# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S99
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

CONVENTION
E S S AY • 2

Upon This Rock: Repent
by t he R ev. Dr . Roosev elt Gray, Jr ., D ire c to r o f L C M S B la c k Min is try
66th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • July 11, 2016

REPE N TA N C E I S K I NGDO M WO R K

Our Savior’s public ministry begins with this biblical
narrative: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came
into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14–15).
This is one of the great and most famous proclamations
of Christ, as He enters the public life of His ministry!
Repentance is the very essence of God’s relationship
with His people. Our confessions remind us that
repentance has two parts: “One is contrition, that is,
terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge
of sin. The other is faith, which is born of the Gospel
[Rom. 10:17], or of Absolution and believes that for
Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven. It comforts the conscience and delivers it from terror. Then good works
are bound to follow, which are the fruit of repentance [Gal. 5:22–23].” 1

Peter’s message at Pentecost was a proclamation of
repentance, as Peter proclaimed, “ ‘Let all the house
of Israel therefore know for certain that God has
made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom
you crucified.’ Now when they heard this they were
cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the
apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter
said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
Lord our God calls to himself.’ And with many other
words he bore witness and continued to exhort
them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked
generation.’ So those who received his word were

From our original parents, Adam, Eve, and Seth; the
patriarchs Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; King
David and the prophets; through the apostolic age
of Peter, Paul, the apostles, and the Early Church;
through the middle ages of Luther and the reformers—even today, God requires sinners to repent and
live by faith in the redemptive, life-giving, grace-andmercy work of Christ.
John the Baptizer’s message as the forerunner of Christ
was a message of repentance, as John “went into all
the region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3).
1

AC XII 3–6

“Upon This Rock: Repent”

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Essay

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