The Burning Bush - Far Eastern Bible College

The Burning Bush 16/1 (January 2010)to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance andremission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations,beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And,behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the cityof Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:46-49).Preaching of the ApostlesIn the preaching of the Apostles, it is again clear that repentance wascentral in their message. The first message that Peter preached afterPentecost, was again, a clarion call for repentance. In Acts 2, Peter, beingfilled with the Holy Ghost, stood up and preached unto them, and throughhis preaching, he brought forth the message of Christ, of how they hadrejected and crucified Him, the Anointed One, who was their Messiah. Inresponse, they were “pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to therest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).Peter’s response was simple. When they were convicted of their sin, andrealised their need for the Saviour, he called upon them to “repent, and bebaptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission ofsins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). Basedon their response, Peter knew that they had received his preaching, andbelieved that Jesus was indeed the Christ. What they then had to do wasto repent of their sins, and turn to God, and be baptised as a clearindication of their repentance and obedience to God.This gospel of repentance was preached by Peter and later by Paulhimself in passages such as Acts 3:19, 5:31, 8:22, 11:18, 17:30, 20:21 and26:20. In each instance, the call for repentance was definitely central inthe Apostles’ preaching of the gospel.Repentance from Sin and Not Just UnbeliefIf one were to ask, what is it that man must repent of—the thing thatwill prevent him from entering the kingdom of heaven and that will causehim to perish? The clear answer is sin, for that is what separates manfrom God, “for the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). It is clear that Godis not simply calling for a turning from unbelief towards belief, for thetwo ideas of repentance and belief are linked in His proclamation in Mark1:15 which states, “repent ye, and believe the gospel.” It is clear from thisverse that the two verbs are used to describe the single conversion14