1 Peter 1:24

For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth: But the word of the Lord abideth forever. And this was the word of good tidings which was preached unto you.

The Scripture quotation here is from Isaiah 4:6-8; but the passage seems to have been quoted with more in mind than the mere corroboration of the grand truth that the word of God abides forever, although that is indeed marvelous enough. The passage in Isaiah stands in the forefront of magnificent proclamations of the Messianic kingdom, especially as that pertained to "all flesh" and not merely to Jews only. "Peter was here calling attention to the absolute equality of Jew and Gentile."[61] By his absolute identification of the holy gospel proclaimed by the apostles as that "word of God" which abides forever, it would appear that this is certainly true.

Zerr's interesting comment on this verse is:

The new birth does not consist of some mysterious operation of God upon sinful men; it is a simple matter of believing and obeying the gospel

The reader is not left in any uncertainty as to what is meant by the spiritual seed of reproduction ... it is the gospel.[62]

Barnes' eloquent tribute to the power and beauty of the gospel is:

It is unremoved, fixed, permanent. Amidst all the revolutions on earth, the fading glories of natural objects, and the wasting strength of man, God's truth remains unaffected. Its beauty never fades; its power is never enfeebled. The gospel system is as lovely now as when it was first revealed to man, and it has as much power to save as it had when first applied to the human heart.[63]

People may busy themselves with studies of theology and a multitude of religious matters, but the means of saving the world from sin is the same as it always has been, namely, that of preaching the gospel to all people. It is not the deductions that people make from the sacred text, but the word itself that saves. The church's chief mission on earth is the proclamation of the word Peter mentioned here; failing in that, a church becomes not merely useless but abhorrent. What can give people the new birth and save their souls? The answer lies in the last verse of this chapter: It is, "The word of good tidings which was preached unto you."

[61] A. J. Mason, op. cit., p. 399.

[62] E. M. Zerr, op. cit., p. 255.

[63] Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 132.