The most important issue that you can address in this life is the issue of your standing before God. God is the Sovereign Creator and Ruler who made us in his image in order to happily and willfully live under his authority, but we rebelled. We have each chosen to go our own way in an attempt to rule our own lives. This rebellion is called sin and since God is righteous and just, our sin has to be punished. Our rebellion has to be addressed. God would be perfectly just to punish each of us for our sin, but our punishment would be more than we could bear. Since God is also gracious and merciful, he sent his own Son, Jesus Christ, to come to this earth and live the life we could not live and die the death we could not die. Jesus is our substitute. Jesus is our salvation. Jesus is our justification. Because of his death on the cross in our place, Jesus paid the price for all the sins of every single person who would ever believe on him and trust in him. In order to trust in Christ, we have to repent of our sin and put our trust in Christ and follow him as our Lord. Every person who sincerely does this, is declared righteous and placed into an inseparable union with Christ.

Every person who trusts in Christ is called to make that profession of faith a public matter by getting baptized by immersion as a statement of being united with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. This step of obedience before the church lets others know whose side you are on and that you are indeed in the family of God. Baptism does not make you a believer; it is designed to let others know that you have become a follower of Christ.

Christ has established local congregations to be the greenhouses for his kids to grow in. Membership in a biblical local church informs the leaders of the church that you are under their direction and informs the other members that you can be counted on to be part of the collective witness of the body in order to put Christ on display.