Acts 16:25-33 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Mathew 3:1-2, 6-7 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ... 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luke 3:10-14 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? 11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 12 Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? 13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. 14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.
Luke 19:1-9 1 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. 4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. 6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. 8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. 9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
Acts 17:29-31 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
When we look at two places of the God's Word, Romans 1:16-17 and Acts 16:25-33, we can see they have something in common. The point is that the people who were addressed by the message, had the God's kingdom in front of them, and the ground of which is the enthronement of righteousness. So, gospel is not only a good news about our salvation, because such a news would be carried and preached in a different way. Salvation is inseparable from righteousness, which we can see in the preachings of John the Baptist and Jesus.
In Matthew 3:1-2, we can read that John didn't tell people just to believe, but to believe and to repent. John knew that the time, when the King of righteousness would come to declare kingdom of righteousness, was close. That's why he led people to repent, because otherwise they wouldn't be countable for even coming close to Jesus's kingdom.
When someone talks about righteousness nowadays, people usually think it means their rights will be better defended, which they like. However, the real enthronement of righteousness would mean damnation of every falseness, which many of them wouldn't like.
If someone preaches that it is enough for a person that in order to get saved, he just has to believe, then people become believers very easily - it doesn't cost them anything. But it's completely different with the repentance, not everybody wants to hear about it. As we can read in Mt 3:6-7, repentance was not only about the inner state of the person, but it included that people were confessing their sins. John asked the Pharisees and Sadducees: who told them they could prevent themselves from the trial without the fruit of repentance. The fruit of repentance is not the inner state of a man, but it was visible on their deeds. In Lk 3:10-14, John was talking about such details, like that publicans shouldn't steal and the soldiers shouldn't misuse their power. People, who don't know what repentance means, don't have a reason to change anything in their lives, and therefore they see just the outer image of the God's kingdom, bud they don't understand what it is really about. They cannot get into the righteous God's kingdom.
Some people argue, that repentance cannot be from one's own power, but only through Jesus. God's Word says that those who tried to live a better life, God loved them and talked to them. When people try to live a better life, it shows the state of their heart. We can say that unfamiliarity with God can be of such extent that they don't even start thinking of changing themselves. However, after he hears the God's Word, this position should occure in his heart. But what about a person who doesn't care about righteousness and only wants to be saved? He knows that when he repents God will forgive him. But his heart is corrupted. Such a position to God's forgiveness isn't a result of grace, but slyness.
If the heart of a person longs for righteousnes, then even if he commits a sin, God forgives it, and it'll help him, strengthen him, and encourage him not to give up. God doesn't expect him to be perfect, but He expects him to live rightlier and he will go against falseness. Not the falseness of other people (everyone hates that), but his own falseness.
In God's Word. there is a story about a publican called Zacchaeus, who climbed a tree in order to see Jesus (Lk 19:1-9). Jesus said to him that he was going to have supper at his house. People murmured saying that Jesus had entered a house of a sinner. Their reaction was right, because the only thing they could see was what Zaccheaus performed when Jesus came and they thought that Jesus was impressed by it. The people knew who Zaccheaus was. But Jesus knew whe was a man who was determined to set his life right. When Jesus spoke to him, he immediately revealed what was in his heart - he said that he is going to give a half of his property to the poor and if he had stolen anything from anybody, he was going to give back four times more. Jesus replied that salvation came to the house. Jesus didn't want to have supper at a sinner's house, but at a house of a man, who easily repents.
Repentance, which was first spreat by John and Jesus in the beginning of His service, was a return to the Moses' law. In Acts 17:29-31, there is a part of the Apostle Paul's preaching in Athens. Athens used to be one of the centers of pagan knowledge and therefore we can say Paul's speech was addressed to pagans. Paul says that it is important revert from the other gods. He didn't need to explain that to Jews, but pagans had to get rid of the worst sins. As we can see in his messages, there were much more things that needed to be set right. Thus, pagans needed to repent from all the falseness like John had preached to Jews. It would be absurd, if Jews who had much higher morals standards (thanks to their Law), who made themselves clean and were waiting for Messiah, needed more repentance that pagans. It is not possible for pagans to get to heaven just by believing without repentance.
A gospel, which states that people only have to believe, isn't the right Gospel, and people, who accept it cannot be truly saved. Salvation is for a man, who loves righteousness and truth and lives according to it.
