We Believe In Jesus: The ProphetSample

Submitting to Jesus In Scripture: Matthew 4:17

There are many ways that we might summarize our obligation to submit to God’s revealed will in Scripture, and we’ll touch on several of them throughout this series. But we want to look at these issues from the perspective of Christ’s office of prophet.

We’ll focus on the two ideas that prophets normally emphasized: repentance from sin to avoid the covenant curses; and faith in God to obtain the covenant blessings. Let’s look first at repentance.

As you’ll recall, one of the primary functions of prophets in the Old Testament was to threaten covenant curses in order to drive sinners to repentance. And this was also part of Jesus ministry in the New Testament. 

Consider how Matthew summarized Jesus’ preaching in Matthew 4:17:

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17).

In fact, this theme can be found throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is one of the most common themes in all of Scripture. And because every bit of Scripture reveals God’s will to us, repentance from the ways we fail to live up to his will is a legitimate application of every text.

As we all know, repentance is the act of turning from rebellion against God and submitting to his will. We turn away from our sin, and in the same motion we turn toward God in faith. Initial repentance takes place when men and women first come to Christ in saving faith. We hear the word of the gospel and repent of our sins. But it’s also true that repentance should occur throughout the Christian life. 

The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther picked up on this idea in the first of his famous 95 Theses, written in A.D. 1517. 

Consider what he said:

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent,” he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. 

Luther recognized that fallen human beings constantly sin, and therefore that even believers need to make repentance a daily practice.

One way to encourage repentance is to follow the model of Jesus and the Old Testament prophets by proclaiming the terms of God’s covenant. When we tell unbelievers what God requires, we can exhort them to abandon their sin in order to escape the judgment of God’s curses. And when believers hear the word of God and discover their own shortcomings, we also need to repent. Of course, true believers never need to worry about falling under God’s eternal curses — Jesus made sure of that when he died on the cross for us. But it’s still true that God sometimes disciplines us in ways that resemble his covenant curses, as we see in passages like Hebrews 12:5-11. 

By encouraging and practicing repentance in our daily lives, believers honor Christ’s prophetic work and pursue the blessings of God’s covenant. But as we do this, it’s important to recognize that godly repentance is not a matter of wallowing in despair over our sin. While this admission of guilt may bring sorrow, it’s not designed to lead to despair. Rather, it’s intended to restore our relationship with God, and our joy in him.