“If you are then risen with Christ…” You can ONLY have this experience IF you have died with Him! Being dead to the old life is the theme that runs throughout the Gospels and the Letters! Water baptism is the symbol of this! When a Christian dies, your body dies, but YOU are not dead! And when the Day of Resurrection comes, we shall rise with Christ with new Resurrection bodies! Where Christ is, there we shall be. With Him!
The challenge of repentance and relationship
The challenge today is to repent. If there is no repentance, no transformation you don’t have Christ. That’s why we have believers’ water baptism by full immersion – you are buried with Christ through baptism, and you are born again into the Kingdom of God! In Acts 17, Paul and Silas continue their missionary journey and come to Thessalonica, where Paul begins discussing and debating with the Jews in the synagogue. He’s preaching Christ, who suffered, died – and rose from the dead. The teaching of the New Testament is centred on the resurrection and our need of repentance! - ‘Repent and be baptised for the remission of sins.’