To Encourage You

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.”

Throughout the Bible, the Word of God likens itself to a seed.  Jesus, in what has come to be known as “the parable of the sower,” plainly told us, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).  So, have you considered the miracle of seeds? Have you ever looked at a huge oak tree or perhaps the giant redwoods of California and thought about how these massive plants originated from one tiny seed? And then think of a human “seed” and how all that you are was one time bound up in a fertilized egg that was 100 microns in diameter, which is about the width of a human hair. Isn’t that incredible?  But in all the wonder that is tied up in these “seeds,” the “seed” that is the gospel is more miraculous still.

In the passage above from 1 Peter 1, Peter explains this in terms of a contrast.  He tells us that all flesh (i.e., all human beings) is like the grass of the field, in that eventually every person, just like every blade of grass, every tree, and everything else that springs forth from some type of physical seed, is destined to, sooner or later, die.  It’s inevitable.  That’s what the words “perishable seed” mean in the verse above. By contrast, the gospel is an “imperishable seed.” This means that the life that springs forth from this spiritual seed will never die. It’s eternal. When the gospel takes root in our heart, our physical body will still die (unless the Lord returns first), but from it will rise a new body that will live forever. 

1 Corinthians 15 explains it like this: “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’  ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

So, has this wonderful imperishable seed of the gospel been planted in your life?  Have you been born again by way of this life-giving seed?  If not, you can be, by simply believing in what God has said.  And if you have been born again, may you be encouraged that it is an imperishable life that that this imperishable seed has produced in you.

Praise the name of the Lord!