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1 Peter 1:22–25
“You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (v. 23).
Surely the Lord will cause His Word to reach the ends of the earth so that knowledge of Him exists in every place (Isa. 11:1–9). This Word will take root in hearts that are good soil, fertile and enabled by Him to receive the gospel (Mark 4:1–20). God will use His servants to proclaim the gospel and enable His people to develop an ever-deeper understanding of His truth. Nevertheless, the spiritual growth obtained through this Word comes only from Him (1 Cor. 3:1–9). These truths help us understand that there is a primacy to the Word of God in the church and in the Christian life. If we are not dedicated to the Scriptures as individuals and as the corporate body of Christ, we cannot thrive in our relationship with God.
Today we are concluding our brief look at the sure expansion of God’s Word by considering the permanent effects in the lives of the Lord’s children. If the Word of God brought people into His kingdom only temporarily, then the extension of the gospel to all nations would not be good news. To gain citizenship in the kingdom of the Lord only temporarily before losing it is no ultimate gain at all. Thankfully, as we see in today’s passage, all those who are truly born again are born of an imperishable seed “through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
Peter quotes Isaiah 40:7–8 in his argument that we are born of imperishable seed. In the original context, Isaiah is referring to the announcement of the good news of the end of exile, that God would surely bring His people back from Babylon, forgive their sins, and renew them with His strength. This was a sure word that could not perish, God’s promise of salvation that would certainly be accomplished. By extension, of course, this reference to the permanence of God’s promise of the return from exile is true for all of God’s promises, but it has special import for His promise of redemption.
The gospel tells us that Jesus Christ is the One who brings about the end of exile for sinners, who restores us to a right relationship with God after having been cast out of His blessed presence because of our sin. This word from God cannot fail because it is the fulfillment of the promise in Isaiah about the end of Judah’s exile, that imperishable word given to the people of God. Everyone who actually trusts in the gospel has been born again by the Lord’s imperishable Word, which cannot fail to bring the salvation begun in our conversion to its completion in its glorification (1 Peter 2:22–25).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
One of the reasons that we believe in the perseverance of the saints is that saying that a person of true faith can fall away from salvation ultimately casts doubt on the power of God and the permanence of His Word. All those who have truly been born again by the Word of God will certainly persevere therein to the end. They will continue to seek to grow in that Word and will not finally fall out of the gracious hand of God.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 32:46–47
- John 6:63
The bible in a year
- 2 Chronicles 4–6
- John 12:20–50
- 2 Chronicles 7–12
- John 13:1–14:14