“REPENT!”

 Matthew 4:17                     (ESV)

“[17] From that time JESUS began to preach, saying, “”REPENT”, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The book of Matthew begins these few verses with the subtitle JESUS BEGINS HIS MINISTRY.  GOD in the flesh was approximately 30 years old before HE began “ministering” to others.  I imagine that wherever JESUS went and whomever HE met, “ministering” was being performed?  When HE was twelve years old (Luke 2:42) HIS parents couldn’t find HIM, and HE was in the temple “ministering” to others.  In Luke 2:49 Scripture records “And HE (JESUS) said to them (HIS parents), “Why were you looking for ME? Did you not know that I must be in MY FATHER’S house?”  

It is EXTREMELY important that some of the first messianic word spoken by our CREATOR is “REPENT”!  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “REPENT” as: “to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life; Contrition”!  Merriam-Webster doesn’t totally enunciate the degree of what JESUS was preaching.  The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in CHRIST, he is a NEW CREATION. The OLD HAS PASSED AWAY; behold, THE NEW HAS COME.”!!  We quite literally LEAVE our former life and WALK in a NEW LIFE!  

I believe THAT is why JESUS was proclaiming “REPENT”!!!  HE wants us to know that HE has gifted us a NEW LIFE, not just a “start over” of our previous lives.  HE SUPERNATURALLY bestows upon HIS CHOSEN a NEW LIFE, but ONLY after we TURN AWAY from our past and “REPENT”!!!