p. 571 | The Word of God’s Seed

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 36.

The Word of God’s Seed

This seed, the word of God, being grafted in the heart, works contrary to nature, in that it makes the ground in which it was sown become of the nature of the seed. See the illustration which Paul uses in Rom. 11:17–24. The seed springing up in the heart that has been properly prepared to receive it, makes the individual a new person, as is indicated in the preceding paragraph. To this end the apostle Peter says: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1:22, 23. Our souls are purified, or sanctified, in obeying the truth; but this is done only “through the Spirit.” And thus, by means of this incorruptible seed, the word of God, the man becomes a new man; no longer is he the natural man, a child of wrath, but a partaker of the divine nature, a child of God.