In the opening verses of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus steps onto the stage of history in Mark 1:15 with a single, urgent call: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Moments later He walks the shoreline and in Mark 1:17 He calls some ordinary fishermen with two more words: “Follow me.” What begins as a crisis of repentance and faith quickly becomes a life of discipleship. Do you see the sequence? Repent, believe, follow — with “follow” meaning for them to “leave here” and “go there,” leaving one place and going to another. Yet this three-fold sequence still feels incomplete because, to me, there was an overarching theme missing. The apostles later insist that even the most sincere following falls short if it lacks one final, indispensable quality — love. So from my perspective here is the full sequence: repent, believe, follow, love.

Put a pin in that and let’s introduce another idea. Miracles. Yep, all the miracles Jesus did, one after another. Healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Then the crucifixion — resurrection, Jesus meeting with people for 40 days after, and the profound ascension. It was a mind-blowing moment when Jesus just “went up” and was received into a cloud. Nobody ever just “goes up.” And then add that later on there was the sound of a rushing wind, tongues of fire, and people speaking in other languages while they were all praying in an upper room — just incredible. People were astonished on top of amazed. Listen to this: From all the miracles Jesus did, miracle after miracle after miracle, the people were “amazed” (ekplēssō), they “wondered” and “marvelled” (thaumazō), and “they were astonished with a great astonishment” (existēmi megas ekstasis) — meaning they were so completely moved outside their natural state that they were stunned into silence, almost trance-like, pop-eyed astounded, like looking at something amazing. We are always being confronted by the miraculous divinity of God and His miracles. All God-sized miracles are so completely outside our perception of reality that we can’t help but be blown away.

With every miracle Jesus did, over and over, there was an epiphany and a choice that came upon everyone who witnessed it. There was a revelation, and then a decision or response. Not only were the witnesses confronted by the epiphany and the choice, but even those who heard about it from the witnesses were also confronted.

The revelation: My paraphrase of what some people were saying is, “This is not ordinary. Who is this that even death obeys Him?” (echoing the earlier question in Mark 4:41 after the storm). The signs and miracles kept pressing the claim that Jesus was acting with the authority of God Himself, and that He really is the Son of God.

And then a decision must follow. Once that revelation lands, any neutrality evaporates. People must decide whether to receive Him as who He claims to be — or who the signs declare Him to be — or to resist. Some believe and follow; others harden and walk away. Nevertheless, even those who harden and walk away, i think they were pressed the rest of their days concerning Jesus, because the word of the Lord does not cease.

Here is the sequence, including the God-insistent epiphany and choice that come from the miracles, and then Mark 1:15-17: miracles → astonishment → revelation of identity → decision → repent/ believe/ follow → love.

Repent — turn from the old direction and come home.
Believe — the present tense action verb of the noun “faith, meaning trust the good news and the King.
Follow — leave your obsessions, take up the cross, walk after Jesus, leaving here and going there, so to speak.
And the fourth step, Love — ah yes, the distinctive, non-negotiable character of that life of following.

i like the way love sits as the “above all” in the New Testament. Love keeps the sequence — repent, believe, follow — grounded in Scripture. It is not only biblically accurate, but also practical for real-life ministry and spiritual growth. The sequence of miracle → astonishment → revelation → decision,  leads us to: repent → believe → follow → love.

Without the fourth step, love, the first three can remain incomplete or even self-focused. A vision of Christ is not sufficient to sustain a life of faith if there is no accounting of how the vision fares in the rough and tumble of the world. i mean “accounting” here in the sense of honestly examining, explaining, and integrating, because inspiration alone simply doesn’t last. Feelings fade, doubts rise, and daily pressures simply grind us down over time. Love sees us through the ordinary chaos of human existence. With the clear framework sequence — repent, believe, follow, love — i believe we easily become more intentional, and the love can be and should be shared. Without the four-point framework, we easily become reactive and inconsistent, driven by personality rather than Scripture, and focused only on immediate relief instead of long-term formation and maturity.

Someone can change direction, affirm orthodoxy, and adopt certain Christian practices, yet still lack the relational, self-giving love that Jesus said would mark His disciples (John 13:34–35) and that Paul said is greater than faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13:13). Without love we are still landlocked and misunderstand God’s heart altogether.

When the Lord intercedes, intervenes, and even interposes, it is always far beyond the reality of this world we live in. How do you think anyone comes to repentance as the starting point of “repent, believe, follow”? How does the sequence miracle → astonishment → revelation → decision lead us into repent → believe → follow → love?

i’ve got this idea that starts like this: in the sequence repent, believe, follow, love, how do we figure people knew to do this thing called repentance to begin with? We understand a little of John 10:9. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

We cannot — and do not — enter the Kingdom without Jesus. No one simply wakes up one day and decides on their own to repent and call on His name. Romans 3:10 states, “None is righteous, no, not one.” Without God’s intervention drawing us toward repentance, the thought of turning to Him for help would never arise. Jesus makes the same point in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches… apart from Me you can do nothing.” Nothing means nothing. Apart from Him we have no true insight, no righteous desire, nothing of lasting value. Nothing worthwhile in the spiritual life merely “just happens.” There are no pure happenstances.

Consider the sequence again: miracle → astonishment → revelation → decision → repent → believe → follow → love. Not every miracle is dramatic or explosive, and not every response is open-mouthed astonishment. Yet whenever God initiates the work, there is always some form of revelation of Himself. That revelation confronts us with a decision, and from the decision the rest of the sequence follows: repent, believe, follow, and love. The starting point of repentance may differ from person to person, but it remains genuine repentance — and it always comes because God Himself has first drawn near.

For me, repentance started not with an explosion of power but with the presence of the Lord. There was no mere man with magic motivational words. Looking back to 1973, what pressed me to decide was the presence of the Lord in the room who personally invited me into the Kingdom. There was initially a revelation which required a decision, but there was no miracle which astonished me. Now that i think of it, i was surprisingly casual about God being in the room with me, metaphorically looking me in the eye. The Holy Spirit suggested i repent and call on the name of Jesus, so repentance simply seemed like a good idea, so i did. I’m saying there may not be a miracle — as in an exploding-before-our-eyes type of miracle — but somehow there is the intervention and intercession of God, which is a miracle just by His being there, intervening.

Do you remember the sequence in your own life? How did you meet Jesus, and why did you think repentance, believing, following, and now living in His love was a good idea? Tell the story of the time you met Jesus.

What do you think?

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries