We are continuing our meditation about the resurrection of the body. When a person comes to Christ, something happens within the core of their being. They are regenerated or born-again by the Spirit. Jesus said that without this experience of being born again, or born from above, no one could see the kingdom of God:
Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again" (John 3:3).
The apostle Peter wrote, “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3 emphasis mine). When we give our lives to Christ, a spiritual seed begins to grow in us from that point, slowly transforming us through the word of God and our trials and life experiences into the image of Christ:
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23, Emphasis added).
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).
The characteristic of this living seed is spiritual life but more full, abundant, eternal, and imperishable. The Greek word translated as "life” in the above passage of Scripture is zōē. It means: “to live.” My Key Word Study Bible says of this word:
It is a somewhat metaphysical term that denotes the very life force itself, the vital principle which animates living beings. Zōē is used most in connection with eternal life. This life is the very life of God, of which believers become partakers.[1]
I don't understand how words can be seeds, but I do not doubt the power of words. Genesis chapter one tells us that God created the world by speaking it into being: And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Genesis 1:3). The words "And God said" are written of God’s creative acts, showing forth that there is great power in the spoken word of God.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes that God is the One who determines what the seed will become when it grows up (v. 38). He says that there are different kinds of physical bodies on earth: men, animals, birds, and fish. All biological creatures born on earth come from seeds. I see Paul making two different analogies when he talks about a seed:
In some way, our resurrection body will be able to be recognized as us. Paul writes, “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else” (1 Corinthians 15:37). Within the seed is the DNA of the physical body. Oranges do not grow from apple seeds. Continuity of life is shared between the seed and the body it will become. Our heavenly resurrected bodies will be like the seed of our earthly fleshly bodies. We will recognize one another in our resurrection bodies, but it will be vastly different from the seed out of which our resurrected body has come. God will renew our frail bodies into powerful, transcendent bodies. That's good news! Let's carry on this thought tomorrow.
Taken from the series Insights into Eternity. Click on study 3 or the link: The Resurrection Body.
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[1]Key Word Study Bible, AMG Publishers, Page 1630.
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