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The Fundamentals that the seed is incorruptible, and that the Word, which is its source, is eternal. Moreover, as in John’s Gospel, the new, incorruptible, and eternal life, which proceeds from spiritual conception by the Word of God, is put into direct contrast with the natural life or “flesh.’’ “For,” continues the Apostle Peter, “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.” The prominent characteristic of grass is that it withereth, and of the flower of grass, or of plant life, is that it falleth away. “The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away : but”— in direct contrast with this—“the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” So it does, and so do all they who are begotten of the incorruptible seed of the Word. The passage closes with the unmistakably plain statement, And this is the Word which, by the Gospel, is preached unto you.” The result of spiritual generation is, of course, a spiritual infant—a babe. Consequently the next words of the inspired Apostle are in full keeping with, and in confirmation of, the truth we have been considering. “Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings” (which are characteristics of the “old man”) “as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1, 2). We all know that it is of the first importance that a babe should have appropriate nourishment in order that it may grow; but this belongs to the subject of spiritual nutrition, which will be considered later on. Other Scriptures testify with equal clearness to the great and glorious truth that those who are begotten of the Spirit, through the incorruptible seed of the Word, receive a nature of the same sort as that of the Divine Source of their life. In the eighth chapter of Romans there is a section devoted to the “sons of God,” in whom the Spirit dwells (verses 9-16) ; and of these it is declared that God predestinated them “to be con- formed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first- born among many brethren” (verse 30).
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