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Salvation, Repentance, and Faith
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”
— Mark 1:15
Jesus made the transition from his hidden thirty years of life, mostly in Nazareth, to his three years of public preaching, teaching, and healing by being baptized by John, followed by forty days of fasting and temptation in the desert. After successfully defeating the devil’s temptations, Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). Note that after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus concluded his message to his disciples with a similar message: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:15-16).
Note that his words in Mark lay out the high stakes involved in the decision to believe in Jesus Christ or not — will a person be saved or condemned? Salvation offers hope of eternal life; condemnation casts a person outside of eternal fellowship with God.
Stop here and read Matthew 13:41, 43; 22:13-14; 25:30, 34 in your own Bible.
These are the highest stakes indeed.
Study
Let’s examine Jesus’ opening message at the beginning of this chapter in more detail, looking at its four components.
The First Component
First, Jesus announced that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” This part of his announcement goes back to a prophecy in the Book of Daniel.
Stop here and read Daniel 9:24-27 in your own Bible.
Jesus was well aware that the time of his ministry and salvation fulfilled this prophecy, and therefore the time of his birth, death, and resurrection were no accident of history but the foretold window of opportunity for the redemption.
Stop here and read Luke 4:16-21 in your own Bible.
“Seventy Weeks of Years”
“The seventy weeks of years” that are decreed for the holy city (Jerusalem) refers to a period of 490 years. Most commentators connect this prophecy with the decree by Persian King Artaxerxes I (465/4 B.C.) that gave the people of Judah permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 457 B.C. (see Ezra 7:1-28). The 490 years ends in A.D. 33, thereby linking the prophecy with the “anointed one” (Christ in Greek) who would be “cut off” in death.
Furthermore, the final Jewish Jubilee (A.D. 27) before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem took place — and when Jesus began to preach in Nazareth, interpreting himself as the one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord had come in order to announce a year of favor (the Jubilee) — in fact referred to the entirety of his public mission of healing, freedom, and good news for the poor.
Investigate
“The Time is Fulfilled”
Jesus’ self-understanding of fulfilling these prophecies from Daniel and Isaiah are the key to teaching that “the time is fulfilled,” a component of his message that was picked up and spread by his disciples. Read the following passages and take notes.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Romans 16:25-26 | |
| Galatians 4:4-5 | |
| Ephesians 1:9-10 | |
| 1 Timothy 2:5-6 | |
| Titus 1:1-2 |
The Second Component
The second component of Jesus’ first preaching is that “the kingdom of God is at hand” or “near.” The understanding of this phrase “kingdom of God” appears only once in the Old Testament, in one of the Aramaic chapters of Daniel, which predicts: “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever” (Dan 2:44).
The “God of heaven” will set up an indestructible kingdom that will destroy other kingdoms. These other kingdoms are described in Daniel’s interpretation of a dream by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in which a statue of a man was made of various metals, symbolizing different earthly empires: Babylon was the head of gold, the Mede-Persian kingdom was the chest of silver, the Greek kingdom was the belly of bronze, and the Romans were the iron and clay legs and feet. The kingdom set up by God was a stone that turned into a mountain and destroyed the other kingdoms. This kingdom of God was in no way to be identified with any earthly kingdom or power; it was a completely different reign that would destroy all other kingdoms. Therefore, each person who accepted Daniel’s message was being summoned to a new type of citizenship and a new commonwealth of God, which is in heaven.
Jesus spoke often of the kingdom of God (though sometimes he identified it as the “kingdom of heaven,” both with appreciation of Jewish sensitivity to the sacredness of God’s Name and in line with Daniel 2:44 where “the God of heaven” sets up the kingdom). He instructed his disciples to preach about it, and he spoke many parables about the kingdom of God. From this teaching, Jesus’ followers are to learn a new identity as they live in the world as if they were no longer part of it or its kingdoms.
Stop here and read John 15:18; 17:16 in your own Bible.
The Third Component
The third component of Jesus’ first preaching was his command in the plural imperative to “repent.” His use of the plural indicates that it is directed to everyone rather than to one particular person. The verb in Greek — metanoeo — means “to turn back.” This word assumes that a person is on the wrong path and, in order to get back to the right path, must turn around, retrace the false steps, and then get back to the right path.
The ancient prophets frequently gave the people of Israel a command to repent throughout their whole history. Very importantly, the Israelites did not cover up the sins of the nation or even of the national heroes; rather, they understood that everyone is a sinner, and that all, as St. Paul brought out, “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). In Hebrew, the most typical word used for repentance from sin is translated as “turn.” This is the operative term when the Israelites built the Temple as a place for sinners to “turn” from their various sins and offer sacrifice.
Fullness of Time and Pax Romana
In addition to the more important element of fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, the secular history of Jesus’ time identifies the period as the Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”). The previous century had been characterized by Roman conquests of the entire Mediterranean Basin, sometimes through negotiations but more often through wars against pirates, various kings, slave rebellions, and especially civil wars among the Romans themselves. Octavian (Caesar Augustus) brought an end to the Roman civil wars, whose effects had extended from Spain to Greece and Egypt, and he ruled without further conquests and nearly no wars at all. During this time of general peace, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was able to spread throughout the known world, from India to Spain and south into Egypt and Ethiopia. The Pax Romana was an important part of the fullness of time. It continued until the Jewish Revolt in A.D. 66, during which Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed (A.D. 70), and the people of Israel were either killed, enslaved, or exiled.
The prophets exposed the many sins of the people and their individual kings, condemning their oppression of the poor, injustice in court, avarice, lust, and idolatry. The goal of the prophets was to evoke repentance so as to avoid various punishments, such as defeat in battle, foreign domination, and the eventual destruction of the whole nation — the ten tribes of north Israel in 722 B.C. and Judah in 587 B.C. Even after the various threatened punishments were brought down upon the people, the prophets did not gloat but offered a promise of hope for restoration and renewal.
The Fourth Component
The fourth component of Jesus’ opening message is the summons to believe in the Gospel, an old English word meaning “good news.” The Greek word evangelion meant “good news of victory,” after a battle was won. The early Christians picked up this word because they believed that their message of the arrival of the kingdom of God — through Jesus Christ’s preaching, life, death, and resurrection — meant the defeat of Satan’s evil kingdom of darkness. Once they accepted the term evangelion (or “gospel”) for Jesus’ message and wisdom, the Christians invented a form of book now known as Gospels. These are a type of biography of Jesus, yet they do not describe his physical appearance or much about his emotional state. Rather, they focus on the central “good news” that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead.
In each of the four canonical Gospels, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus form the largest section of the writing. The rest of the Gospel acts as a prelude to that central event of salvation, with an emphasis on showing how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah and on the ways that his healings, miracles, and teachings either raised people to believe in him or led them to fall into disbelief and hatred.
Simeon’s words to the Blessed Virgin in the Temple set a major theme for Luke’s Gospel, and it can be applied to the other Gospels as well:
“Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against.” (Lk 2:34)
People heard and saw Jesus, and they either rose to faith or fell in disbelief.
People did not merely stumble upon this decision to believe or not; throughout his public ministry until his ascension into heaven, Jesus challenged those who heard his Gospel to believe it in order to receive a miracle or even eternal life.
When messengers announced that a man’s daughter had just died, Jesus ignored what they said and told the man, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mk 5:36; Lk 8:50). When another father sought help for his son, with the condition, “If you can do anything, have pity on us and help us,” Jesus responded, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:22, 23).
On other occasions, Jesus commended the faith of the people who approached him for a miracle. For instance, the Roman centurion living in Capernaum expressed confident faith that Jesus could heal his servant from a distance. As Jesus passed through Jericho, a blind man called out insistently for a healing and Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well” (Lk 18:42). After healing the man born blind, Jesus approached him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of man?” (Jn 9:35). Before raising Lazarus from the tomb, Jesus twice spoke to Martha about the necessity of faith. When she hesitated to believe that he could raise Lazarus, he again told her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (Jn 11:40).
Consider
Repentant Sinners
Jesus’ command to repent during his public ministry needs to be understood in light of the history of prophetic calls for Israel to turn from its sins. Jesus does not want the destruction of the sinner any more than the prophets wanted Israel destroyed, but rather he wants the sinner to turn away from evil and live a new life. Two women exemplify this in the Gospel of John.
In one case, after a Samaritan woman expresses a desire for the water that Jesus gives as “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” he tells her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” She lies to his face and says, “I have no husband.” Instead of accusing her of boldfaced lying, Jesus says, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly” (Jn 4:14, 16, 17-18). At that point, she recognizes that Jesus is a prophet and eventually learns that he is the Christ. She then announces and preaches about him to her whole town, becoming the ideal repentant sinner who turns from her public sin to public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
The second woman is caught in the act of adultery, and her accusers demand that Jesus condemn her to death. He turns their demand to a type of acceptance of the punishment, though with a twist: the qualification required of those executing her is that they be without sin first. One by one they leave, beginning with the oldest men there, and he, the Sinless One, is left alone with the woman. The one sinless man there tells her, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again” (Jn 8:11).
Forgiveness of sin is not acceptance of evil but rather a summons to become good.
Lack of Repentance
On the other hand, a number of men exemplify the lack of repentance. In one episode, Jesus refuses to answer the Pharisees’ question unless they first answer his question about whether John’s baptism is from God or men. They refuse to answer, not because of their commitment to any position but because they fear a trap, and they will not repent.
Stop here and read Matthew 21:23-32 in your own Bible.
Love of Truth Versus Love of Self
At the heart of this dialogue is the issue of a love of truth versus love of self. The chief priests and elders argue with no concern for the truth about John’s baptism for repentance from sin but for the way they will sound. Fear of the people and of loss of power or influence concerns these leaders more than does the need for repentance and the validity of John’s mission. Such disregard for the truth makes their own repentance or capacity to accept Jesus’ Gospel impossible. In that light, we see Jesus talk about true repentance and their need for it in connection with faith in the parable of the man, his two sons, and the vineyard.
The Final Days
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress,” St. Paul writes. “For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:1-7).
This passage and others predict that the final days of human history will be times of stress brought on by the sins of the people who reject repentance and faith. Rather than using this text to determine whether one is living in the end times, one may do better to use it as an examination of conscience for anyone who has difficulty accepting the truth of the faith. Prior to trying to prove the truth of various points of the content of our faith, everyone does well to examine those personal motivations that serve to promote self-centered and immoral behaviors or tendencies. Then, if any such are discovered, repent of those sins in anticipation of examining Jesus’ Gospel as to whether it is true and worthy of one’s act of faith.
Christians do well to note that just as St. John taught that in addition to the final Antichrist there will be many antichrists (“As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” [1 Jn 2:18]), so also have many times of stress occurred during which these descriptions of human sin were appropriate.
Tax collectors were so hated that a pious Jew was not allowed to marry into a family that had a tax collector; prostitutes may have been used by various men, but they were rejected by society, perhaps because they knew too many secret sins of the men. Both groups were like the first son in the parable who refused to obey, and yet when John preached repentance they received his baptism so that they could turn their lives around from sin to virtue. They accepted the truth of their sinful background and turned back to God. The chief priests and elders were so focused on their own position that they could not accept the truth of their own sinfulness and repent. Note that here, as in Jesus’ opening sermon, repentance comes before faith: the ability to accept the truth of one’s own life and its moral failures is the precondition for faith in the truth of Jesus’ Gospel.
Investigate
Believing in Jesus’ Ministry
In addition to exhorting the individual to have faith, Jesus taught the necessity of believing in him throughout his ministry. Read the following passages and note which one is the most inspirational to you.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| John 3:36 | |
| John 6:27-29 | |
| John 6:35 | |
| John 12:36 | |
| John 12:44 |
Persecution of the Church
From its beginning and through the centuries, the Church has experienced persecution — about 75 million Christians have died for their faith in Jesus Christ. The Romans conducted ten official persecutions, the worst by far being the last, decreed by Diocletian from 303 to 313. There were the barbarian invasions from 375 to about 600; the attackers of the tenth through eleventh centuries were the Norsemen, the Magyars, and the Saracens; plus there were centuries of attacks by various Muslim invaders, such as the Seljuk Turks, the Fatimids and the Mamelukes of Egypt, Tamerlane, and the Ottoman Turks. The secularized and atheistic French Republic frequently persecuted the Church and killed many of its citizens for their Catholic faith. Thirty-five million martyrs died before 1900.
However, the twentieth century witnessed the greatest age of persecution, at the hands of National Socialism (Nazism), the nationalistic empire of Japan, and most especially at the hands of atheistic Communist governments. From the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 through 1999, more than 40 million Christians were martyred (see John L. Allen, Jr., The Global War on Christians [New York: Image Books], 2013). In contrast, as bad as they were, the wars of Christianity, including the Crusades (about 650,000 killed over 250 years) and the Inquisition (fewer than 10,000 killed over its 600 years), have been responsible for 2.65 million deaths over 2,000 years of Christianity (see research at www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html, and Steve Weidenkopf, The Glory of the Crusades [El Cajon, CA: Catholic Answers Press], 2014).
Investigate
Post-Resurrection Ministry
Jesus continued to deliver his message and challenge of faith even after his resurrection from the dead, since some of the disciples who saw him still had doubts. Read the following passages and note who is involved in each event.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Matthew 28:16-17 | |
| Mark 16:9-14 | |
| Luke 24:10-11 | |
| Luke 24:24-26 | |
| John 20:27-29 |
The apostles and disciples accepted their mission from Jesus and traveled throughout the world, making the same appeal to repent and believe. Read the following passages and note what is particularly meaningful to you.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Acts 2:37-39 | |
| Acts 16:31 | |
| Acts 20:18-21 | |
| 2 Timothy 1:13 | |
| 1 John 3:23 | |
| 1 John 5:1 | |
| 1 John 5:5 |
Consider
Even though faith is commanded after the call to repentance, it is an absolute necessity for salvation.
Stop here and read John 5:24, Galatians 2:15-16, and Romans 5:1 in your own Bible.
