, death, and resurrection, God can commute your death sentence! But what must you do?

REPENT AND TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST ALONE!

The Great Problem With Evangelism Today

And that brings us to the great problem with evangelism in our nation today. We have removed God’s law from the proclamation of the Gospel. We no longer diagnose the disease before offering the cure. We tell people about salvation without first helping them understand why they desperately need a Savior.

Charles Spurgeon, often called the Prince of Preachers, emphasized the importance of preaching God’s law to awaken sinners to their need for Christ. If we fail to use the law, we risk filling our churches with false converts — people who have made a profession of faith but have never truly repented, people who believe they are saved because they repeated a prayer, walked an aisle, or asked Jesus into their hearts, yet have never surrendered their lives to His lordship.

The Gospel Is a Call to Repent

The Gospel is not merely an invitation to improve your life. It is a call to repent, turn from sin, and place your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord! And that is the message our nation desperately needs to hear.