1 Peter 1:23-35 (NLT) - “For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say,
‘People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
But the word of the Lord remains forever.’
And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”

“Many Christians, hearing about the ‘word of God,’ assume that is simply means ‘the Bible.’ …But [Peter] seems to mean more than that. When he speaks of the ‘word that was announced to you,” he seems to mean the message about Jesus the Messiah, about God sending him so that through his sacrificial death and his outpoured Spirit people from every nation might be ransomed…from their previous life, and given a whole new life and purpose in God’s service.
“How does this work?…The followers of Jesus seem to have discovered, as early as the day of Pentecost, that when they spoke to people about Jesus something happened. It wasn’t just that people were interested, or that they decided either to go along with the message or to reject it. It was as though, when the ‘word’ was spoken, something like a blood transfusion was taking place in some at least of the hearers. They found themselves gripped by it, transformed by it, rinsed out by it, given a new sense of the presence of God. Yes: hearing ‘the word,” they ‘tasted that the Lord is gracious.” They had been born again” (Wright, N.T. The Early Christian Letters for Everyone - James, Peter, John, and Judah. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011).

I love this description from N.T. Wright because it reminds me that this message of the gospel is life-giving. By this word, God gave me life and He gives life to hearers even today. We can now live in assurance; our new life will last forever because it comes from this eternal, living word of God.

In prayer and with this song, let’s thank God for this life-giving word of salvation, and respond by saying, yes, Lord, build my life upon this truth daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYMjO9mL0Tw&index=10&list=PL3rQovoAIut1_QfaPm-HxzgysPL5ipzGi

-BR