1 Peter 1:23 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 1:23

Comments

The apostle Peter under inspiration in this great letter chases themes, and develops them. In the course of these themes there are digressions – not strictly digressions; more amplifications of some word used, or point made. We see one of these digressions here in verses 23-24, then to the enduring word of God in verse 25, and then in chapter 2 and verse 1 he picks up the theme of chapter 1 and verse 22 again. You have had a second birth, if you are truly converted and the Lord's, and a birth not like any other birth in this world. ‘Not of corruptible seed’ – the illustration here is agricultural more than human. A seed sown by a sower must die in order to give rise to a new organism, but not with the new birth unto righteousness. This seed is the word of God, placed in the heart by a work of the Holy Spirit, an eternal work. The seed comes into the heart and brings about regeneration and new birth, and we begin to be moved by the Spirit of God, and for the first time in life to be anxious about our spiritual condition, so that our mind is opened to the gospel of grace, and the things we rejected now strike us as true. They have a moral demand upon us, and we must hear them and respond to them, because the Holy Spirit has, so to speak, cast a living seed into the heart which will never die. The work of the Spirit is ongoing and everlasting and undying, and it's expressed to us and mediated to us through the word of God.

Application

We constantly need to remind ourselves of the abiding nature of what we have received, for our eyes are presented in this world only with what is passing away, and mere human hope cannot lift itself up above this landscape of decay. God gives something far more solid and enduring to his people, which is not to be found outside of Christ.

We are born again. How different this second birth is to the first! It starts unseen in the heart of the individual and blossoms into the full beauty of life in heaven when it can no longer remain hidden. The instrument of this new birth is the word of God, which is consciously heard and believed. No one is born again without hearing the word of God. This work of change in our hearts does not happen unconsciously but we process the words we hear and understand their meaning. We act on them as our wills are regenerated by the Spirit. The initial work of regeneration is God’s work alone in which we are passive and do not co-operate, but from the new nature created within us come our very own repentance and faith, for God creates an anxiety within us for our own spiritual welfare which brings us to the crisis experience of conversion.

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1 Peter 1:23 Commentary and Bible Study