“So they went out and preached that people should repent.” (v. 12)

You’ll have to forgive me for sounding like a broken record.

(Depending on your age, you may have to look up “broken record” while you’re at it.)

It’s easy to get swept up by the remarkable compassion, the gracious provision, and the utter mastery of Jesus. It’s easy to narrow our message about Him to a kind of indiscriminate generosity.

But don’t miss His disciples’ actual message—the one He sent them into the world to preach.

“Repent!”

Every good and miraculous thing Jesus has done draws us to Him. It tells us of His grace and of His authority. It reveals, in a gettable way here, the awesome hope He has secured for us in heaven.

Yet the One we are drawn to is holy. His heaven is the only place of purity. Our sin—every single sin—disqualifies us for His presence, or even for mere proximity unto Him.

So the message remains: Repent! Turn from sin in confession, purify your heart and your mind, and seek His mercy. Walk in His light, and forsake the lure of the dark. He, by grace, forgives our sins—but He doesn’t excuse them. You cannot profess to have heard and believed and received of His Gospel…and remain in sin.

So they preached. So we repeat. It’s the broken record we all need.

Repent!

— Tyler