Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

The New Birth

Once again Peter takes his readers back to their new birth, and this time he expounds on the source of our new birth, the seed being the Word of God. The exhortations into the practical which culminates in 1 Peter 2:1-3 will be based on this.

Peter explains that the new birth is not brought about by a corruptible seed, one that is here today and gone tomorrow, in essence he is stating that it is not produced in the same way as a physical birth. Human life is brought into being by means of seed that must obey physical laws of decay and death. The physical life that is produced has the same quality as the seed from which it sprang; it too is of a temporary character.

The new birth is brought about through the Word of God, not bound by physical laws, but spiritual ones. The Word of God never fails. As men hear or read the Bible they are convicted of their sins, convinced that Christ is the sole and sufficient Savior, and upon surrendering to the Son, converted to God. No one is ever saved apart from the instrumentality in some way of the incorruptible Word of God. The very faith by which we are saved comes from hearing or reading the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

The Word is always alive and it will never, for all eternity, ever pass away. Though heaven and earth pass away, it will never pass away. It is settled forever in heaven. And the life it produces is eternal also. Those who are born anew through the word take on the everlasting character of the Word. The whole point of learning, growing, being molded by the Master Potter, is to become more and more like the eternal Word, Jesus Christ.

In the human birth, the seed which produces a child contains, in germ form, all the characteristics of the child. What the child will eventually be is determined by the seed. For our present purposes, it is enough to see that as the seed is perishable, so is the human life which results from it.

The temporal, transitory character of human nature is emphasized by a quotation of Isaiah 40:6-7:

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.”

Human life is as impermanent as the grass and the flowers they produce. Physical beauty is as short-lived as the flowers of the field. The grass withers and decays, and so to do the flowers which droop and die.

In contrast Isaiah wrote, “but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). Therefore, the new life of the believer is equally incorruptible. This incorruptible word is the message of the Good News which was preached to Peter’s readers and which led them to be born again. It was the source of theirs and our eternal life.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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