18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
I’ve written about vv 18-20 already (Bible Truth #145) but want to include them in this Bible Truth for context. Verse 21, By Him we believe - not because we made a decision to believe. The Greek word translated “by” is the Greek word dia (Strong’s G1223), which means “through the instrumentality of.” It was through the instrumentality of Jesus we believe, not through the instrumentality of our flesh, which is what Arminians believe. They believe that a lost man can, in his flesh, make a decision to believe. We couldn’t believe until God quickened our dead spirits. That is the FIRST thing that happens TO us in the salvation process, God quickens our dead spirits through faith, the faith that God gives us (Romans 12:3; Ephesians 2:8) as a gift. God simultaneously gave us belief (John 6:29; Philippians 1:29), repentance (2 Timothy 2:25), and understanding (Luke 24:45, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Timothy 2:7).
Then verse 23, “Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible...”
If we made a decision to believe while we were still lost then we would have been born of corruptible seed, and you know what? I DO believe many of the Christians we have in our churches today have been “born again” because they made a decision to accept Jesus - hence they were born of corruptible seed and their belief is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:2). But true believers are born again of incorruptible seed BY the Word of God. Once again, BY the Word of God. Not by hearing It, but through the instrumentality OF it. (Romans 10:17)
V23 ...BY the Word of God. First, the word “by” in this phrase is translated from the Greek word dia which is a primary preposition denoting the channel of an act. As my pastor has said MANY times - “through the instrumentality of.” Paul did NOT write “faith comes by audibly hearing the Word of God” - as in preaching - as so many Christians understand the verse. The KJV, the NASB, the Greek, all say the same thing. Faith cometh by [spiritually] hearing, and hearing BY the Word of God... not “hearing the Word of God,” as in the sound produced by a preacher from a pulpit.
...by the WORD of God. Second, in the phrase “Word of God,” WORD literally means “a word, uttered by a living voice” and “decree, mandate or order” of God or that which is spoken by God. Please follow this link to see the Greek definition. In other words, God has declared it to be. Declared WHAT to be? Look at the beginning of verse 23 - God declared us to be born again.
In other words, being born again, i.e. getting saved and therefore being able to now please God by believing and repenting, comes BY the Word of God, or BY God saying so. Just as “by God’s Word” the world came into existence, so to “by God’s Word” we were born again. The lost man can not do something the Bible says repeatedly he is unable to do. I wrote about this in Bible Truth #252 (Romans 10:17) and here, Peter writes the same thing. Why? The reason why is obvious, it is the same God that inspired them both!
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