The New Man and Tomorrow

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Some Christians know the hour and day of their salvation. Others recall it was in their sophomore year. Then there are those whose conversion was progressive as they moved from unbelief to belief.

It’s not the moment or emotion that count. Rather, it is your heartfelt conviction that the allegiance of your life belongs to Jesus Christ alone, your Lord and Savior.

Conversion—from dark to light, lost to redeemed, alienated to accepted, guilty to forgiven—conversion is remarkable.

Transformation. Whereas you were hostile, now you are malleable. Where you once possessed a heart of stone, as a Believer your heart is tender. Whereas the Law of God once pronounced you cursed, today His laws are inscribed upon the walls of your heart.

Yesterday you were old, possessed of a sinful nature, fallen and independent. Today, you are a new person, a new type of human, recreated in the image and nature of God, lifted up, filled with the Spirit of God, in possession of a new heart, and all that is pertinent to life and godliness.

Yesterday, you did not belong to God. You were worthless to Him and incompetent to secure standing in His presence either in this life or eternity. Today, as a new type of man, you are bought with a price and belong to God. Your worth is equal that of Jesus Christ and your competence to stand before God is secured by Jesus and coached by the indwelling Spirit.

He lavished upon you grace upon grace upon grace.

Yesterday, your identity was fractured and any remedy hopelessly destitute. Today, your identity is declared, secured through the finished, complete, and accomplished work of Jesus Christ. All that separated you from God is resolved in Jesus, the Lamb slain, buried, risen, and seated at God’s right hand where He continually declares your justification, sanctification, and right-standing with God.

Salvation is a work of grace and mercy.

Every word of reconciliation I’ve written to this point is made possible, instituted, and declared by the grace of God in and through Jesus. The problem God had with you left you dead to Him. In grace, He justified extending life to you—and not just a little bit. In Jesus, He lavished upon you grace upon grace upon grace.

As incredible as salvation is, God’s grace to you makes sense. When you properly understand the problem of your lost condition, grace is the only rational, reasonable option left to God.

What makes no sense is God’s mercy.

That the solution to humanity’s degradation requires grace is clear. Why God chose to proceed with grace and extend justification to us—knowing fully what the price of grace would cost Him—makes no sense. The irrationality of God is that in His great mercy He paid grace.

How you are saved is clear: it is the grace of God made available through the life of Christ Jesus.

Why God decided to provide grace is the mystery of mercy.

At some point, whether you can mark it on a calendar or not, your old self was buried in Christ, and when He was raised, you were reborn, a new man. You became the recipient of God’s grace and were saved.

Salvation is amazing grace—so amazing that it is incomprehensible in its mercy. But it is true.

I’m one of those Believers who can pinpoint the day of my salvation. On March 17, 1962 I passed from death to life. I was just barely six-years old, but on that day, the angels in heaven sang over me. Jesus danced a jig and the Holy Spirit was dispatched to take up residency in my new heart. It was a great day.

On that day, my eternal destiny was determined. What remained to be decided was how the man-made-new on March 17th would live tomorrow, the day after his salvation.

Grace is not a conclusion. It is an inception. Grace is not the deeper life or the mature life. Grace is not the meat of Christianity or its pinnacle. It is a beginning, the birth of new life.

Don’t stop with your introduction to grace.

Grace is a taking-in, an acquisition; it is God gathering to Himself an outsider and including them in His family. Grace is a jumping-off, a departure point, the beginning of an eternal living at a point in time called salvation. At the moment of salvation, grace launches the new man into a life of living with Jesus tomorrow in light of his salvation today.

By grace you have been saved. This is to be celebrated. Had I died on March 18, 1962 while riding my bicycle, I would have been welcomed into heaven with open arms. But I did not die the day after my salvation. As I write to you, my salvation occurred sixty-three years ago.

Today, the question is not when I received saving grace. The question is how the new man I am lives as the recipient of saving grace.

“How then shall we live?” asked Francis Shaeffer.

Grace is amazing. Saving grace endows you with a new identity and establishes you secure, accepted, loved, and filled with the Spirit. All of this transpired at the moment of your salvation. But don’t stop with your introduction to grace. Press on for the prize that is your upward calling, Paul exhorts (cf. Phil. 3:14).

How shall you, a new person in Christ, live tomorrow, i.e., the day after your salvation?

In the New Testament alone there are approximately 1500 imperative statements, 1500 texts expressing intent regarding how you live, 1500 inspired passages from God’s heart to yours on what Christian living looks like from His viewpoint. “I’m thrilled you are my child,” God proclaims at your salvation. “Now, let me explain to you how the family lives, and moves, and exists.”  

It is wonderful that you heard and received the message of grace and are saved. But the inspiration of grace is that tomorrow, the redeemed you, the man-made-new, will demonstrate grace—the life of Christ made manifest—in how you conduct yourself.

Think of it this way: On July 14, 1990, I stood before a minister and was declared Dianne’s husband before God and a few hundred witnesses. We sang and danced on our wedding day. But then, from that glorious day onward I have labored to become in practice what I am in fact. When I fail, I don’t get remarried. Rather, as a married man, I regroup and try again at demonstrating the true life of a husband. Neither do I sit around the house in my tuxedo drinking the champagne of our wedding day. I’m confident in my identity as Dianne’s husband, but from my place of confidence, I endeavor each day to understand, implement, and exhibit my identity.

How then shall you live tomorrow as a new person today?

Just because you’ve been taught a truth, or you know what is true, doesn’t mean this teaching or truth does you any good. Sitting in church or Bible study nodding and stating your “Amen” is neither here nor there to your spiritual wellbeing. Implementation is essential.

But why?  

The commands and guidance of Scripture aren’t there for you to establish yourself before God. They are given to you by God to explore, exhibit, and establish experientially what is true. On the day of your salvation, you received grace. In response, you actively live. You engage. You demonstrate grace by implementing God’s guidance regarding life in the Spirit.

You are a new person in Christ, but you are not tested. You have a new identity that is declared of you, but you don’t have the character to demonstrate this. You are saved by grace, but you have not worked out your salvation.

What is true of you is true, but what is true of you is only understood and demonstrated as you implement the life of Christ through the power of the Spirit. Only then is the grace bestowed upon you tempered, your character developed, and the joy of your salvation comprehended. Only as these qualities are developed is your Christian life relevant, applicable, and demonstrable. 

Your salvation and new identity in Christ are not a culmination. Grace is an inception point, a place of embarkation to life in the Spirit.

How then shall you live tomorrow as a new person today?

Statistics and an update: For about forty years, subscriptions to my written work grew at 19% per year. Then, as I wrote earlier, from January 2021 until April 2025, subscriptions to my writings were blocked. The Lifetime-PHG database grew at 0%. But in April of 2025, something changed.

From April 2025 through July 2025 subscriptions to my writing increased between 2800% and nearly 4000% while delivery remained sketchy.

As of August 2025, we are back to 0% and reliable delivery is as uncertain as ever.

Being targeted is not fun, but it’s what Jesus said would occur. Further, it lets me know I am worth targeting. Oorah!

I make no claim to what I actually produce for you to consider, but I can tell you this with every conviction: I have zero interest in writing drivel and detail. I’m devoted to helping you apply your faith. The Gospel applied has to terrify the forces of darkness.

Here’s to being a target!

Here’s to your march in the Spirit!

“Fight for this alone: the man who stands at your shoulder. He is everything, and everything is contained within Him.”  --Dienekes