This is an excerpt from the third chapter of By Water and the Word: God’s Gift of Baptism for You by Brian Thomas (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 52-60.
Even when the bitter places sink down deep into our bones, the Restorer never relinquishes his grip on you.
To Live Well is therefore not a general advice book, but a message suffused with the gospel.

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This is a companion article to “Johann Spangenberg on Dying Well”
Success is emphatically not your primary identity.
We know we are made for something great. We humans were created in God’s image and restored through Christ in his perfect image.
What we do much less of, even in Christian circles, is recognize just how pervasive sin is, such that it has thoroughly corrupted us.
The gospel is for sinners – both the tax collector and Pharisee, both in need of the Great Physician.
Some part of us always wants our ability under the law to be just as important (or more) than grace.
Applying the pressure of law to ensure you do not to take grace for granted squeezes the life and power out of the gospel.
Heaven is yours now.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
Are you on the receiving end of freedom? Or are you trying to make yourself free?
Sin is a heavy thing to bear. Its jacket is shame, its medals are guilt.
This is the sound of freedom. The Eternal One died so that we who are dying might live eternally with him.