Repent and Believe

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Christ started off his ministry with these two words: repent and believe.  “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14-15) What do these two words mean?  Repent means being sorry for our sins, and to believe means believing in Christ Who is the good news Himself because Christianity is not just a series of commandments to follow but a relationship with a Person.

The repentance required of us is more than a feeling.  Feelings can come and go but repentance is a choice.  It means turning away from sin and going back to God.  It’s saying to God, “I need you.  I am in misery because of my sins and I can’t save myself”.  That’s why the confessional box where the priest waits for penitents, can be called the psychotherapeutic box, because it can heal us of our worries and miseries without spending any money paying a psychotherapist or a mental health physician.

Faith in Christ does not only mean intellectual faith or believing in everything what Christ teaches through the Catholic Church because even the Devil also believes that there’s a God.  It is a faith that includes hope and love, the other two Theological Virtues.  Faith is like the root of a plant, hope is the stem and love is its fruit.  That’s why faith alone is not enough but it includes good works or works of love since we have to walk our talk or because actions speak louder than words.  “And if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”  (1 Corinthians 13:2) Our good works themselves don’t save us but Christ saves us.  We don’t do good works to be saved; we do good works because we are being saved (salvation is an on-going process).  Good works are a proof that our faith is alive.  Another term for good work is virtue.

Furthermore, faith in Christ is more like accepting Him after He makes a marriage proposal to us.  It’s allowing Christ to come to our soul and make it spiritually pregnant.  It’s not just a change in attitude but a relationship that is being developed.  A relationship that is not only external but also internal.  God really comes into our soul much like being possessed not by a bad spirit but with a good one.

Accepting Christ is likewise being born again.  It is being born into the spiritual world or the divine world of God.  Our soul is barren soil until God deposits the seed of his life in it, and He doesn’t do that until we say yes or we let him.  That’s what faith is:  letting Him give us Himself, His own life.  That’s why faith is necessary for salvation:  because faith opens the door of the soul to Jesus the Savior.  Christ started His preaching with the words “Repent and Believe” because we have to get rid sin in our lives and from then surrender ourselves in obedience to Him.