DA Carson on What the Centre of the Gospel Is

"The heart of the gospel is what God has done in Jesus, supremely in his death and resurrection. Period. It is not personal testimony about our repentance; it is not a few words about our faith response; it is not obedience; it is not the cultural mandate or any other mandate. Repentance, faith, and obedience are of course essential, and must be rightly related in the light of Scripture, but they are not the good news. The gospel is the good news about what God has done. Because of what God has done in Christ Jesus, the gospel necessarily includes the good that has been secured by Christ and his cross work. "

Too often I have the notion that coming back to the cross is something made of repentance first and foremost - repent, repent, repent, repent, obey, obey, obey, and I'll be back by the green pastures and still waters of humble obedience and faith to God. But that's not true - this makes my faith humanly driven, it makes my salvation and God's repeated and continued faithfulness and graciousness something that's driven by myself, rather than Him. To focus on the incorrect notion that the gospel requires repentance is to belittle the sacrifice of Christ. Repentance doesn't drive the gospel, because human actions don't drive the gospel. God does.

I hope I can remember this.

EDIT: of course, functionally speaking, it's impossible to be saved without repentance. What I aim to say instead is that it's only the first step. God does the rest.