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1 Peter 1:23–25
“You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
Having redeemed us from our futile ways through the precious blood of Christ, God calls us to love one another “earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:13–22). To think about this calling for any length of time is to understand it to be so daunting that it seems impossible to fulfill. Thankfully, what God commands of His people He also provides, as we see in today’s passage.
Peter writes that we must love one another, “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable” (v. 23). Being born again is causative, enabling one to obey the Lord’s revealed will. The Apostle, of course, refers to God’s act of regeneration wherein He causes us to be born from above, granting us new hearts so that we can see and enter the kingdom of the Lord by faith in Jesus Christ (see John 3:1–8). This new birth comes through the imperishable seed of the “word of God” (1 Peter 1:23), which is the good news preached to us. Peter has a special focus on the gospel message here, but “word of God” cannot be limited to the basic gospel, for the good news that Christ died and rose again has meaning only in light of all that the Scriptures say about sin, God’s holiness, judgment, eternal life, and other topics. Our Creator regenerates us through the preaching of the inscripturated Word of God, the Old and New Testaments, granting faith to His people as they hear His truth.
God by His Holy Spirit gives us new hearts under the preaching of the Word of God because it is “living and abiding,” and Peter quotes from Isaiah 40:7–8 regarding the enduring nature of the Word to support his argument. These verses from Isaiah appear in the context of God’s sure promises to bring about His salvation, including the prophet’s foreseeing of the ministry of John the Baptist. Thus, Isaiah’s text aptly proves the power of the Scriptures to accomplish God’s purposes. Importantly, we remember that not everyone hears the preaching of the Word of God and is born again, for it takes the Spirit’s work to make us receptive to biblical teaching. As John Calvin notes, “We cannot be Christians without regeneration; for the Gospel is not preached, that it may be only heard by us, but that it may, as a seed of immortal life, altogether reform our hearts.” That God’s Word does not regenerate all people who hear it does not make it any less living and powerful, however. The Word always fulfills God’s purpose for it in the individual who hears it (Isa. 55:10–11), whether to renew him or to harden his heart further.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Reformational Protestants have sometimes been criticized for putting their confidence in the Word of God, with non-Protestant traditions sometimes assuming that the Scriptures are essentially powerless apart from the church’s official teaching. Today’s passage, however, reminds us of the inherent power of the Word of God. The words of Scripture carry His power and are always effective to accomplish His will.
For further study
- Psalm 119:107
- Jeremiah 1:4–10
- Acts 16:11–15
- Hebrews 4:12–13
The bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 18–19
- Luke 16:1–13