I Peter 1:23–25—Commentary by Prof. Herman Hanko

Prof. Herman Hanko

[Source: A Pilgrim’s Manual: Commentary on 1 Peter, pp. 91–98]

“Being born again” (1:23)

So important is the calling to love one another that the apostle in this and the following verses connects our calling with the wonderful work of regeneration. The calling to love one another is connected to regeneration for two reasons: Regeneration is the spiritual power by which we are able to love one another, and regeneration is the incentive to love one another, because we know that God loved us and made us his children.

While verses 23 and 24 constitute an important passage in Scripture’s teaching concerning regeneration, the verses serve also as a transition from the calling to love one another to the importance of the preaching of the gospel in the life of God’s people, a subject discussed in I Peter 2:1–10.

Regeneration is the gracious work of God by which he implants in the hearts of the elect sinner, dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), the resurrection life of Christ, so that the sinner is made alive by a new birth. His first birth was a spiritual stillbirth. But he cannot, as Nicodemus suggested, enter a second time into his mother’s womb (John 3:1–13). He must be born again from above.

In regeneration he is made spiritually alive. This new birth is the sovereign work of God by the power of grace. It is a work conceived in eternity in God’s counsel, merited in the cross of Christ, and performed by the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner apart from his will and consciousness. It is the beginning of the whole work of salvation that ends in the glory and perfection of heaven. As Peter insisted in verse 3 of chapter 1, it is a work that makes the sinner a pilgrim and a stranger in the world, for he lives out of a life that is not of this world, but is from heaven. It is the spiritual power by which the saints love each other.

“Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible” (1:23)

The best way to understand Peter’s teaching regarding regeneration is to compare the new and spiritual birth of an elect sinner with the birth of a child.

The beginning of a child is the fertilized ovum in the womb of the mother. The birth of the child is out of that fertilized ovum. So Peter speaks of our being born again out of incorruptible seed, the seed being analogous to the fertilized ovum. It is clear that the fertilized ovum must be present for the birth of the child to take place; so in regeneration the incorruptible seed, out of which a new child is born, is present for birth to take place. That incorruptible seed is regeneration, the implanting of the first principle of the new life of Christ.

Just as in normal conception and birth the creation of the fertilized ovum takes place apart from the cooperation and awareness of the baby, so also regeneration takes place apart from the cooperation and even the consciousness of the elect child of God. In the line of the covenant, the elect children of believers usually receive this first principle of the new life before they are born (Jer. 1:5; Luke 1:39–45).

Peter says that seed from which new birth comes is “incorruptible.” He undoubtedly has in mind the corruptible seed of our natural birth, which has death within it and is subject to death. Even though the conceived child may live to birth and even beyond to threescore and ten years, death is inevitable, because the seed out of which he is born is corruptible. But the seed of regeneration is incorruptible, because it is the life of the resurrection of Jesus Christ given to those who are united to him. It is a heavenly life and thus can never be destroyed. It is eternal life, which is fellowship with God.

By being born again the apostle refers to all the development of the fertilized ovum: the development of the fetus within the womb and the development of the newborn baby to adulthood. The spiritually newborn babe grows from the moment of regeneration to spiritual maturity, which is the final perfection of the man of God in heavenly glory. The presence of the old man of sin—dead in sin his whole life—makes regeneration an ongoing work that lasts a lifetime.

The reality of the constant development of the newborn, spiritual man throughout his whole life is the reason Scripture speaks of regeneration in the wider sense of sanctification, as well as in the narrower sense of the implanting of the new life of Christ.

We can carry the analogy between natural birth and spiritual birth one step farther. A newborn child is like a newly regenerated person. Just as a child gradually loses the limitations of infancy and childhood and becomes a mature adult, so the newborn child of God grows in grace and spiritual maturity. Paul uses this analogy in Galatians 3:23–29 and in Galatians 4:1–7. In the line of the covenant, when elect children are regenerated in infancy, spiritual and natural development takes place together. Our ongoing regeneration is strongly suggested by the words “being born again.”⁷² The idea is that the work was complete in the past, and that completed work leaves us in a state that continues. The work of being regenerated, once completed, is still an ongoing state.

In summary, the natural birth of a child involves conception, development in the womb, birth, and life to maturity at adulthood. The spiritually reborn child is conceived by the very first work of God in the heart of the spiritually dead but elect sinner, develops throughout his earthly life, and is fully born again when he is body and soul in glory.

“By the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1:23)

The analogy continues in this expression. A conceived fetus must grow. The power of growth is in the nourishment the child receives from its mother. This nourishment is already present in the womb and it continues with nourishment from it mother’s breast. So also the newly conceived child of God needs nourishment to grow. That nourishment is the “word of God,” which Peter calls the “milk of the word” (I Peter 2:2). Only the milk of the word can nourish him.

The word of God lives and abides forever. The reference cannot be to the preaching because the preaching of the gospel does not live and abide forever. The preaching does not have life in itself, nor will preaching be carried on in heaven. The word of God is that spoken by the triune God and is the means by which he reveals himself. It is the work spoken in creation, by which all things were made (Ps. 33:6, 9; Heb. 11:3). It is the word that continues to give life and breath to all creatures (Ps. 29). It is the word that God spoke to prophets and apostles and that is recorded infallibly in sacred Scripture (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:19–21). It is the word that called Lazarus from the grave (John 11:43–44). It is the word that calls a dead sinner out of death into life (Eph. 5:14). It is the word that makes the gospel the power of God unto salvation to all who believe (Rom. 1:16). It is centrally Christ (John 1:1–3).

God’s word is not like man’s word. We can speak a word only after the thing indicated by the word exists. We can say “oak tree” only after the oak tree exists. God speaks his word prior to the existence of the thing. So it was in creation and providence. If for a moment God would stop speaking the word by which each creature was formed, the creature would cease to be. It is impossible to separate the word that God spoke creatively and the word that God speaks providentially.

When the Lord raised Lazarus from the grave, as a picture and sign of regeneration, the Lord called, “Lazarus, come forth.” (John 11:43). We might ask if Lazarus heard the voice of Christ. In a sense Lazarus could not hear Christ’s command, for he had been dead four days. Yet the call of Christ brought Lazarus out of the grave.

So it is in regeneration. The word of God spoken to the dead sinner, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14), is the word of God that brings spiritual life to the dead sinner and is the same word spoken through the gospel that brings the regenerated sinner to conscious life and finally to spiritual maturity. All is one mighty work of God performed through His word.

An unborn infant, we say, cannot hear the preaching. Yet, doctors have told us that a newborn babe can recognize the voice of its mother within minutes of being born. The possibility of such recognition rests in having heard the mother’s voice prior to birth. Is it impossible that the new babe born by the Holy Spirit can hear the voice of God and recognize it as the voice of its Father in heaven? We know so little of the mind of a child. We know that outside influences have powerful effects on a child before and after birth. The Lord is able to feed the newborn spiritual child with heavenly food through the word in ways we do not anticipate or understand.

The word of God lives and abides forever in the strictest sense. Forever and ever in heaven the word of God will uphold the new creation in the age to come. The word of God will give continuous life to the mature and fully saved elect child of God. Always the word of God will nourish and feed the child of God, even in heaven, because the word of God is always Christ, in whom we will see God face-to-face.

“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away” (1:24)

Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6–8 as the reason the power of a new life within the people of God comes through the word of God. Because our natural birth is out of corruptible seed, we are like the grass of the field that blooms for a little while and soon dies. The context in Isaiah 40 indicates that the prophet’s words were spoken for the same reason. He spoke the word of God, living and abiding, to a people who were corrupt and spiritually dead, and who were about to perish in captivity.

Man is described as “flesh.” This common biblical description of man puts emphasis on the fleeting character of man’s nature—his weakness, frailty, instability, insignificance—because he is a sinner and God’s word to the sinner is always, “Disobedience leads to death.”

The whole world of plants has a certain beauty about it—the rose in its splendour, the orchid of almost infinite variety of shape and form, the sturdy oak, the graceful elm, and the flowering crab and dogwood. Each creature of the plant world has its own beauty that we might expect to last a long time. But such is not the case. The amaryllis may bloom in glory today, but tomorrow its beauty is gone in a dangling brown blot. Death is everywhere, and what appears to be beautiful is soon swallowed up by corruption.

So it is with man. A baby is cute, a mature woman is beautiful, and a man is a picture of health and strength—today. Tomorrow they are bent, hairless, toothless, wrinkled, rocking slowly in a chair in a nursing home hallway.

What hope is there in life when all is begotten of corruptible seed?

“But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1:25)

The word of the Lord is different. It is the powerful, creative, living word of the living God. It is the word that gives life to the creation and all creatures in it. It is the word that calls out of death into life and out of hell into heaven. That word transforms a whore into the bride of Christ and a murderer into a humble penitent. That word begets new life, everlasting life, life of fellowship with God. That word endures forever, for it continues its work through this life, through death, and forever in heaven.

The one called into existence by the word of the Lord lives with God, world without end.

The word of God is one. Or, to state this truth differently, there is only one word of God. The word of God has its unity and principle character in Christ, who is the word of God become flesh. Whether that word is found in creation or in providence, in Scripture or in the work of regeneration, it is always centrally Christ.⁷³

That word is the gospel preached in the church. The preaching of the word is God’s means of feeding his people with the true spiritual food that nourishes their souls. Not the word of God in creation; not the word of God in providence; not even the word of God in Scripture; but the word of God spoken, preached, proclaimed is the food of the newborn babe begotten by regeneration.

God’s word always has power in whatever form it comes to nourish the new man in Christ. Centrally and fundamentally that nourishing word is the preaching, which is God’s ordained means of feeding us. When we are fed by the preaching, God’s word in Bible reading and studying, in the discussions of the saints, even in creation, is also food. But without the preaching, the word of God in other forms is of no avail (Rom. 10:13–17). The preaching of the word of God is analogous to the essential vitamins and minerals in the food that are necessary to sustain our earthly lives. When we eat this nourishing food, the other means of using the word of God—Bible study, devotions, speaking with each other about Scripture—give flavour and taste to the food and some nourishment.

Paul makes it unmistakably clear in Romans 10:13–15 not only what preaching is, but also why it is the central means of feeding the people of God. Preaching is done by one who is sent by Christ through the church. When Christ commissions and sends, Christ himself speaks and the preaching is official. Such preaching is the means whereby people hear Christ himself speaking. Hearing Christ they believe in Christ and call upon his name. Such calling on the name of the Lord brings salvation.

Thus Peter concludes his descriptions of the power and incentive to love one another.

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FOOTNOTE:

72. The Greek word is anagegenēmenoi, which is in the perfect tense.

73. The most frequently used term for “word” in the New Testament is logos, but in this passage hrēma is used. While the difference between these two terms is not large, logos means “the spoken word as an expression of the thought of the mind.” Hrēma emphasizes that the word is spoken.