Luke 8:5-11 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. (6) Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. (7) And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. (8) But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold." When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear let him hear!" (9) Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?" … (11) "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”
We saw in the previous section that our Lord Jesus likened the kingdom of God in the believer to a mustard seed that is sown and grows into a large tree. In the above quoted parable our Lord taught the same truth regarding salvation, for He taught us that all believers are born of the seed of the word of God, which when it is sown on good ground yields a hundredfold crop. Nevertheless, the important truth that I want to highlight from this parable as far as spiritual growth is concerned, is that it all starts out as a seed and grows from there.
1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
We have seen thus far that it is our spirits that are born again. And so just like any birth in the natural, our spirit is born again in seed form, for no one is born again spiritually mature. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter confirms that truth to us by telling us that we have been born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. And so just as in the natural when the seed is sown in the womb, it looks nothing like the body that it will eventually become, nevertheless everything that God intends that body to become is already inside the seed, so it is with the seed of God’s word from which our spirits are born. In other words our new spirits have been born of the seed of God’s word, and in that seed is everything that God intends our spirits to become. We all know that in the natural a seed contains everything that the seed will eventually become. For example, the seed of a fig tree, once planted and watered, will eventually grow into a fig tree and it will produce the fruit of figs. It cannot produce anything else. In other words it cannot grow into an orange tree and then start producing apples, for God has created each seed to produce after its’ own kind (Genesis 1:11-12). This same principle also applies is the realm of the spirit, for it is the same God who has created both realms. I want you to notice in this passage that the apostle Peter tells us that we are born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. In other words because it is our spirits that are born-again, our spirits are born of the incorruptible seed of God’s word. That simply means that our spirits cannot be corrupted, because they are incorruptible. And so we see that the spirit of the born-again believer has no capacity for sin, for just as a fig tree cannot bear apples, so a spirit that is incorruptible cannot produce sin, it can only produce righteousness. Our Lord put it this way, “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit” (Matthew 7:18).
1 John 3:9 “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
To explain the new birth in the above quoted passage of scripture, the apostle John uses the same terminology that the apostle Peter uses, for he also speaks of the one who is born of God as having the seed of God in him. The seed that John refers to in this passage is obviously the seed of the word of God. And so once again we can clearly see that all believers are born again through the seed of God’s word. Notice also that John teaches us that our spirits cannot sin because they have been born of God, thus confirming what Peter taught. So the question is asked, what fruit does the born again spirit produce? The answer is the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Ephesians 5:22-23).
1 Corinthians 15:36-38 “Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. (37) And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain--perhaps wheat or some other grain. (38) But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.”
In the context of the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul is teaching the church about our resurrected bodies. In his teaching, Paul goes on to explain how God uses our current mortal bodies as the seed that is sown to raise up our immortal bodies. Paul explains the concept to us by showing us in the natural how God creates every type of body that we see in the earth today from a seed, and that that seed looks nothing like the body that it eventually becomes. And so in the same manner our newly created spirit is born again of the seed of the word of God, and in that seed is everything that God intends our new spirit man to become when it is fully grown. Paul also teaches us in this passage the concept of the seed dying before the new can come. That same concept can also be applied to the new birth, for before our new spirit is created the bible plainly teaches us that our old spirit dies first (Romans 6:6).
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth, and in context he is speaking about their spiritual growth, or rather their lack of it. Paul had planted the church in Corinth, and he illustrates that fact to them by telling them that he had planted and that Apollos had watered. One, only plants and waters seed, and so clearly the apostle Paul was likening their new birth to the seed of God’s word that had been planted in them. Clearly we have established in this section that our spirits are born again through the implanted seed of God’s word.
Michael E.B. Maher
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