“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
(1 Peter 1:23)
In order to encourage those first century believers in Christ to a life of holiness and brotherly love, the Apostle Peter reminds them of their spiritual origin. He tells them they were born again, and that of incorruptible seed, the Word of God. This truth connects them as brethren, as partakers of the same new nature. And this new nature is the root from which holiness, and particularly brotherly love, springs.
We are all sinners (Rom. 3:23). And as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in that beautiful discourse under the cover of darkness, we sinners must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3-8). This new birth, also referred to as regeneration, is a supernatural rebirth that occurs in the spirit of God’s chosen people. As Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” (John 3:6). As opposed to natural generation which occurs from “corruptible seed,” regeneration originates from incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God.
Our text indicates that this same Word “lives and abides forever” because of its everlasting effects on all those in whom it operates. Peter reiterates this truth in verse 25 of this same chapter, “The word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” The Word of God, impregnated by the Spirit of God, is the means by which regeneration occurs, by which dead sinners are raised to new and everlasting life. Thomas Boston said, “All men in the state of grace are born again. All gracious persons, namely, such as are in a state of favor with God, and endued with gracious qualities and dispositions, are regenerate persons,” by the abiding word and work of the Spirit.[1]
There may be no better – nor more beautiful – description of God’s work of regeneration and its effects on the sinner than that found in this Old Testament passage in Ezekiel 36:25–27: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
This is the work of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, through the Spirit of God, whereby unregenerate man may be regenerated to new life in Christ and given everlasting access to his kingdom.
Contemplations:
- Lord, the souls of the redeemed was the good ground on which the incorruptible seed of grace was sown and germinated by the Spirit (Matt. 13:23).
- What a most excellent thing that your Word, Lord, by the Spirit, converts sinners to saints. As John 4:14 states, “It shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.” Such graces of the Spirit, imparted at regeneration, shall never decay.
- Lord, I know your incorruptible Word lives and abides in my sanctified soul forever, for the Apostle reminds me in 1 John 3:9, “The seed of God remains in him.”
- I have in Christ Jesus the habits of grace which are everlasting. And they are inseparable from my new nature. It must necessarily follow, Lord, that my soul, their subject, is so too, an everlasting and immortal soul.
- I consider, Lord, that as my life is hid with Christ in God, the perpetuity of your incorruptible seed is also endowed in me by the Spirit. This is a most amazing thought.
Further References for 1 Peter 1:23:
Rom. 11:29; Phil. 1:6; 1 John 5:4, 1 John 5:18
[1] Thomas Boston, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, (United States: Printed for the booksellers, 1787), 130.
