“born again—not from corruptible seed but from incorruptible.” Christians who believe that salvation is permanent assert that 1 Peter 1:23 is one of the verses that presents evidence that when a Christian is saved, their salvation is permanent and cannot be lost or undone. However, people who believe that salvation is not permanent say that 1 Peter 1:23 does not support the permanence of salvation. What is behind the two opposite opinions? The debate revolves around what exactly is the “incorruptible seed,” because the identity of the seed affects the meaning of the verse.
If the incorruptible seed is the gift of holy spirit that is created inside an individual when they are saved, then 1 Peter 1:23 supports that Christian salvation is permanent. However, many people believe the incorruptible seed is the Word of God and thus the “seed” has nothing to do with what God puts inside the believer when they are saved. Stated another way, if the incorruptible seed is the gift of holy spirit, then the verse tells us what God puts inside the believer when they are saved: they get holy spirit created in them. However, if the incorruptible seed is the Word of God, referring to the fact that the person is born again “through the living and enduring word of God,” then the verse actually does not mention what God puts “in” the person when they are born again; it really only states in two different ways that a person gets born again via the Word of God.
The Greek words translated “incorruptible” and “seed” are not helpful in this debate. The Greek word translated “incorruptible” is aphthartos (#862 ἄφθαρτος), and it refers to “imperviousness to corruption and death; imperishable, incorruptible, immortal.”a The Greek word translated “seed” is spora (#4701 σπορά), and it means “the sowing of seed,” and by extension, “seed.”b Both sides of the debate believe the “seed” is “incorruptible.” The issue is what is the seed? Is it the holy spirit (Trinitarians would say, “the Holy Spirit”), or is it the Word of God?
The uses of “seed” in the Bible are not really helpful in determining what the “seed” is here in 1 Peter because in the Bible, “seed” is used in a number of different ways: the seed of plants (Gen. 1:11; Matt. 13:31); human babies; progeny (Gen. 15:3; Matt. 22:24); the Word of God (Luke 8:11); the children of God (Rom. 9:8); Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16, 19), and the thing that is born in us and remains there (1 Pet. 1:23; 1 John 3:9), which we will learn is the gift of holy spirit.
Although the word “seed” itself is not helpful in determining what it refers to, thankfully, the verse itself, the remote context, and the scope of Scripture are very helpful indeed. Also, in studying the New Birth and God’s “seed,” it helps to keep in mind that the Christian New Birth is a spiritual reality, not a physical one, so our physical vocabulary cannot exactly describe it, even though it can get close.
The verse itself points to the fact that the “seed” and “Word” are different things. The sentence, “for you have been born again, not from corruptible seed, but from incorruptible, through the living and enduring word of God” contains two prepositional phrases that modify the verb anagennaō, “born again.” The first phrase is a compound prepositional phrase, literally from the Greek: “Not from [ek; “out from, from”] seed corruptible but incorruptible.” The evidence in the verse is that this ek refers to origin since seed originates birth and since ek is used with a verb of begetting, and that conclusion is supported by remote context and scope. Our New Birth comes “out from” the seed. The second prepositional phrase, “through [dia] the…word of God,” uses the preposition dia, which here means “through” and refers to agency.
1 Peter 1:23 is saying we are born again “from” the seed and “through” the Word of God. Thus it seems apparent that the two prepositional phrases are expressing different things: origin and agency. We will see below that the holy spirit in us is the seed that produces (origin) our new birth, while the holy spirit is put in us “through” our belief in the message about Jesus.
There are some verses that give us great help in understanding our New Birth and God’s seed. In fact, God uses four different Greek words to refer to the Christian’s New Birth. The common one is gennaō (#1080 γεννάω), which occurs almost one hundred times in the New Testament (cp. 1 John 5:1). However, the next three Greek words for birth only occur in the Epistles to the Church and nowhere else. That makes perfect sense when we understand that the New Birth started on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), and is for the Administration of Grace. In 1 Peter 1:3 and 1:23, the Greek word is anagennaō (#313 ἀναγεννάω), which means “born again,” and is from the Greek prefix ana, “again,” and gennaō, “to give birth.” Titus 3:5 uses a different word, paliggenesia (#3824 παλιγγενεσία), which is from palin, “again” and genesis, which is “genesis” or “origin. It means to have a new genesis or new origin, which we understand is a “new birth.” The third word is in James 1:18, and it is apokueō (#6126 ἀποκυέω), from the Greek prefix apo, “away from,” and kueō, “to be pregnant,” and it means “to give birth to.” The new birth is such an important event in the life of a Christian, and God so badly wanted us to understand its implications, that He used four different Greek words for “birth” to communicate it effectively to us.
Scripture is very clear that in the New Birth, God is the Father who gives birth. James 1:18 says, “he [God] gave birth to us.” God gives birth to us, which is why dozens of verses say God is our “Father.” There are also many verses that say we are children (or “sons”) of God, and there are also verses that say we are “born of God” (cp. 1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18).
Also in the New Birth, Scripture reveals that what is born inside the Christian is God’s gift of holy spirit. God is holy, and God is spirit, and what is born in the believer is His very nature, holy spirit. Every Christian is born of God and gets God’s nature, which is why the Bible says that every believer has holy spirit (1 Thess. 4:8; 1 John 3:24; 4:13; Acts 2:17; 10:44; Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 2:12; 7:40; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Gal. 3:2). The Christian is sealed with holy spirit (Eph. 1:13-14) and it lives in us (Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 3:16), and because it is born in us individually and becomes part of us, the Bible sometimes calls it “our spirit” (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 14:14). In fact, it is because the holy spirit is born in us and is part of us, and because Christ manifests himself in us through the holy spirit, that Scripture can say we have “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). God puts His gift of holy spirit in us by an act of creation, which is why Christians are called “new creations” (2 Cor. 5:17). Furthermore, it is because the holy spirit is the very nature of God that becomes part of us that 2 Peter 1:4 says we are “partakers of the divine nature.” God’s divine nature in us is why Christians are called “holy ones” (usually translated “saints,” cp. Rom. 1:7).
That it is God’s gift of holy spirit in us that changes us and gives us a new holy nature is confirmed in Titus 3:5. Titus uses one of the other Greek words for the new birth, paliggenesia, which refers to our new origin, and says it is “by holy spirit.” Titus 3:5 says “he [God] saved us…through the washing of a new origin and renewal by holy spirit,” The word translated “new origin ” is paliggenesia, and it is our “new birth,” so here we see that God puts His holy spirit in us and it is by that holy spirit that we have rebirth and are made “new” and thus have a new, divine nature.
So Scripture says we get born again, and we are sealed with God’s very nature, holy spirit. Is that holy spirit the “incorruptible seed” of 1 Peter 1:23? There is evidence that it is. Note that in the context of the New Birth, the Bible says that it is God’s seed that is born in us, remains in us, and changes us. 1 John 3:9 says, “No one born of God continues to commit sin because His seed remains in him….” So in the new birth, the “seed” remains in the person, and we have seen in many Scriptures that the gift of holy spirit is “in” the believer. Jesus himself said that when he spoke to his apostles about the holy spirit and said that it “will be in you” (John 14:17). Although some commentators say the “seed” is the Word of God, the Word of God is not born in us like the gift of holy spirit is.
We can understand why God’s gift of holy spirit would be called His “seed,” because it comes from Him and is his very nature. In human birth, the father gives his seed, which carries his nature. That same truth applies in the New Birth. God’s “seed,” holy spirit, carries the very nature of the Father and is why each believer has a new, divine nature.
Once we understand that the gift of holy spirit is the seed in us, we can also understand why it is called the “seed.” Seed has life in itself and produces growth and change. The holy spirit is called “seed” because it gives spiritual life and is what produces the change in us when we are born again. The gift of holy spirit is not the thing that is born again; the holy spirit is created in us, but it is we humans who are born again—our entire self gets a new origin, a new beginning, a new birth. The “seed” in us, the holy spirit, produces the change in us and makes us “new.” This is why Peter says we are born again “from” incorruptible seed.
As we saw above, the word “from” (“of” in many English Bibles) is a translation of the Greek preposition ek, which means “from, out from, out of” (a number of English Bibles have “from,” not “of,” cp. the BBE, CEB, CJB, NAB, NET, and NJB). When God puts His seed, holy spirit, in us, it spiritually changes us dramatically and immediately. For example, we immediately become children of God (1 John 3:1-2). Also, because the gift of holy spirit was created in us, we immediately become a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Also, since we have holy spirit sealed in us (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13-14), we are “body, soul, and spirit,” instead of just “body and soul.” We also immediately have a new, divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Also, we immediately become citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), and in God’s eyes are already glorified (Rom. 8:30) and seated with Christ in heaven (Eph. 2:6). Besides all that, as well as changing us immediately, the holy spirit works in us to conform us into the image of Christ. Our new nature battles with our old nature to make us more like Christ (Gal. 5:17).
So, Christians have God’s “seed,” holy spirit, created inside them, but what did they do to get it there and be born again? 1 Peter 1:23 tells us. A person receives the gift of holy spirit and gets born again when they believe the message about Christ, which is written in the Word of God. That is why 1 Peter 1:23 says that the new birth comes “from” incorruptible seed but “through the Word of God.” That God gives birth to us “through” the Word of God is also stated in James 1:18: “he [God] gave birth to us by means of the word of truth.” The Bible has many verses that teach that a person gets born again by hearing the message about Christ and believing it (cp. Acts 4:4; 13:48; 14:1; 17:2-4; 28:23-24; Rom. 10:13-15; Eph. 1:13; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23). So the “incorruptible seed” is holy spirit, and we get it “through” believing the Word of God. There are commentators who say that the “from (ek) the seed” and “through (dia) the word” are the same, but as we have seen above, they are not.
In summary, then, we get “born again” when we hear and believe the message about Christ, which is why our new birth is “through the Word of God.” At the moment of our new birth, God becomes a literal Father to us because He gives birth in us by putting His “seed,” holy spirit, in us. That gift of holy spirit remains in us, becomes part of us, and makes us into a new person. Because of it we are born anew and have a new origin; it instantly gives us a new divine nature and we go from being sinners and dead in sin to being “holy ones” and alive with Christ.
One very great value in understanding that the “incorruptible seed” that God creates in us is the gift of holy spirit is that it shows that our salvation is permanent. Human birth is permanent but can be short because we die. However, when we are “born of God,” and what is born in us is “incorruptible,” then we have assurance that our salvation is permanent and we can live forever.
The incorruptibility of the seed we get from God is not just stated in the text, it is emphasized by the figure of speech, ellipsis. After saying we are not born of “corruptible seed,” the text says, “but of incorruptible,” leaving the word “seed” off by ellipsis. In the figure of speech ellipsis, the word that is actually in the text (“incorruptible”) is emphasized; while the word that is omitted (“seed”), is deemphasized. God really wants us to understand that the seed we have is “incorruptible,” so He used ellipsis to emphasize it.
As an addendum, it is worth noting that the proper interpretation of 1 Peter 1:23 is hard to find in commentaries. The verse is confusing to many lexicographers and commentators (which makes it hard to check this verse in lexicons and many commentaries), because almost no scholar recognizes that it is the gift of holy spirit that is born in individual believers.
Almost every commentator believes the “Holy Spirit” is a “Person” in the Trinity, and that contributes to their not seeing what the verse is saying, and results in them arguing over whether the “seed” is the “the Holy Spirit,” or “the word of God.” For example, Wayne Grudem mentions both as possibilities, saying, “the Holy Spirit is active in causing regeneration (cf. John 3:5-8; Titus 3:5), and the word of God is the means God uses to awaken new life in the individual.”c
Grudem comes very close to seeing the truth when he sees that Titus 3:5 is important in understanding 1 Peter 1:23. It seems likely that if he knew that “holy spirit” was not a “Person,” but rather it was the nature of God that was born in us and “remains” in us, that he would have understood why our “regeneration and renewal” comes “by the holy spirit” (Titus 3:5). Nevertheless, he did not see past his Trinitarian theology and concludes that it is “the word” that must be the seed. However, as we have seen above, the “seed” is the gift of holy spirit that is sealed in us and produces our New Birth.
[For more information on Christian salvation, see Appendix 10: “God’s Promise of Salvation.” For more on the holy spirit, see Appendix 7: “What is the Holy Spirit?” For more on the New Birth being a new origin, see commentary on Titus 3:5. For more on our new, divine nature, see commentary on 2 Pet. 1:4.]
a)
BDAG, s.v. “ἄφθαρτος.”
b)
BDAG, s.v. “σπορά.”
c)
Grudem, 1 Peter [TNTC].
