For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;
Parallel Translations
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For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;
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For all flesshe is as grasse and all the glory of man is as the floure of grasse. The grasse widdereth and the flower falleth awaye
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For all flesh is as grasse, and all the glorie of man is as the flower of grasse. The grasse withereth, and the flower falleth away.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to 1 Peter 1:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 40:6-8 The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”
- Psalms 103:15 As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
- James 4:14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
- James 1:10-11 and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
- Psalms 37:2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
- 2 Kings 19:26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain blasted before it has grown up.
- Psalms 92:7 though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.
- Psalms 129:6 Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
- 1 John 2:17 The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.
- Psalms 90:5 You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.
- Psalms 102:4 My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 24 For all flesh He aptly quotes the passage…
24 For all flesh He aptly quotes the passage from Isaiah to prove both clauses; that is, to make it evident how fading and miserable is the first birth of man, and how great is the grace of the new birth. For as the Prophet there speaks of the restoration of the Church, to prepare the way for it, he reduces men to nothing lest they should flatter themselves. I know that the words are wrongly turned by some to another sense; for some explain them of the Assyrians, as though the Prophet said, that there was no reason for the Jews to fear so much from flesh, which is like a fading flower. Others think that the vain confidence which the Jews reposed in human aids, is reproved. But the Prophet himself disproves both these views, by adding, that the people were as grass; for he expressly condemns the Jews for vanity, to whom he promised restoration in the name of the Lord. This, then, is what I have already said, that until their own emptiness has been shewn to men, they are not prepared to receive the grace of God. In short, such is the meaning of the Prophet: as exile was to the Jews like death, he promised them a new consolation, even that God would send prophets with a command of this kind. The Lord, he says, will yet say, “Comfort ye my people;” and that in the desert and the waste, the prophetic voice would yet be heard, in order that a way might be prepared for the Lord. (Isaiah 40:6.)
And as the obstinate pride which filled them, must have been necessarily purged from their minds, in order that an access might be open for God, the Prophet added what Peter relates here respecting the vanishing glory of the flesh. What is man? he says — grass; what is the glory of man? the flower of the grass. For as it was difficult to believe that man, in whom so much excellency appears, is like grass, the Prophet made a kind of concession, as though he had said, “Be it, indeed, that flesh has some glory; but lest that should dazzle your eyes, know that the flower soon withers.” He afterwards shews how suddenly everything that seems beautiful in men vanishes, even through the blowing of the Spirit of God; and by this he intimates, that man seems to be something until he comes to God, but that his whole brightness is as nothing in his presence; that, in a word, his glory is in this world, and has no place in the heavenly kingdom.
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The grass withereth, or, has withered. Many think that this refers only to the outward man; but they are mistaken; for we must consider the comparison between God’s word and man. For if he meant only the body and what belongs to the present life, he ought to have said, in the second place, that the soul was far more excellent. But what he sets in opposition to the grass and its flower, is the word of God. It then follows, that in man nothing but vanity is found. Therefore, when Isaiah spoke of flesh and its glory, he meant the whole man, such as he is in himself; for what he ascribed as peculiar to God’s word, he denied to man. In short, the Prophet speaks of the same thing as Christ does in John 3:3, that man is wholly alienated from the kingdom of God, that he is nothing but an earthly, fading, and empty creature, until he is born again.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain A reason why we have need of this heavenly…
A reason why we have need of this heavenly generation, to wit, because that men, be their glory never so great, are of nature void of all true and sound goodness.
The word (flesh) showeth the weakness of our nature, which is chiefly to be considered in the flesh itself.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all…
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:
Ver. 24. All flesh is grass] To live is but to lie dying. Can a picture continue that is drawn upon the ice? Faenea quadam faelicitate temporaliter florent, saith Austin, after David, Psa 37:2. The wicked flourish as grass, but they shall be cut down in their flourish.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain All flesh; all men as born of the flesh,…
All flesh; all men as born of the flesh, and in their natural state, in opposition to regenerate men, 1Pe 1:23.
All the glory of man; whatever is most excellent in man naturally, and which they are most apt to glory in.
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The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: see Jam 1:10.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our apostle closes the chapter, by setting before them…
Our apostle closes the chapter, by setting before them the excellency of their spiritual regenerate state, compared with all other excellences and endowments whatsoever: All flesh, that is, flesh with all its glory, is a fading, dying, perishing thing; it flags like the grass, and fades like the flower: sweetness, which affects the smell; beauty, that affects the eye; softness and smoothness, which affect the touch; all these our apostle passes over, and speaks of the flower, not as flourishing, but as withering; not as springing up, but as falling away. The grass withereth the flower falleth away.
Learn hence, That man, when most flourishing, with all the ornaments of wit and wealth, beauty and honour, is fading, and near to withering.--Thus David describes them, As for man, his days are as grass; as the flower of the field so he flourishes; the wind passeth over it and it is gone. Psa 103:15-16 Though the flower be neither cut nor cropt, yet a breath of wind blasts it, and blows away the beauty of it: All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The apostle having given an account of the excellency…
The apostle having given an account of the excellency of the renewed spiritual man as born again, not of corruptible but incorruptible seed, he now sets before us the vanity of the natural man, taking him with all his ornaments and advantages about him: For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; and nothing can make him a solid substantial being, but the being born again of the incorruptible seed, the word of God, which will transform him into a most excellent creature, whose glory will not fade like a flower, but shine like an angel; and this word is daily set before you in the preaching of the gospel. Learn, 1. Man, in his utmost flourish and glory, is still a withering, fading, dying creature. Take him singly, all flesh is grass. In his entrance into the world, in his life and in his fall, he is similar to grass, Job 14:2; Isa 40:6, Isa 40:7. Take him in all his glory, even this is as the flower of grass; his wit, beauty, strength, vigour, wealth, honour - these are but as the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. 2. The only way to render this perishing creature solid and incorruptible is for him to entertain and receive the word of God; for this remains everlasting truth, and, if received, will preserve him to everlasting life, and abide with him for ever. 3. The prophets and apostles preached the same doctrine. This word which Isaiah and others delivered in the Old Testament is the same which the apostles preached in the New.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain All men, as born of corruptible seed, are frail,…
All men, as born of corruptible seed, are frail, mortal, and perishing; they spring up like grass, and look beautiful for a while, but are very weak and tender, and in a little time they are cut down by death, and wither away; and while they live, are, in a good measure, nothing but grass in another form; the substance of their life is greatly by it; what is the flesh they eat, but grass turned into it? and this mortality is not only the case of wicked men, as the Jews (l) interpret the word, but of good men; even of the prophets, and preachers of the Gospel; and yet the word of God spoken by them continues for ever: the passage referred to is in Isa 40:6.
and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass; all outward things which are in esteem with men, and render them glorious to one another, as riches, honour, wisdom, strength, external righteousness, holiness, and goodness; all which are fading and transitory, like the flower of the field; but the Gospel continues, and reveals durable riches, and honour with Christ; and true wisdom and strength with him, and spiritual knowledge, in comparison of which, all things are dross and dung; and an everlasting righteousness; and true holiness in him: some have thought respect may be had to the legal dispensation, and to all the glory and stateliness and goodliness of the worship and ordinances of it, which were to endure but for a time, and are now removed; and the Gospel dispensation has taken place of them, which will continue to the end of the world:
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the grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away; and so fading are all the above things,
(l) Targum, Jarchi, & Kimchi, in Isa. xl. 6.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain All flesh - Every human creature is transient and…
All flesh - Every human creature is transient and withering as grass. And all the glory of it - His wisdom, strength, wealth, righteousness. As the flower - The most short-lived part of it. The grass - That is, man. The flower - That is, his glory. Is fallen off - As it were, while we are speaking. Isaiah xl, 6, &c.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 24. For all flesh is as grass] Earthly…
Verse 24. For all flesh is as grass] Earthly seeds, earthly productions, and earthly generations, shall fail and perish like as the grass and flowers of the field; for the grass withereth, and the flower falleth off, though, in the ensuing spring and summer, they may put forth new verdure and bloom.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Pe 1:24-25. For all flesh — Every human creature,…
1Pe 1:24-25. For all flesh — Every human creature, is transient and withering as grass — The word χορτος, here rendered grass, denotes not only what we generally call grass, but all kinds of herbs; and among the rest, those which have stalks and flowers. And all the glory of man — His learning, wisdom, wealth, power, dignity, authority, dominion; as the flower of grass — Which is yet more frail than the grass itself. The grass withereth of itself, if not cut down by the scythe of the mower; and the body of man gradually wastes away and perishes, even if it be not cut off by some unexpected stroke; and the flower thereof falleth away — Drops its blooming honours, and falls dying to the ground; and thus precarious and uncertain are all the dependances which we can place on perishing creatures. But the word of the Lord — His revealed truth, by which you are regenerated or begotten again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance; endureth for ever — Always remains true and infallible, a foundation on which we may safely build our present confidence and future hopes. The reader will recollect that this is a quotation from Isa 40:6-8; “where the preaching of the gospel is foretold and recommended, from the consideration that every thing which is merely human, and among the rest the noblest races of mankind, with all their glory and grandeur, their honour, riches, beauty, strength, and eloquence; as also the arts which men have invented, and the works they have executed, all decay as the flowers of the field. But the incorruptible seed, the gospel, called by the prophet the word of the Lord, shall be preached while the world standeth; and the divine nature, which it is the instrument of conveying to believers, will remain in them to all eternity. James likewise hath illustrated the brevity and uncertainty of human life, with its glory, by the same figures, Jas 1:11.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For all flesh is as grass - That is,…
For all flesh is as grass - That is, all human beings, all men. The connection here is this: The apostle, in the previous verse, had been contrasting that which is begotten by man with that which is begotten by God, in reference to its permanency. The forher was corruptible and decaying; the latter abiding. The latter was produced by God, who lives forever; the former by the agency of man, who is himself corruptible and dying. It was not unnatural, then, to dwell upon the feeble, frail, decaying nature of man, in contrast with God; and the apostle, therefore, says that “all flesh, every human being, is like grass. There is no stability in anything that man does or produces. He himself resembles grass that soon fades and withers; but God and his word endure forever the same.” The comparison of a human being with grass, or with flowers, is very beautiful, and is quite common in the Scriptures. The comparison turns on the fact, that the grass or the flower, however green or beautiful it may be, soon loses its freshness; is withered; is cut down, and dies. Thus, in Psa 103:15-16;
“As for man, his days are as grass;
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As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth;
For the wind passeth over it and it is gone,
And the place thereof shall know it no more.”
So in Isa 40:6-8; a passage which is evidently referred to by Peter in this place:
“The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withereth,
The flower fadeth,
When the wind of Jehovah bloweth upon it:
Surely the people is grass,
The grass withereth,
The flower fadeth,
But the word of our God shall stand forever.”
See also Jam 1:10-11. This sentiment is beautifully imitated by the great dramatist in the speech of Wolsey:
“This is the state of man; today he puts forth.
The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him.
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And - when he thinks, good easy man, full surely.
His greatness is a ripening - nips his root,
And then he falls.”
Compare the notes at Isa 40:6-8.
And all the glory of man - All that man prides himself on - his wealth, rank, talents, beauty, learning, splendor of equipage or apparel.
As the flower of grass - The word rendered “grass,” (χόρτος chortos,) properly denotes herbage; that which furnishes food for animals - pasture, hay. Probably the prophet Isaiah, from whom this passage is taken, referred rather to the appearance of a meadow or a field, with mingled grass and flowers, constituting a beautiful landscape, than to mere grass. In such a field, the grass soon withers with heat, and with the approach of winter; and the flowers soon fade and fall.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away - This is repeated, as is common in the Hebrew writings, for the sake of emphasis, or strong confirmation.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Scripture proof that the word of God lives for…
Scripture proof that the word of God lives for ever, in contrast to man's natural frailty. If ye were born again of flesh, corruptible seed, ye must also perish again as the grass; but now that from which you have derived life remains eternally, and so also will render you eternal.
flesh--man in his mere earthly nature.
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as--omitted in some of the oldest manuscripts.
of man--The oldest manuscripts read, "of it" (that is, of the flesh). "The glory" is the wisdom, strength, riches, learning, honor, beauty, art, virtue, and righteousness of the NATURAL man (expressed by "flesh"), which all are transitory (Joh 3:6), not OF MAN (as English Version reads) absolutely, for the glory of man, in his true ideal realized in the believer, is eternal.
withereth--Greek, aorist: literally, "withered," that is, is withered as a thing of the past. So also the Greek for "falleth" is "fell away," that is, is fallen away: it no sooner is than it is gone.
thereof--omitted in the best manuscripts and versions. "The grass" is the flesh: "the flower" its glory.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 24. For—Confirming the statement that the word of God…
24. For—Confirming the statement that the word of God lives and abides, by Isaiah, Isa_40:5-7, probably quoted from memory and accommodated. It beautifully places the frailty and transitoriness of man and his works in contrast with the enduring character of God’s word.
Flesh—Man in his earthly, human life.
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Glory—His best and grandest possessions and productions, in which he prides himself, and which win admiration and honour from others, whether strength, wealth, fame, place, or power. But whatever they promise, like the grass they wither in an hour, and, like the leaves of its faded flower, they quickly fall.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24. For all flesh is as grass] The words…
24. For all flesh is as grass] The words have a two-fold interest: (1) as a quotation from the portion of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa_40:6-8) with which the Apostle must have been familiar in connexion with the ministry of the Baptist, and (2) as presenting another coincidence with the thoughts and language of the Epistle of St James (Jas_1:10-11), itself, in all probability, an echo of that prophecy. The passage is quoted almost verbally from the LXX. translation, the words “of man” taking the place of the “thereof” of the Hebrew. In “the word (rhêma) of the Lord” we have a different term from the Logos of 1Pe_1:23. It has, perhaps, a slightly more concrete significance and may thus be thought of as pointing more specifically to the spoken message of the Gospel. It is doubtful, however, looking to the use of the word in Heb_1:3; Heb_6:5; Heb_11:3; Eph_6:17, whether any such distinction was intended, and it is more probable that St Peter thought of the two terms as equivalents, using the word rhêma here, because he found it in the LXX. This “word of God,” abiding for ever, was the subject of the Gospel message, but is not necessarily identified with it. It was proclaimed to men by the heralds of glad tidings even as Christ had proclaimed it.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (24) For all flesh is as grass.—The citation is…
(24) For all flesh is as grass.—The citation is from Isa_40:6-8, and varies between the Hebrew and the LXX. in the kind of way which shows that the writer was familiar with both. But the passage is by no means quoted only to support the assertion, in itself ordinary enough, that the Word of the Lord abideth for ever. It is always impossible to grasp the meaning of an Old Testament quotation in the mouth of a Hebrew without taking into account the context of the original. Nothing is commoner than to omit purposely the very words which contain the whole point of the quotation. Now these sentences in Isaiah stand in the forefront of the herald’s proclamation of the return of God to Sion, always interpreted of the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. This proclamation of the Messianic kingdom comprises words which St. Peter has purposely omitted, and they contain the point of the quotation. The omitted words are, “the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people”—i.e., Israel—“is grass.” Immediately before our quotation went the words, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together;” statements which so shocked the LXX. translator that he entirely omitted 1Pe_1:7, and changed the previous verse so as to make some difference between Jew and Gentile (as Godet points out on Luk_3:6), into “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” i.e., to Israel, “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” The comment of Bishop Lowth on the original passage will well bring out what St. Peter means here: “What is the import of [the proclamation]? that the people, the flesh, is of a vain temporary nature; that all its glory fadeth, and is soon gone; but that the Word of God endureth for ever. What is this but a plain opposition of the flesh to the Spirit; of the carnal Israel to the spiritual; of the temporary Mosaic economy to the eternal Christian dispensation?” Here, then, St. Peter is quoting one of the greatest of Messianic prophecies; and his Hebrew readers would at once understand the Hebrew method of the quotation, and see that he was calling attention to the absolute equality of Jew and Gentile there proclaimed. Generation of the corruptible seed, physical descent from Abraham, was “the glory of the flesh” (observe that according to the best text St. Peter does not follow the LXX., and insert “of man,” but follows the Hebrew, and says “all the glory thereof,” i.e., of the flesh). On this “the Spirit of the Lord” had breathed (Psa_104:30); and the merely fleshly glory had withered like grass. But “the word of our God,” which, mark well, St. Peter purposely changes into “the Word of the Lord,” i.e., of Jesus Christ, incidentally showing his Hebrew readers that he believed Jesus Christ to be “our God”—this “abideth for ever.” The engendering by this is imperishable, i.e., involves a privilege which is not, like that of the Jewish blood, transitory: it will never become a matter of indifference whether we have been engendered with this, as is the case now (Gal_6:15) with regard to the “corruptible seed;” no further revelation will ever level up the unregenerate to be the equals of the regenerate. And in this regeneration “all flesh” share alike. The teaching of the Baptist, who fulfilled this prophecy, is here again apparent. (See Mat_3:9.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For all flesh is as grass, and all the…
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. St. Peter quotes Isa_40:6-8, in illustration of his assertion that the Word of God abideth forever. The quotation is from the Septuagint. St. Peter follows that version in omitting part of ver. 7; but he slightly varies the words, writing (according to the most ancient manuscripts), "all the glory thereof," instead of "all the glory of man;" and in the next verse, "the Word of the Lord," instead of "the Word of our God." The first variation shows an acquaintance with the original Hebrew. St. James refers to the same passage from Isaiah in Jam_1:10, Jam_1:11.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain All flesh is as grass.
1Pe_1:24-25
All flesh is as grass.
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Change and continuance
What is wanting here? said a courtier to an illustrious prince, as they stood together, the spectators of a most splendid triumph in the city of Rome. To him who spake, there appeared to be nothing wanting. The gaiety and splendour of the spectacle were in his sight complete. The supreme power represented by the entire body of the senate was there. The spoils taken from the enemy, filling many carriages and piled upon movable platforms, were there. The ministers of justice, clad in official costume, and bearing the insignia of their office, were there. And there was the victorious general, attired in the triumphalia and crowned with laurels. What is wanting here? What, answered the prince, as he watched the procession pass along, and in passing pass away, What is wanting? This is wanting, continuance. The procession would pass along the appointed route, and then all would be dispersed, and the triumph would be a thing of the past. All thoughtful men feel seriously, if not sorrowfully, the changeful character of all the things which we see and handle on this earth. Where is continuance upon this planet? God has established the earth, and it abideth, but what beside abideth? Yea, even the earth is doomed to be burned up; and while it abides, great changes are continually occurring, even in the crust of the earth, and in the waters which fill its hollow places. And where continuance would be most valued, and where one should have expected it, even there it is not. The difference between poor men and rich men, famous men and men without renown, is just the difference between grass and the flower of grass; but as both grass and the flower of grass wither, so it is appointed unto all men once to die. There are things, however, which continue, good and precious things with which men have to do, and one of these things is mentioned in our text. Let us examine it. Words are lasting things. The breath which inspires them perishes, the lips which form them return to dust, the instruments which inscribe them are destructible, but words spoken and heard, written and read, have a boundless life and an immeasurable power. A good word may continue to enlighten, to invigorate forever and forever. All this is true of the words of man, but still more enduring in all their effects and influences are the words of the Lord. Many words has God spoken to us men. Among these words of God there is one communication which, on account of its singularity and importance, is called the Word of the Lord, and which, by reason of its pleasantness and graciousness, is called the gospel. Now, the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you. It lives in Gods mind; it lives, in fact, as a thing done and a provision completed; and it lives in the life of those who have been born again.
1. The nature of God, as revealed to us in the Scriptures, is the nature from which a gospel might be expected.
2. The gospel, so far as we appreciate it, and so far as we understand the thirsts and wants of human nature, is an all-sufficient gospel for man.
3. A gospel less than the gospel of the grace of God must have left some thirst unslaked, or some necessity unmet, or some wound unhealed, or some tears unwiped away; and while those tears were falling, that wound smarting, that want craving, that thirst burning, there could not have been the experience and enjoyment of complete salvation.
4. A gospel more real and substantial, or more worthy of the worlds acceptation, could not have issued even from God.
5. And this gospel is abiding, because it is the incorruptible seed of life everlasting. The old spiritual nature is impregnated with the seed of a new man, a Divine seed and incorruptible, the seed of the truth of the gospel; and the man who has thus received the gospel enters upon a new and eternal life. The gospel now lives in a living mind, and in a living heart, and in a living character; it repeats itself in the believer; and as the character and mission of Jesus Christ may be learned from the written life of Christ, so the gospel may be learned from the spiritual life of him who believes it.
Let us now indicate the practical bearing of this doctrine.
1. The text magnifies the gospel. Let us be devoutly careful to preserve its gloriousness in our own eyes. And in order to do this we must reverence the gospel.
2. The text shows that the gospel is intended to be to us personally, and thereby furnishes us with a test of our religious state. The gospel is intended to be the germ of a Godlike life within us, and if it fail of this, it fails of its chief effect.
3. The text points out that in which is continuance; let us take care to handle perishable things as perishable, and to demean ourselves toward the gospel as everlasting.
4. The text suggests the strongest motives for the immediate and universal preaching of the gospel. Flesh is as grass. The man whose days are as grass is dying daily. And it is only here, while he is breathing out his brief life, that his nature can be impregnated with this incorruptible seed.
5. The text encourages us to sustain, and in all respects to provide for, the continuous preaching of the gospel. One after another the preachers of the gospel enter that valley, and are seen no more. But what do they leave behind? The sanctuaries in which they ministered? Yes; but something more. The flocks they tended? Pleasant memories? Yes; but much more. They leave that gospel, written not on tablets of stone, but upon the fleshy tablets of the heart; they leave that gospel more than written-they leave it in many hearts, a seed with a germ of Godlike and eternal life in it; they leave it as a new man, in many who have been born again by it as by incorruptible seed; they leave it in the rich experiences and holy activities of the new man; they leave it in a state imperishable, and they may leave it without anxiety. (S. Martin.)
Autumn: lifes contrast
The form of thought here used illustrates a common principle in the operation of the human mind-that principle of contrast by which one thing suggests its opposite. Life is made up of contrasts. The secret of this influence of contrast lies in mans twofold nature, allied on the one side to the frail and perishing, on the other to the stable and enduring; one hand grasping dust and ashes, the other seizing upon the very throne of God; the outward eye seeing only what fades and passes away, the inward eye beholding glories which nothing can destroy or dim. There is something beyond the reach of change and decay and mortality-Gods truth, as it has been revealed to man; Gods promise, which by His Son He has made-this cannot fail. It will outlast all the forms of outward life, and all the splendours of nature; and, though heaven and earth pass away, it shall not pass away. The connection of the text makes it more emphatic. The apostle had been speaking of Christs resurrection, and of the faith and hope which this fact excites; and he alludes to the wasting away of all material things, so as to fix attention more joyfully on the souls undying nature. He leaps from the vessel that is sinking with all earths treasure in the sea of time, to the firm shore of immortality. Let the grass then wither, and the glory of man fade away. God willing, we would not have the present scene to be our permanent dwelling. The transient and the abiding in the nature and experience of man this is, indeed, a contrast which it well becomes us to consider. The great mistake that human beings make is in regarding perishable things as though they were imperishable, and so fastening on them the feelings and expectations which belong only to the imperishable. Christianity does not forbid us to have any regard for what is perishable and passing away. Jesus Christ brought no ascetic religion into the world. He does not bid us dig a cave, and hide ourselves from all that is bright and gladsome around us, fleeting though it be. But what He and His apostles insist on is, that we shall graduate and proportion our interest in all things according to their worth. To put in its right light the contrast, I would bring out, suppose some inhabitant of that upper world-as it is thought departed spirits may-to lift the curtain, and look in upon these scenes in which we mingle. To one whose eye looks from his high station, how small and obscure this lower world, the dim, narrow entrance way to the more glorious mansions of the Fathers house! He knows that authentic tidings of the great region He dwells in, have reached the ears of that crowd of mortals who move along through this entry of the spiritual world. As the sickly generations of creatures advance, the angel spectator scans the occupations in which they engage. What a thrill of amazement shoots through his breast to observe such multitudes living as though these narrow earthly steps to the great temple beyond were themselves the whole universe, studiously averting their eyes from the gate that leads to the immense splendours of the inner sanctuary. One is wholly absorbed in giving free scope to sense and appetite and superficial fancy. Another seems taken up entirely with swelling his pile of gold. He bends steadily down over it, and, as he stoops, gives up the lustre of heaven for its glitter. But yet another sight that angelic witness as surely beholds, and oh, there is not a pleasanter sight beneath the sun than that of a rich man for this world and for the world to come; yea, of a man who rejoices more than an old alchemist over the supposed discovery of the philosophers stone, at the opportunity to transmute his temporary into everlasting treasure. Here surely the principle is illustrated aright in a contrast just and holy. This, then, without further illustration, is the lesson of our text. Be not deceived in your estimate. Distinguish the things that differ. Observe the contrasts that God has established. Is the New Testament true? Shall these great scenes of judgment and doom, according to the deeds of the flesh, be soon ushered in? Make not, then, the enormous miscalculation of leaving so vast an element out of your account. Even in this life, the contrast between things earthly and things heavenly sometimes demonstrates itself in striking results. The distinct consequences of diverse characters are especially marked, as men advance in life towards old age; and the rewards and retributions already bestowed seem to anticipate the judgment day. As I walked through the lanes of yonder growing forest, on our beautiful common, the dry leaves crushing under my feet, and the sinking sun taking his last look at the bare boughs of the trees, I met a man on whom the blow of grief had descended as sorely as upon any, and with oft-repeated stroke. A new sorrow had just fallen on his grey head and long-diseased, emaciated frame. He spoke of faith. He spoke of loyalty to God and duty. He spoke of heaven as though it were near. He said nothing of being hardly dealt with, nor hinted aught about not understanding why he should be selected for such trials, but seemed to think there was nothing but Gods mercy and kindness in the world. But he seemed to me, as I looked upon him, to have an inward stay that would hold him up when all earthly props had fallen to the ground. For once, the contrast between earth and heaven was revealed to my mind; and the dissolving emblems of mortality under my feet, and the cold, shifting mists over my head, were transformed from sad tokens into symbols of hope and joy. (C. A. Bartol.)
The death of a servant of God
Two doctrines naturally arise from this text-
I. That man and his glory are fading and withering. All flesh is grass.
1. It is weak, and low, and little as grass. Mankind is indeed numerous as the grass of the field, multiplies, replenishes, and covereth the earth; but like grass, it is of the earth, earthy, mean, and of small account. Alas, the kingdoms of men which make so great a noise, so great a figure, in this lower world, are but as so many fields of grass compared with the bright and glorious constellations of stars, made up of the holy and blessed inhabitants of the upper regions. Proud men think themselves like the strong and stately cedars, oaks, or pines, but they soon find themselves as the grass of the field, liable to be nipped with every frost, trampled on by every foot, continually insulted by common calamities.
2. It is withering, and fading, and dying as grass; having both its rise and maintenance out of the earth, it hastens to the earth, and retires to its root and foundation in the dust. In the morning, perhaps, it is green and growing up, its aspect pleasing, its prospect promising; but when we come to look upon it in our evening work we find it cut down and withered. If it be not cut down by disease or disaster, it will soon wither of itself; it has in it the principles of its own corruption. Is all flesh grass? All, without exception of the noble or the fair, the young or the strong, the well-born or well-built, the well-fed or well-bred? Is all grass, weak and withering?
(1) Then let us see ourselves to be grass, and humble and deny ourselves. Is the body grass? Then be not proud, be not presumptuous, be not confident of a long continuance here; forget not that the foot may crush thee. Grass falls; let me not be such a fool as to lay up my treasure in it. Is the body grass? Then let us not indulge it too much, nor bestow too much time and care and pains about it, as many do, to the neglect of the better and immortal part. After all, we cannot keep it from withering, when its day shall come to fall.
(2) Let us see others also to be as grass, and cease from man, because he is no more than thus to be accounted of. We are now to consider, not common men, but men of distinction, and to see them withering and falling.
3. Let us inquire, What is the glory of man in this world? There is indeed a glory of man which is counterfeit, and mistaken for glory. Solomon says, For men to search their own glory is not glory (Pro_25:27). The glory men commonly pursue and search for is no glory at all. Is beauty and comeliness of body the glory of man? So they pass with some who judge by the sight of the eye; but at the best they are only the goodliness of grass; they are a flower which death will certainly cut down; or the end of time will change the countenance; either wrinkled age, or pale death. We should therefore make sure the beauty of grace, the hidden man of the heart, which neither age nor death will sully. Is wealth the glory of man? Labans sons thought so when they said concerning Jacob. Of that which was our fathers hath he gotten all this glory (Gen_31:1). But this also is a fading flower, Is pomp and grandeur the glory of a man? That also withers away. Great names and titles of honour are written in the dust. Give me leave to show you some instances of the glory of a man.
(1) Is a large capacity of mind the glory of a man?
(2) Is learning to be reckoned the glory of a man?
(3) Is tenderness and humility, modesty and sweetness of temper, the glory of a man?
(4) Is the faithful discharge of the ministry of the gospel the glory of a man?
(5) Is great usefulness the glory of a man, and a delight in doing good? Well, here is the glory of man; let us be ambitious of this glory, and not of vain glory. See true honour in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and seek it there. This is honour that comes from God, and is in His sight of great price.
4. Having seen this flower flourishing, we are now to see it withering. As to himself, this glory is not lost, is not stained, by death; it is not like worldly honour, laid in the dust, and buried in the grave; no, this flower is transplanted from the garden on earth to the paradise in heaven, where it shall never fade. The works of good men follow them, but they forsake us, and we are deprived of the benefit of them.
II. Though man and glory are fading and withering, yet God and His word are everliving and everlasting. The glory of the law was done away, but that of the gospel remains. The glory of ministers falls away, but not the glory of the Word they are ministers of. The prophets, indeed, do not live forever, but the words which God commanded them did, and will take hold, as words quick and powerful.
1. There is in the Word of the Lord an everlasting rule of faith and practice for us to be ruled by.
(1) It is our comfort that Christianity shall not die with our ministers, nor that light be buried in their graves.
(2) It is our duty not to let our Christianity die with our ministers, hut let the word of Christ contained in the Scriptures still dwell in us richly.
2. There is in the Word of the Lord an everlasting fountain of comfort and consolation for us to be refreshed and encouraged by, and to draw water from with joy, and an everlasting foundation on which to build our hopes. (Matthew Henry.)
Man compared to grass
We are like grass.
1. We are like grass in our relation to the earth.
2. We are like grass in the frailty of our nature.
3. We are like grass in the uncertainty of our lives. The blade dies in all seasons.
4. We are like grass in the unnoticeableness of our dissolution. Blade after blade withers and dies, and the landscape appears as ever. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The fleeting and the durable
I. The transitory nature of all the things which appertain to this our earthly state. All flesh is grass, etc.
1. How affectingly is this sentiment verified in the personal endowments of man, beauty and strength! Survey that animal structure, once so lovely, when it is wrinkled by the hand of time; when it is withered by the action of disease; when it is blasted by the stroke of death. Survey these melancholy changes which await the sons and daughters of Adam, and you will feel the propriety of the sentiment in the text.
2. The wisdom of man, no less than his beauty and strength, serves as an example of the sentiment in the text. In the present age we are accustomed to denounce the systems of former generations as fanciful or crude, and to smile when we hear them dignified by the names of philosophy and science; boasting at the same time that the perfection of philosophy and the arts have been reserved for our own age. Alas! for us, generations will arise that will look back on the nineteenth century, and in their turn laugh at the rudeness of our inventions, the infancy of our science, and the blunders of our philosophy. The fact is, that all knowledge merely human is destined to pass away (1Co_13:8).
3. We may also adduce as an example of the truth in the text the passing away of all those things which constitute the elegancies and decorations of civilised life; all that is designed to gratify the taste and imagination. Whatever the pencil of the painter has portrayed; whatever the chisel of the sculptor has wrought out; whatever the skill of the architect has raised; whatever the imagination has devised of rare and ornamental in furniture, dress, or manners-all must serve in its turn to show that the goodliness of man is as the flower of the field.
4. I must not omit to bring forward riches as furnishing a verification equally strong of the sentiment of the text.
5. These remarks apply with equal propriety to that idol of many hearts-fame. The historians pen, the poets muse, the tablet of marble and brass, all the means which have been employed to perpetuate a name, have only served as a comment on the text.
6. Power and dominion, desired by some and envied by others as the most abiding of human things, are only exemplifications on a larger scale of the truth affirmed in the text. Empires rise and fall; sceptres change hands, thrones are overturned, and one dynasty succeeds another.
7. One other illustration of the affecting sentiment of the text yet remains. The great globe itself, the habitation of fallen man, is destined to pass away!
II. The durability of that dispensation of truth with which Jehovah has blessed the world. By the Word of our God I understand Messiahs dispensation, the gospel of the Son of God, with all the fulness of its grace and truth.
1. It is proved that this Word of our God shall stand forever, in spite of all that can be effected to the contrary by persecution. Evangelical truth has outlived the memory of her once mighty foes; has overturned the monuments reared to commemorate her own destruction; and, clothed in celestial radiance and power, has gone on from conquering to conquer!
2. The course of events has shown that the Word of our God shall stand forever, notwithstanding the hostility of infidel men. The religion of Christ Jesus may be compared to an exceeding strong citadel, erected on the summit of an everlasting rock. They alone tremble for its security who are ignorant of its impregnable strength.
3. As a confirmation of the position in the text, that the Word of our God shall stand forever, we may with holy exultation advert to that spread of the Christian religion which has taken place in our day.
4. I may mention as a further proof that the Word of our God shall stand forever, that holy energy with which it is still accompanied. (J. Bromley.)
The withering work of the Spirit
(with Isa_40:6-8):-In every one of us it must be fulfilled that all that is of the flesh in us, seeing it is but as grass, must be withered, and the comeliness thereof must be destroyed. The Spirit of God, like the wind, must pass over the field of our souls, and cause our beauty to be as a fading flower. There must be brought home to us the sentence of death upon our former legal and carnal life, that the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, implanted by the Holy Ghost, may be in us, and abide in us forever. The subject is the withering work of the Spirit upon the souls of men.
I. Turning then to the work of the spirit in causing the goodliness of the flesh to fade, let us, first, observe that the work of the Holy Spirit upon the soul of man in withering up that which is of the flesh, is very unexpected. You will observe that even the speaker himself, though doubtless one taught of God, when he was bidden to cry, said, What shall I cry? Even he did not know that in order to the comforting of Gods people, there must first be experienced a preliminary visitation. Many preachers of Gods gospel have forgotten that the law is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. It cannot be that God should cleanse thee until He has made thee see somewhat of thy defilement; for thou wouldst never value the precious blood if thou hadst not first of all been made to mourn that thou art altogether an unclean thing. The convincing work of the Spirit, wherever it comes, is unexpected, and even to the child of God in whom this process has still to go on, it is often startling. We begin again to build that which the Spirit of God had destroyed. Having begun in the Spirit, we act as if we would be made perfect in the flesh; and then when our mistaken up-building has to be levelled with the earth, we are almost as astonished as we were when first the scales fell from our eyes. The voice which saith, Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, achieves its purpose by first making them hear the cry, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
2. Furthermore, this withering is after the usual order of the Divine operation. If we consider well the way of God we shall not be astonished that He beginneth with His people by terrible things in righteousness. Observe the method of creation. What was there in the beginning? Originally nothing. The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. There was no trace of anothers plan to interfere with the great architect. So it is in the new creation. When the Lord new creates us, He borrows nothing from the old man, but makes all things new. He does not repair and add a new wing to the old house of our depraved nature, but He builds a new temple for His own praise.
3. I would have you notice that we are taught in our text how universal this process is in its range over the hearts of all those upon whom the Spirit works. All flesh is grass; and all the goodliness thereof-the very choice and pick of it-is as the flower of the field, and what happens to the grass? Does any of it live? The grass withereth, all of it. The flower, will not that abide? So fair a thing, has not that an immortality? No, it utterly falls away. So wherever the Spirit of God breathes on the soul of man, there is a withering of everything that is of the flesh, and it is seen that to be carnally minded is death. If the work in us be not the Spirits working, but our own, it will droop and die when most we require its protection.
4. You see, then, the universality of this withering work within us, but notice the completeness of it. The grass, what does it do? Droop? nay, wither. The flower of the field: what of what? Does it hang its head a little? No, according to Isaiah it fades; and according to Peter it falleth away. There is no reviving it with showers, it has come to its end. Even thus are the awakened led to see that in their flesh there dwelleth no good thing.
5. Let us further notice that all this withering work in the soul is very painful. As you read these verses do they not strike you as having a very funereal tone? This is mournful work, but it must be done. All that is of natures spinning must be unravelled. It was a great merry for our city of London that the great fire cleared away all the old buildings which were the lair of the plague, a far healthier city was then built; and it is a great mercy for a man when God sweeps right away all his own righteousness and strength, when He makes him feel that he is nothing and can be nothing, and drives him to confess that Christ must be all in all, and that his only strength lies in the eternal might of the ever-blessed Spirit.
6. Observe that although this is painful it is inevitable. Why does the grass wither? Because it is a withering thing. Its root is ever in its grave, and it must die. How could it spring out of the earth and be immortal? The seeds of corruption are in all the fruits of manhoods tree; let them be as fair to look upon as Edens clusters, they must decay. Moreover, it would never do that there should be something of the flesh in our salvation and something of the Spirit; for if it were so there would be a division of the honour. It gives me great joy when I hear that you unconverted ones are very miserable, for the miseries which the Holy Spirit works are always the prelude to happiness.
7. It is the Spirits work to wither. Better to be broken in pieces by the Spirit of God than to be made whole by the flesh! What doth the Lord say? I kill. But what next? I make alive. He never makes any alive but those He kills. He never hems those whom He has not wounded.
II. Now, concerning the implantation. According to Peter, although the flesh withers, arid the flower thereof falls away, yet in the children of God there is an unwithering something of another kind. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, etc. The Word of the Lord endureth forever, etc. Now, the gospel is of use to us because it is not of human origin. If it were of the flesh, all it could do for us would not land us beyond the flesh; but the gospel of Jesus Christ is super human, Divine, and spiritual. In its conception it was of God; its great gift, even the Saviour, is a Divine gift; and all its teachings are full of deity. Now this is the incorruptible Word, that God was made flesh and dwelt among us; that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. This is the incorruptible Word, that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Do you receive it? Then the Holy Spirit implants it in your soul. Do you leap up to it, and say, I believe it? Then you possess the living seed within your soul. And what is the result of it? Why, then there comes, according to the text, a new life into us, as the result of the indwelling of the living Word, and our being born again by it. Now observe wherever this new life comes through the Word, it is incorruptible, it lives and abides forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Man and his glory-the grass and its flower
These verses institute a comparison and bring out a contrast between the natural life and the spiritual. Every son of man is born into one life, and every son of God is born again into another. There is a mystery in every man, but a greater mystery in every Christian. Nature is deep, but grace is deeper. The two lives brought into contrast here are the natural life of man in the body which soon fades away, and the new life of the regenerated which will forever flourish. These two lives are not in all their aspects opposite, for the same person may at the same time possess both. He holds them, however, by different tenures: the first or natural life will soon depart, but the new or spiritual life will be his forever. The analogy employed is exact and full and beautiful-All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Man is like the grass, and his glory like its flower. Life is short, and the period of its perfect development is shorter still. The history of a man consists of a gradual growing to maturity, and a gradual declining to the grave. Such is his best estate, when no accident cuts him off in mid-time of his days. But if this is true of the flesh-the sensitive nature which man has in common with the brutes-what shall be said of all his distinguishing features as a moral and intelligent being? Although the mere flesh is evanescent, what of the glory wherewith his Maker has crowned his head? The text has two things to say of this glory-the first, that it greatly excels in worth and beauty the animal structure on which it grows; the second, that it is still more short lived. If all flesh be as grass, all its glory is only as the flower of grass. The flower is indeed the glory of the grass, but it comes up later and withers earlier. What shall we say, then, of all that is peculiar to man-of all that distinguishes him from the beasts of the field-of that human face divine, and that articulate speech, and that calculating mind, which mark him off as chief of Gods creatures here and ruler of His world? Can the glory of man be compared to the herbage as well as his sentient nature? No; for though it is more brilliant while it lasts, it is sooner over. Beauty of form is one of the distinguishing glories of humanity. It has pleased God our Father so to arrange the features of our frame, and so to constitute our minds, that we count them comely. We admire the flower of the herbage, and devoutly see in it the Creators wisdom. Shall we not look with deeper interest on a lighted human countenance, and see in that glory of man a glory to the Lord? This glory does not last long; it is a flower-fragrant, attractive; but it withers soon. The flower is later blown and earlier faded than the frail green stem that bears it. But the beauty of the new creature in Christ does not fade like a flower. It is an interesting speculation-although it can be nothing more-to imagine the beauty of man unfallen. The peculiar sweetness sometimes imparted to the countenance of an ordinary person by the sudden influx of a great peace in periods of spiritual revival suggests the probability that we lost by sin an external loveliness so great that we lack now the power of conceiving fully what it was. But, great though the loss be, Christians sorrow not over it as those who have no hope; for their gain is greater. Where sin abounded to mar, grace will much more abound to renew. Whatever is lost by sin is more than restored by redemption. The risen Christ is glorious, and risen Christians will be like Him. Humanity redeemed will be humanity perfect. I would fain realise the beauty of the resurrection body, as well as the spiritual purity of the saints in light. (W. Arnot.)
The Word of the Lord endureth forever.
The living and enduring Word
On what grounds does the apostle assign to the gospel exclusively this high character, that it endureth forever?
I. The righteousness which the Gospel reveals for justifying the ungodly is everlasting. Mankind are guilty before God; and what blessing is so necessary as justification? Of what avail are rank, power, wealth, learning, and even Church privileges, of which so many boast, for acceptance with God? What, then, is the glory of the self-justiciary? It is fading and transient as the flowers of the field. And what presumption in sinful mortal man to hold up any of these things, or all of them put together, if that were in his power, as his righteousness, in direct opposition to the declared will of his Creator and Lord. Is the God who made him to be dictated to by him? No. That Word, fixing the mode of acceptance, endureth forever, while the glory which man opposes to it shall wither, and leave its worshippers covered with confusion. The certainty and the perfect reasonableness of this result must impress us more deeply if we consider the character of the righteousness which the Word of the Lord reveals and establishes. It is absolutely perfect, for it includes obedience to both the precept and the penalty of the law of God; it is divinely excellent, for it was performed by the Son of God, who condescended to assume our frail nature that He might perform it; it is the most glorious production of Divine wisdom and love: it hath magnified the law and made it honourable; it hath thus propitiated God and abolished death.
II. The vital principle which the Word of God inspires is imperishable. The only life which we derive from Adam is feeble, terrestrial, mortal. Its activities, aims, and enjoyments correspond to its nature and origin. They all centre in things worldly and perishing. The gospel is the ministration of life. The Lord Jesus conveys by it the influences of His quickening Spirit into the soul that was alienated from God and absorbed in earful, and produces in it the new creature, even faith working by love. The truth which the Word testifies concerning Christ being thus known and believed becomes the principle of a new life, the activities of which appear in the outgoings of the soul towards Him in trust, hope, love, gratitude, submission. By the illuminations of His Word Christ lives in that soul, and exerts a mighty power over all its faculties-a power which inspires it with His own views, spirit, and aims. Actuated by the vital principles which His words create-for His words are spirit and life-the mind connects all things with Christ and with God, converts them into means of instruction, into motives to love and obedience, into materials for praise. It regards its most common mercies as the fruits of Divine bounty, the expressions of the Divine goodness and care. It submits to privations and afflictions, and endures them as the salutary discipline of a wise father; and the most ordinary occurrences it contemplates as the dispensations of Him who makes all things work together for good to them that love Him. The relations, then, and pleasures, and pains, and intercourse, and pursuits, and occurrences which are peculiar to the present transient state, and which are so insignificant in themselves, because the state to which they belong is so fluctuating and evanescent, rise into dignity and importance, from the influence which the Divine Word exerts on the mind in which it lives, and become the means at once of present fellowship with God and of training up an immortal spirit for a holy and blessed eternity. Now this vital principle, so excellent in itself, is imperishable. In the present state, indeed, its power is small, its activities are feeble and irregular, and, of course, its influence is very limited. But let us recollect that it is only very lately since it came into being, and that it exists in the midst of much which is most hostile to it, and which continually opposes its growth. It shall exist, and notwithstanding the bleakness of the soil in which it is planted, and the noxious exhalations which rise around it and the storms which assail it, shall wax stronger and stronger; for the seed is the Word of the Lord which liveth and abideth forever.
III. The honour to which the Gospel raises believers, and the beauties with which it adorns them, are unfading. It dignifies them with intimate relations to Christ, introduces them into Gods favour, exalts them to be His sons, gives them access with confidence to His gracious presence, a claim on His protection and care, and makes them kings and priests unto God. And these are not only enduring, but ever-increasing honours; at least their transcendent excellence and glory shine with increasing lustre, and the longer and the more fully they are enjoyed they are the more highly valued, and their power to ennoble and to bless is more abundantly experienced and more humbly and gratefully acknowledged. They are enduring, for the loving kindness of God, which is the sum of them all, is immutable, and the charter which conveys them is irrevocable, for it is confirmed by the blood of Christ and the oath of God.
IV. Every hope which is founded on this word shall be more than fulfilled. What blessed hopes does it authorise and encourage the believer to cherish!-the hope that God will never fail him nor forsake him, that the Divine Spirit shall be his guide and comforter, that his heavenly Advocate shall secure to him mercy and grace in every time of need, that the Lord will perfect that which concerneth him. Oh! are not these glorious hopes, not only worthy of intellectual and immortal beings, but hopes which ennoble and purify and bless them! Can the greatest and best portion of worldly good which human heart ever ventured to anticipate bear comparison with them for a single moment? And that hope rests on a sure foundation. It is built on the living and imperishable Word of Him who is eternal and almighty, whose name is Faithful and True, and sooner shall heaven and earth pass than one iota or tittle of His Word remain unfulfilled. (James Stark, D. D.)
The Word of God a living thing
I. The Word of God is the seed of life. It is a principle having life and energy, which sown in mans heart grows there, expands, and bears fruit to such an extent that the whole man is transformed into a new creature, and henceforth lives to God. It is not so often a broad outline of Christian truth that strikes its root into the conscience as some word or two; some thought; some blessed promise, such as 1Jn_1:7; some touching invitation, like Mat_11:28; some alarming note of warning, as Luk_13:3; some fearful description, as 1Ti_5:6. In the private history of almost every one amongst us who has dared to confess Christ there has been, previous to that step, a time of reading and of praying over the Word of God. Schoolboys in their private rooms, trembling, it may be, at their fellows laugh, clerks in their intervals of business, a wife in her husbands absence at his daily work, soldiers and sailors, have placed the Bible on their tables, read, prayed, applied the Word, made it their own, and so been born again of this incorruptible seed, etc.
II. The Word of God liveth and abideth forever; and if we need to receive it into our hearts as the seed of life, so have we need to cherish it there as the support of life-of that life which, beginning here, goes on throughout eternity. Distinctly and forever shall we think of and see before us the Lamb who has redeemed us to God by His blood. Distinctly and forever will His holy law stand out as the law by which we tried to live on earth and by which we cannot fail to live in heaven. (F. Morse, M. A.)
Human changes and the Divine unchangeableness
Human changes and the Divine unchangeableness-this is the subject suggested by our text. Its first clause is an utterance of the despondency which comes over us as we contemplate the frail lives of men. The second clause answers that despondency by affirming that the Word of the Lord is not changeful like the thought of man, but enduring as God Himself. The third clause declares that in the gospel we have the abiding Word of God; and the whole passage is intended to illustrate the foregoing declaration that faith in the gospel makes men as immortal as God; we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now the Bible is not a despondent book. Prophets and apostles give expression to our despondency only to correct and to console it.
I. The first consolation our text has for this depression is that it contrasts with our frailty the Word of the Eternal God. It matters little that the worker passes if his work endures. If we had but as firm a faith in the Word of God as we have in the results of human investigation, if we were as earnest in the Divine work as in our own, despondency would be at an end. Piety will never be checked, faith will never languish, because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. For piety is bent on serving God, and faith receives Gods revelation; and though the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away, the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
II. The next thought suggested by our text is that mans changefulness illustrates the eternal purpose of God. The Divine intention is brought out in His dealing with the fleeting generations of men; it becomes venerable in retrospect, while it is ever revealing itself in the freshness of a progressive history. An unvarying history would be a history of death; we gain a vaster idea of permanence by advance than we could ever gain by the continuance of unchanging forms. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever-depository of Gods creative energy. Another spring sees the grass revive; the trees look down on the renewed face of the earth. So, though men die, humanity endures; the same in its great necessities, the same in its sense of dependence and obligation, with quenchless aspirations ever rising; there is an abiding human heart. And humanity finds the same eternal God, the same object of piety, the inspirer and rewarder of faith, the fountain of an everlasting hope; finds the same salvation, the same Saviour-Jesus Christ, yesterday and today the same, and forever. There is development in humanity as there is evolution in nature; and this development witnesses to the abiding God, who needs ages to work out His will and reveal His eternal purpose of goodness and grace to waiting man.
III. It is not of the eternity of God or of Gods rule over the world that our text speaks; it is The Word of the Lord, which endureth forever, We need a revelation; an unrevealed were an unknown God. And yet how can we dream of abiding truth in a changing humanity? As mankind advances will not mens thoughts vary concerning even such fundamental things as moral obligation, the character of virtue, the objects of our devotion, the very being of God? The answer is, there will be development in the Christian faith; a fuller apprehension of its truths, a deeper sympathy with its spirit, a larger experience of its power, a broader application of it to the varying wants of men. But it will be from the old founts that the new inspirations will be drawn; men will turn to Christ and His gospel in every social complication, every conflict of faith, every spiritual need. The worlds morals must be Christian morals; the worlds religion the Christian faith. We are able to apply the test of history to this prediction. What book is there, eighteen hundred years old, which has the interest for all sorts and conditions of men the gospel has? We look inward, and we find the reason of its perpetuity to lie in its appeal to what is deepest in the soul of man.
IV. The enduring Word of God is the pledge of our endurance. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. The gospel has been the salt of the earth, preserving it from decay. Under it the world has renewed its youth, and its last days shall be its best. The love and righteousness, which are first revealed to our faith as ever abiding in God, and then are formed in Us-graces of character as well as objects of faith-are the only things that can endure. The man in whom they are not is dead while he liveth; the man in whom they are shall live, although he die. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The enduring Word
I. We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the eternal God?
II. We have here as everliving gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lips of God, as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify, as ever it was in its first days of wonder working.
III. We have an unchanging gospel, which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay, but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.
IV. Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoice in, a Word of the Lord upon which we may lean all our weight. Forever includes life, death, judgment, and eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Word of the Lord everlasting
I am glad to have deliverance like this, so distinct, so comprehensive, and at the same time so authoritative. Men sometimes ask us what it is that we mean when we speak so positively about the Word of the Lord. In one phrase, we answer, we mean the glad tidings of great joy which are unto all people, that unto them was born on a given day in a city of David a Saviour, who was Christ the Lord. This emphatically is the Word of the Lord. The facts which relate to the sufferings of our Redeemer and the facts which relate to His subsequent acts of everlasting glory are a message from God unto man. And the predictions, the narrations, the explanations, the invitations, and the promises altogether make up what the apostle is here designating; put altogether, they constitute the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The adversaries of the Christian faith tell us that our old gospel will presently be disproved. Strange, if it is to come to nothing, that it has survived for nineteen centuries already!
I. It is secure, whatever may be the efforts of possible persecution. I do not say that you will not have apparent triumphs on the part of the persecutors. False brethren will fall away, but Gods truth, somehow or other, will still survive, and He to whom that truth pertains and whose Word we are speaking will make it good in spite of opposition, and make it good in the oppressions of His faithful servants, strengthening them with strength in their souls, turning curse into blessing, and making the wrath of man to praise Him, whilst the remainder of that wrath He will restrain.
II. The old gospel is in no danger whatever from the intellectual opposition of our modern infidels. Here and there we have the sound of triumph on the part of our adversaries. Reading their literature, as some of us do, we find those triumphs much more frequent perhaps than some of you may suppose; but what are the triumphs? They are not triumphs over the old gospel as it came down from heaven. You have had things incorporated with Christianity which God never put there-they are disproved; you have had opinions foisted upon the gospel from the traditions of men-they are being detached; you have had interpretations of Holy Scripture which are undoubtedly untrue-you have had them put to silence. But need I say that such victories are not against us? They are on our side! To get rid of error is to get rid of so much dead weight; and although the discomfiture of a Christian man, when the traditions which he has maintained are taken from beneath him, may not be that which he likes, yet such discomfiture is so much clear gain to the Christian cause, and that clear gain it will go on to acquire.
III. The old gospel is in no danger from the discoveries of our scientific men. I know of no statement so popular amongst the foes of the Christian faith as this, that the teachings of our sacred books are at variance with the teachings of the natural sciences; at variance, for example, with the teachings of astronomy, of archaeology, and especially of geology. Not one of those sciences whispers a coming contradiction to your Bibles; not one of them foretokens a coming time when you will have either to give up that book or to deny indisputable facts.
IV. The old gospel is in no danger from the advancement of civilisation. How is civilisation advancing! What a power is that of our commerce, our literature, our science, our art, our philanthropy, our moral and intellectual philosophy! There is much about it to be admired; it softens asperities, conciliates antagonism, refines the manners, elevates the character, combines and consolidates into one the entire family of man. Wondrous is the good which it has been doing, and wondrous is the good of which it is itself the representative and the embodiment. Tell us that civilisation will be the destroyer of Christianity! Why, abstract from your modern civilisation that which Christianity has imparted to it, and you have just that which very presently, by common consent, would be buried and out of sight. Why, it is the very child which your Christianity has brought forth; it is the very creation of which Christianity in her pure exuberance is instrumentally the creator. You might just as well think of this great superstructure in which we are assembled existing without a foundation as to think of modern civilisation existing without Christianity.
V. The old gospel is in no danger from the ulterior necessities of humanity. There may be species of human necessity that have never yet come to light in our acquaintance with mankind; and there may be species that never will come to light, except it be in some further and advanced stage of the history of our race. The capacities, the susceptibilities, and the activities of the human soul are perfectly wonderful. Give to that human soul the opportunity, the means, and the appliances which may be requisite, and where is the man that will tell me what deeper depths of the emotional he may evince, what mightier forces of the intellectual he may disclose, what intenser sympathy with the diabolical he may display, and what more glowing apprehensions of the immortal he may manifest? Abide by your old gospel with an unfaltering faith. Let that time come, and be it present to your eye now, when there shall be powers of investigation to which there is no parallel now; there will be the message to the man who possesses that power of investigation-Go and investigate the great mystery of godliness. Be your power what it may, it will find its occupation there. Be it so, that there shall be a capability for apprehension to which there is no parallel now: the commandment will be-Go and take the unspeakable gift of God, and try and find the occupation for your apprehension there. Be it so that there is guilt perpetrated-and who can tell after what we see ourselves what forms of guilt may be perpetrated?-be it that guilt is perpetrated at which even the devil stands aghast: there is the blood that cleanseth from all sin; let the sinner go and be cleansed and pardoned by that. Be it so that there will be unparalleled sympathy with and aspiration for the immortal; let the man who is the subject of such aspirations go and try to understand the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Oh! there is no danger for the old gospel! You may have philosophy sublimated, until that with which we are familiar shall be as nothing side by side with your philosophy; transcendently superior will be the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and so far from being inadequate to mans requisitions then, it will supply, with an amplitude which is imperial, all that shall be required. So far from being effete and obsolete, it will exist with living and with royal power; so far from being, as we are told, an exploded superstition, an exhausted fountain, an ancient, decrepit, infirm, unavailable messenger of good, there it will be, in all the vigour of its youth, proclaiming salvation through the blood of the Lamb, and declaring to mankind in its highest elevation there is a higher elevation still. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding. This Word of the Lord wilt be all adequate to the necessities and the requirements of humanity. (W. Brock.)
The Word of God everliving
How wonderfully has the Lord provided for the continuance of the vegetable world; He causes the plant to scatter broadcast a multitude of seeds, and bids the winds convey them far and wide. The fowls of the air are commissioned to bear berries and fruits to their proper soils, and even to bury them in the earth; while scores of four-footed creatures, engaged in storing up food for themselves, become planters of trees and propagators of plants. Seeds bear a charmed life about them; they will germinate after being buried for centuries; they have been known to flourish when turned up from the borings of wells from the depth of hundreds of feet, and when ponds and lakes have been dried the undrowned vegetable life has surprised the beholders by blossoming with unknown flowers. Can we imagine that God has been thus careful of the life of the mere grass of the field, which is the very emblem of decay, and yet is negligent of His Word, which liveth and abideth forever? It is not to be dreamed of. Truth, the incorruptible seed, is ever scattering itself; every wind is laden with it, every breath spreads it; it lies dormant in a thousand memories; it preserves its life in the abodes of death. The Lord has but to give the word, and a band of eloquent men shall publish the gospel, apostles and evangelists will rise in abundance, like the warriors who sprang from the fabled dragons teeth; converts will spring up like flowerets at the approach of spring, nations shall be born in a day, and truth, and God the Lord of truth, shall reign forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
This is the Word which by the gospel is preached.-
The same gospel for us
1. The same Word of the Lord-the same glorious gospel-is now preached to you. And it is this day as young and fresh, and strong and imperishable, as ever it was. It abideth forever. And the flesh is still as frail, and all the glory of the flesh still as fleeting, as of old. There is no spot on this round earth where we can escape the admonition and the rebuke to our levity and pride. It startles the wayfarer in the bright savannas of the south, and amid the sands of the desert and the icy desolation of the pole. It whispers from the green mounds of western forests, and is repeated by the billows of ocean as they roll above the multitudes that have gone down to slumber in the silent depths. There is no hope for man, save only what is provided by that Word of the Lord which in the gospel is preached unto you.
2. But remember that even this mighty Word has power to bless and save only as it is believed and obeyed. Alas! how is this simple truth wilfully forgotten by multitudes who may yet be said to be exemplary in their attendance on public ordinances!
3. Let me ask those of you who profess faith in the gospel whether your obedience of the truth is such as purifies your souls from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit; whether, in particular, it has tended in any measure to a brotherly love unfeigned. (J. Lillie, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 24. All flesh is as grass (Isa. 40:6). God's…
24. All flesh is as grass (Isa. 40:6). God's word lives forever, but the flesh is as evanescent as the grass. The fleshly life, like the grass, is soon felled by death, but a birth from the living and eternal word is a birth to eternal life.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
In these verses Peter quotes a passage from the prophet Isaiah relating to what he has just said about them being born of imperishable seed.
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All flesh is like grass, and all its
The word "flesh" refers to humanity. The prophet Isaiah compares humanity to grass that grows and dies quickly. AT: "All people will die like grass dies, and all their" (See: Metonymy and Simile)
glory is like the wild flower of the grass
Here the word "glory" refers to beauty or goodness. Isaiah compares the things that people consider to be good or beautiful about humanity to flowers that die quickly. AT: "goodness soon stops, just as flowers soon die" (See: Simile)
the word of the Lord
"the message that comes from the Lord"
This is the good news
Here the word "This" refers to "the word of the Lord."
the good news that was announced
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the good news that we announced" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
flesh
glory
eternity
good news
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.