Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Peter 1:23-25 (New Living Translation)

23 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. 24 As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
25     But the word of the Lord remains forever.

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Being born again, i.e., having a second chance at everything sounds pretty good. Sometimes that is what we teach about a life following Jesus Christ. Perhaps we sell it short.

When we are born again, we are not given a second chance at life here and now. That here-and-now life is temporary and short. Verse 23 tells me that rebirth in Jesus is not a  short-term second chance. The rebirth is eternal.

The new eternal life comes from the eternal word from God. That word from God is the Good News that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Son of God appointed to take away the sins of the world—my lousy sins.

I pray that I will understand this and live it every day.