Repent, Believe & Be Baptized
“This first command of Christ…if you don’t get this right, then the rest of your
Christian experience won’t work.” – Tony Walliser
Read Mark 1:9-15
Repent, Believe & Be Baptized
What would you think of someone who claimed to be a diehard fan of some sports team (you can fill in the blank), but never watched any of the team’s games? He didn’t know who his “team” was scheduled to play next. He didn’t know any of the star players. He didn’t even know who the team’s coach was. How much of a fan would you think this guy really was?
Pastor Kyle Idleman, author of Not a Fan, came up with the idea that many people are “fans” of Jesus Christ, but not genuine followers. Fans, he wrote, “want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires sacrifice.” On the other hand, he said, true followers of Christ are all in, completely committed to Him.
During His earthly ministry Jesus taught many things. We can – and should – spend a lifetime seeking to understand and apply His teachings. But the initial steps of moving from being a “fan” of Christ to a sincere follower is relatively simple. At the same time, it’s vitally important.
In the passage above from the first chapter of the gospel of Mark, John the Baptist spoke about two of the steps – to repent and believe. What does it mean to repent? It means to turn from the attractions of this world to God. It means to have a change of mind and heart, leading to a change in actions.
Repentance isn’t easy. It takes humility to admit we’ve been wrong, that we’ve been going the wrong direction and need to turn and go the other way. But repentance – confessing our sins to God and asking for forgiveness – is a necessary first step in our journey with the Lord.
Then there’s the second step: Believing. What does this mean? Think about it this way: Suppose you had never flown in an airplane. Intellectually you believe planes can fly – you’ve seen them do it. And you suppose if you ever got on one, it could take you wherever you wanted to go. There’s just one problem – you’re too afraid to fly. Why? Because you don’t really believe. You’re afraid it might crash.
To fly in an airplane truly is an act of faith – in the integrity of the jet’s construction; the skill of the crew; even that the maintenance people have properly filled the plane’s fuel tanks. To your intellectual belief you add trust, which results in enough faith to actually get on the plane and go somewhere.
In a similar and even more profound way, along with belief in what the Bible teaches about Jesus we must add trust (committing our lives to Him, even though we don’t know what the future may hold). The result is genuine saving faith.
But there’s one more important step if we’re to begin moving forward in our spiritual journey: We must publicly profess our faith. Romans 10:9-10 tells us, “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. For it is with your heart you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.’”
If we’ve experienced God’s forgiveness through His mercy and grace; and if we’ve felt His love and acceptance – despite every sin we’ve ever committed – we should want others to know about it.
One way of doing this is through baptism. We don’t believe baptism is required for salvation. We’re saved by faith in Christ alone. But baptism is a way of outwardly identifying with Christ, publicly declaring our faith and trust in Him. It’s a way of agreeing with Romans 6:4, which declares, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Repent. Believe. Identify with Christ through baptism. What a glorious way to launch our walk with Christ – both in this life and the life to come!