“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men, brothers, what should we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized 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 your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this crooked generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” Acts 2:37-42 LSB https://bible.com/bible/3345/act.2.37-42.LSB

Repent, identify, grow, these three things should accompany the person who is truly Christian. These were the deeds committed by those who first believed the gospel, the new covenant God established through His coming in Jesus the Savior of the world. Those who first heard repented from their sinful deeds. They knew they had lived lives displeasing to God and wanted instead to get right with God. The first step is to repent, to admit wrong and to go toward God and His ways. Confession begins the process of repentance but it continues by further distancing ourselves from those things God condemns. Next we are to identify ourselves with Jesus. This begins with a public confession of our faith. This confession begins in the church today through baptism but continues in our family and marketplace through our testimony and witness of Christ’ work in us. We become known as children of God by speaking of the work of God through Jesus the Savior Who has saved us and longs to save all men from the judgement to come for man’s continual disobedience against God. Finally, we hunger for God and His people so that we can know Him, obey Him, worship Him, and serve Him. If we have truly repented and have identified ourselves with Jesus we will want more of Jesus in us and will want more of Jesus among us. This growing comes from the Word of God and the fellowship of believers. We hear God’s word from the scriptures and we encourage one another in it’s application as we meet together to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. The Christian life should be marked by the diminishing participation in that for which Christ was crucified and an increased participation in making Him known in the world as we increase our knowledge of Him through His word and with His people.