Born Again; Why the Human Element

Recently I created a thread dealing with the human element in salvation. As my proof I quoted verses that deals with what God says about a man getting saved, born again of the Spirit.He said in Rom 1:16 that the gospel of Jesus Christ was the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. He said it has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, and he said the preaching of the cross was to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved it is the power of God. He says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and he asks how can they believe in whom they have not heard and how can they hear without a preacher and how can they preach except they be sent. I do not think there is any doubt that God is depending on his preachers to get the good news of his salvation out to the people.

Now, I would like to suggest to you why God does it this way. I am going to be brief in my oping post and if anyone is interested we can discuss it as we go. I begin by quoting a passage from 1 Peter 1

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again (this is the new birth) unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

Now, please, this is written to those stated in the first two verses and is primarily to them. This letter went out to them but the good news is that some of these truths apply to gentiles as well. All Christians can rest in verses 3 and 4. Now, there is lots of important information in the next verses but I am going to skip to verse 18 and following;

18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:


The Lamb and the shed blood was the redemption price.

20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, This is what and about whom the verses in Eph 1 is referring.

21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

22 Seeing ye have purified your souls (HOW) in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The seed is the operative term we need to look at here. What is defined in this verse as the incorrupible seed? Honesty needs to prevail here.I have underlined it. corruptible seed is defined in the text in verse 4 as silver and gold or things like it.

24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Verse 25 is important in this dialog because a contrast is being made between the physical birth and the spiritual birth. The physical birth is the type for the new birth. If one will be skillful in handling the word of God he will understand that God "typifies" all his truth. He illustrates the spiritual by using the physical that all are aware of. So, the physical birth should teach us that a seed is needed and the seed germinates in the body and results in a birth.Two are needed in a physical birth and two are needed in the new birth. The human element to carry the seed to the sinner. The third person who is involved in both of these births is God.

I can show this thousands of times in the scriptures. God's metaphors do not get mixed. They remain the same. Here is what he says about the metaphor for his word;

Lk 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

The preacher, the sinner, and God is what it takes for the new birth. No one is going to get saved unless there is a human element.

This is as far as I am taking this now but there is much to know.