he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
– II Corinthians 5:17

God is clear in His Word folks, when God gives us eternal life, it is a new life in Jesus Christ!  Here a 66 year old John Leland gives testimony to this glorious transformation as he reflects upon when he came to know the Lord Jesus as His Savior as an 18 year old young man . . .

“I admitted that all men (myself among the rest), by nature were unprepared for heaven, and that no exercises of ours, while in that state of enmity could be pleasing to God; that unless men were born again they could not be saved; that Christ saved men by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.  Granting this, have I ever experienced this change?  I knew that almost nineteen years of my life, from infancy on, was exceeding vain; that for several of the last years of that time dancing and merriment was superlative pleasure that some change then took place in my mind, which not only stopped my career, but made those exercises abhorrent, so that I could not remember that I ever had had a single desire to return to them again.  That change turned me to religious exercises, in which I had taken delight, and that I had continued, more or less, in them until the then present moment.”

How precious!  How wonderful!  Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!  Above, John Leland references the following passage . . .

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”   Titus 3:3-7