February 22, 2023: 1 Peter 1:23 - Having Been Born Again
“…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…” - 1 Peter 1:23
Except for One, every single person ever conceived is formed from the seed of a man and the egg of a woman. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s only command in the Garden of Eden, which was not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the curse of sin - the sin nature - was put into every single human being born thereafter. Every single one of us is born by corruptible, human seed. If you think that isn’t the case, just watch children and see if anyone needs to teach them to lie and to be selfish. No one needs to; it is part of their - our - sin nature.
Because the result of sin is death, our lives here on earth are temporary, with the 2022 average worldwide life expectancy being only 72.98 years and here in the USA, it was lowered to only 76.4 years (see links below), which hasn’t been seen since 1996.
2022 Worldwide Average: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/WLD/world/life-expectancy
2022 USA Average: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/12/22/us-life-expectancy-continues-fall-erasing-25-years-health-gains/10937418002/
So who is the One who is different, who was made from incorruptible seed? That One is Jesus Christ. He is the only One who is from the Seed of God, the only incorruptible Seed, for in God there is no sin. Let us read Genesis 3:15, which mentions the Seed of a woman. How can this be, since women do not have seed but only eggs?
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
The “Seed” referred to is Jesus Christ, and this passage of Scripture prophecies that the serpent, who is the devil, also called Satan, who tempted and deceived Eve in the garden, followed by Adam’s sin, will war against her Seed - Jesus - and Satan will lose that war, as prophesied in the book of Revelation. And, it won’t only be Satan who is destroyed but all who choose to follow him instead of Jesus Christ.
So how does a woman have Seed, since we know that women only have eggs? The prophet Isaiah foretold of how Jesus would be born:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel [God-With-Us].” (Isaiah 7:14)
Before Jesus was born, a man named Joseph was betrothed to a virgin named Mary. He had found out that Mary had become pregnant, and yet, they had not had sexual relations together. When Joseph was trying to decide what to do:
“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS [Savior], for He will save His people from their sins.’” (Matthew 1:20-21)
The Seed that was needed to conceive a Child was provided by the Holy Spirit, and thus was without sin; the Seed was not from that of a man. While Eve had in fact eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, she had been deceived by the serpent and was not held to account as Adam was. Before God had created Eve from Adam’s rib, God had commanded Adam directly:
“Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:15-17)
After Eve and Adam had eaten the fruit and after God had addressed both the serpent and Eve, God then addressed Adam, holding him accountable for his sin:
“Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’” (Genesis 3:17-19)
Thus, Jesus could not be born from the seed, the lineage, of Adam, for Adam was sinful in the eyes of God. Instead, Jesus would be born of incorruptible seed from the Holy Spirit, through a virgin who was a biological descendant of Eve, the woman. Jesus was born unto Mary and Joseph, and His birth fulfilled all of the prophecies that had been made of Him hundreds and even thousands of years prior.
It is through Jesus Christ and Him alone that we are born again. We human beings are all born of water, the water of a natural, human birth when our mother’s bag of water is broken during or sometimes even prior to childbirth. We live in water during our time in our mother’s womb. However, to be born again, we must be born of water and the Spirit of God, as Jesus told Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews when Nicodemus had realized that no one could do the things that he had seen Jesus do unless “God is with him”:
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’” - John 3:3-8)
As the apostle Paul would later write in Romans 5:15, “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” And in Romans 5:19, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
It is only by believing in Jesus Christ that we can be born again, for He was the only One who ever lived without sin. To have a sinner forgive sinners is nothing extraordinary, but to have the eternal, sinless, spotless Lamb of God forgive sinners, that is divine salvation.
Jesus is the Word of God, and He lives and abides forever, just as John the baptist wrote about:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5)
It is through Jesus and through God’s word, the Bible, that we can love our brothers and sisters fervently and with a pure heart. When we read God’s word, the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us from the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, helps us to understand and retain what we read. The word is described in Hebrews as:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
I write this to my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, reminding us that though this world is growing ever darker and more wicked by the day, and some days it seems even by the minute, we have been redeemed by the precious blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we have the hope within us that the rest of the world does not have: the living hope of salvation of all our sins and that one day, and I believe that day is soon approaching, we will be with Him, when all of the sadness and horror we see in the world today will be replaced with joy. As Jesus told His disciples before He died, let us remember His words, for they apply to us - to all believers in Him - today:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ as your Savior, I can’t encourage you enough to seek Him while He still may be found, for you do not know when will be your last day on earth. We all have an appointed time to die, and we do not know when that day will come. We could exceed the average life expectancy or we may not; we are not guaranteed another day of life. Turn to Jesus today, before it’s too late, and be born again to a living hope in Jesus, the sinless, precious Lamb of God, the One whose blood was shed, the only One who can set you free. ✝️