At the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, recorded in Mark 1:15, Jesus said, "...Repent, and believe in the gospel."
The first words Jesus proclaimed, at the beginning of His Gospel, were to command the two conditions to becoming a Christian: repentance and faith. We must do those two things first. Repentance is toward God. Faith is toward Christ.
What is repentance?
John 8:3-11 illustrates what God wants to see. Stated in a simple phrase, Jesus Christ says, "Go and sin no more."
Repentance means to quit sinning, and sinning is the breaking of God's spiritual law. Therefore, repentance means to begin living according to God's Commandments. God's Commandments are God's laws enforced by His government—His Kingdom. This means that we must be obedient to His laws, which are His will, instead of our own self-will.
Repentance is something begun and required by God before baptism, and it is something that we must do for the rest of our lives. Romans 3:23 tells us we are all sinners. And we know from experience that we have constant need of this attitude of repentance.
Baptism pictures our deeply realizing the fact that we are all sinners and asking God to forgive our sins. We ask Him not to condemn us for them. True repentance is to change, to overcome our wrong ways, and to stop sinning. Sin is the breaking of God's law.
Before baptism God must see real repentance—deep, genuine change—not just being sorry. To be sorry over sin is not enough. Many people are sorry, but never really change. That is worldly sorrow. Many people are sorry about the penalties that they have to pay for sinning, but they are not sorry that they have crucified Jesus Christ through their sinning!
We are instructed in Matthew 3:8 to "bear fruits worthy of repentance." And, Matthew 7:20 says, "By their fruits you will know them." So, bearing fruit is a very important indication that a person is repentant of his sins. Bearing fruit is changing, and it is overcoming.
A repentant attitude is not just an emotion. God is looking for fruits, not emotions.
The true Gospel of Jesus Christ is the message, which God sent to the world, and Christ was the divine Messenger who brought and proclaimed it. It was not primarily a message about Himself, but about the Kingdom—the government—of God. Jesus devoted three-and-a-half years to teaching this message to His twelve disciples who later became apostles.
