The believer’s security lies not in his strength, but in the nature of the new life he has received. The old man may fall, but the new man cannot fail. The child may be chastened, but never cast away. The new birth creates a new man who is incapable of sin, and death is by sin, so the new man cannot die.
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
Scripture presents two seeds, two births, two natures, two destinies, and two triple assurances of salvation. Everything that follows flows from these simple truths.
I. The Seed of Adam: Corruption and Death
All men enter this world bearing the nature of Adam. His seed is corrupt, fallen, and condemned.
“By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men” (Romans 5:12).
The flesh cannot be reformed. Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). The flesh remains what it is. It sins because it is sinful. It dies because it is corruptible.
Paul describes the condition of the unredeemed body:
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death” (Romans 7:24).
The seed of Adam brings sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This is why the new birth is not optional. It is essential.
II. The Seed of God: Incorruption and Life
The new birth is not the improvement of the old man. It is the creation of a new man.
“Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Peter declares the nature of this new life:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
John speaks with stunning clarity:
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
John is not speaking of the believer’s flesh, but of the new man born of God. The seed of God cannot produce sin, because it is incorruptible. And Scripture is clear that death comes only by sin. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). If there is no sin, there can be no death. If the new man cannot sin, then the new man cannot die.
This is the simple, unavoidable logic of Scripture.
Death is the wage of sin.
The new man cannot sin.
Therefore the new man cannot die.
The life God gives is eternal because it is sinless. It is sinless because it is born of God. It is born of God because it comes from incorruptible seed. The new man is as secure as the One who begat him.
III. Overcoming: The Prerequisite and Proof of Eternal Life
Revelation 3:5 presents both a promise and a warning. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Only the overcomer retains his name in the Book of Life. But Scripture does not leave us to guess who the overcomer is.
John answers plainly. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4–5). The overcomer is not the morally superior but the spiritually reborn. To believe on Christ is to be born of God; to be born of God is to overcome.
Overcoming is not the condition of salvation. It is the consequence of the new birth. The new man overcomes because he is born of God, and the seed of God cannot fail.
IV. The Book of Life: Written from Conception
If only the overcomer’s name remains, then whose names are blotted out? The biblical logic is simple and beautiful. Every soul conceived begins with their name written in the Book of Life. This aligns perfectly with God’s stated desire “for all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). It also exposes the fatalism of Calvinism, which denies universal invitation and reduces election to arbitrary selection.
God’s heart is not selective but sacrificial. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The blotting out is not God’s desire. It is man’s rejection. The Book of Life begins full; it is diminished only by unbelief.
V. The Evidence of Sonship: Chastisement and Hunger for the Word
The child of God is not born malformed. God does not bring forth lifeless children. Every birth He gives bears the marks of life. Scripture gives two primary evidences of true sonship: chastisement and hunger.
1. Chastisement: The Father’s Hand of Preservation
“Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).
And Scripture is blunt:
“If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Hebrews 12:8).
Chastisement is not condemnation. It is preservation. It is the Father’s hand keeping His children from destruction.
2. Hunger: The First Cry of the Newborn
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).
God does not birth children who have no appetite for Him. The Spirit creates hunger.
The babe desires milk.
The growing believer desires meat.
“For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age” (Hebrews 5:13–14).
Hunger is not a work. It is a sign of life.
Chastisement is not punishment. It is a sign of sonship.
Both testify that the believer is truly born of God.
VI. The Sin Unto Death: Destruction of the Flesh, Preservation of the Spirit
John warns of a “sin unto death”:
“There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16).
Paul describes the same reality with unmistakable clarity:
“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5).
This is not the loss of salvation. It is the ultimate chastisement. When a believer persists in sin to the point of bringing reproach on Christ, God may remove him from this life. The flesh is destroyed, but the spirit is preserved. The body may be taken, but the soul is secured.
This is not judgment unto damnation. It is discipline unto salvation.
It is the Father calling a wandering child home before he destroys himself further.
The sin unto death is therefore another proof of eternal security.
If salvation could be lost, God would not need to take the body to save the soul.
But because the soul is His, He preserves it, even if He must end the earthly life to do so.
The destruction of the flesh is temporal.
The preservation of the spirit is eternal.
The child may be taken home early, but he is still a child.
VII. The Tension of Two Natures: Waiting for the Redemption of the Body
Though the inner man is born of incorruptible seed, the outer man still bears the imprint of Adam. The believer lives in a tension Scripture openly acknowledges. Paul himself cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death” (Romans 7:24). His struggle was not the struggle of an unregenerate man, but of a redeemed man living in an unredeemed body.
He explains the conflict plainly. “With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). The new man delights in the law of God. The flesh resists it. The new man cannot sin. The flesh cannot do anything else. The believer is therefore not divided in identity, but in habitation. He is a new creature living in an old body.
This tension is not a sign of spiritual failure. It is the evidence of spiritual life. The dead do not struggle. Only the living wrestle. The groaning Paul describes is the groaning of a child of God longing for the completion of redemption.
“Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). The Spirit has sealed us, but the body awaits transformation. The inner man is already raised with Christ. The outer man waits for resurrection.
The conflict will end, not by the believer’s strength, but by God’s promise. “He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). The same Spirit who gave life to the new man will one day give life to the body. The struggle will cease when corruption puts on incorruption and mortality puts on immortality.
Until then, the believer walks in two realities: the certainty of the new birth and the weakness of the old flesh.
The first is eternal. The second is temporary.
The first is incorruptible. The second is fading away.
The tension is real, but so is the promise.
The new man cannot sin.
The flesh cannot inherit the kingdom.
And God will redeem the body to match the life He has already placed within.
VIII. Eternal Security: The Logical Conclusion of the New Birth
If death comes by sin, and the new man cannot sin, then the new man cannot die.
“I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:28).
We did not save ourselves, and we cannot keep ourselves saved. The same grace that birthed us now guards us. The same Spirit that quickened us now seals us. The same Father who chastens us also preserves us.
IX. Triply Sealed: The Father, the Son, and the Spirit
The believer is enclosed on every side by the Godhead.
Sealed by the blood of the Son.
“Having made peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20).
Sealed by the indwelling of the Spirit.
“Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13).
Sealed by the hand of the Father.
“No man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29).
Triply sealed.
Triply kept.
Triply secure.
X. Triply Sealed Again: Three Doctrinal Pillars of Eternal Life
Scripture gives a second triple witness to the believer’s security.
The name cannot be blotted out.
“I will not blot out his name out of the book of life” (Revelation 3:5).
The new man cannot sin.
“He cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
Death comes by sin.
The new man cannot sin.
Therefore the new man cannot die.
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
The believer is sealed by the Spirit.
“Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14).
God does not forfeit His own earnest.
Conclusion: The Incorruptible Cannot Be Lost
The believer’s security lies not in his strength, but in the nature of the new life he has received. The old man may fall, but the new man cannot fail. The child may be chastened, but never cast away.
This is not presumption. It is promise. It is not arrogance. It is assurance. It is life eternal, born of God, and kept by God.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory” (Jude 1:24).
Colophon
This article was written as a plain testimony of what Scripture declares about the new birth and the nature of the life God gives. In and of ourselves we are revealed to be incapable of change, because “thou canst not make one hair white or black” (Matthew 5:36). I have not tried to defend a system or answer a man, only to speak what the Word itself says. If anything here is true, it is because God has said it. If anything here is helpful, it is because His grace has made it so. My hope is that the reader will look past the writer and see the mercy of God who gives life to the dead and has made us accepted in the beloved.
Non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. - Not to us, O Lord, but to Your name give glory. From Psalm 115:1
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 1979 -
Free to use with proper attribution.
How To Be Born Again
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