Born of Incorruptible Seed

Born of Incorruptible Seed

When we are born, it is the result of the coming together of the seed of our father and egg from our mother. Our birth into this world is a wonderful miracle of life. So much promise and potential to begin life with exists in us.

As magnificent as this potential is and no matter how full our life is here on this earth, one day our body will return to dust, it decays. That is the nature of our earthly birth because that is the nature of our earthly father's seed. His seed is not eternal. It is not His fault, but that is the reality.

In What Is A Christian? Part VIII we touched upon the new birth and that it is incorruptible seed. We will go into more detail regarding this truth because of its vital importance in understanding who we are in Christ.

I Peter 1:23

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The word "corrupt" today perhaps does not communicate the true meaning, as we tend to think of it as "lack of integrity" or "dishonesty". Perhaps a better translation would be "perish", which means "to die, pass away, disappear". It does not necessarily mean something bad or negative, just that there is a point in time where it will cease to exist. In the case of our first birth, our soul life is temporal.

When a man or woman decides to become born again, they receive the spirit of God. This new birth spirit is incorruptible seed, and it makes us a son (or daughter) of God.

Romans 8:15, 16

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [of sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

When we are born again it is incorruptible seed, and we become a child of God. This is a tremendous truth! Why are we children? Because it is seed. And because it is seed we cannot lose it anymore than we can lose the seed of our earthly father. God is our Father, we are heaven bound and nothing, and I mean nothing, can ever change that.

Romans 8:17

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ...

I can scarcely begin to comprehend the statement "heirs of God" and the greatness of what that means.  Here we are, just body and soul, we confess Romans 10:9 and 10 and are now body, soul, and spirit 1, and this new birth spirit is seed.  Because it is the seed of God in Christ in me, this seed it is incorruptible, and it cannot decay, perish or otherwise cease to exist.

Just as you have all the potential that is part of your earthly father's seed, whether it be height, strength, intellect, blue eyes -- you have all the potential that God gave in His new birth spirit in His seed.  We have eternal life, we are heirs of God, and we have many, many other wonderful benefits (for lack of a better word) because of the nature of this seed from God, our Heavenly Father.

How you choose to develop the spiritual side of your life and your personal relationship with God your Father, and live a life that is more than abundant, is dependent on how much of the Word of God you know, believe and apply in this life.  We can choose to do nothing more after becoming born again, or we can choose to develop our Father/son relationship to bless ourselves, our families and others.

How much do we know about our Heavenly Father?  Who do we think He is?  Is He cold and impersonal, or is He loving and caring?  The only way to find out is to go to His Word and learn.  How do we learn about people and develop a relationship with them?  We spend time with them, talk with them, do things together.  God has given us His Word so that we may know Him, and we cannot go beyond what we are taught.

Let us revisit I Peter:

I Peter 1:23-25

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

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:

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

This new birth spirit is seed and it is incorruptible. Before the new birth became available on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, God put His spirit on men in the measure needed. But this spirit was not new birth spirit, it was not seed.

I Samuel 16:13, 14

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul...

The prophet Samuel anointed David (who became King), and the spirit of the Lord was upon him.  He was God's man, and was perhaps the greatest King Israel ever saw.  But he did not have Christ in him, incorruptible seed, because it was not yet available.

King Saul also had the spirit of God upon him, but it departed from him because of his failure to walk according to the Word of God.  The spirit of God in the Old Testament could be given and removed.  But you and I today, when we are born again, have the new birth and it is incorruptible seed.  It cannot be lost.  What a complete work God did in Christ!

I thank God that it is seed.  If keeping it was dependent upon my walk, my ups and downs, I would be worried that I could have it depart, like with Saul.  Those who are born again are His sons, have eternal life, are body, soul, and now spirit, and because it is seed, we can never lose the greatest gift that has ever been given!

This new-birth spirit has tremendous power.  Believers in the first century Church healed others, raised people from the dead, moved the Word with an efficacy perhaps not seen since, and did many other exploits.  God has not changed in 2000 years, He is still in "business".  Let us rise up and use the power we have as sons of God!