The Gospel is Not a Trend

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you (1 Peter 1:22-25).

Peter quotes the prophet Isaiah’s words about the eternally enduring quality of the word of God (Isa. 40:6, 8). Most of us have heard these words quoted with respect to the enduring dependability of all Scripture, and it is certainly true that the entire revelation of God’s written Word will endure forever. But notice that Peter says the word that remains forever is “the good news that was preached to you” (1 Pet. 1:25). It is the gospel itself that, according to Peter, “remains forever” (v. 25).

The gospel of grace is not a passing fad, not trendy, not temporary. It is the abiding hope of the world. Even though “the grass withers, and the flower falls” (v. 24), the gospel never will. The gospel that Christians believe in has no expiration date!

Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible