In this parable, as elsewhere, Jesus plainly shows the “seed” that enters your heart and saves you:
The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11).
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:21-22; see also Matthew 4:4; Acts 11:14; Ephesians 1:13).
James is right – hearing (or reading) Bible facts is not enough. You must allow the planted seed to grow. You must “receive” and “do” as God’s word instructs. Otherwise Satan, the father of lies, tightens his hold on you as you fool or “deceive” yourself.
Satan plants his seed – his lying word – in order to kill (Genesis 3; John 8). God plants His seed – “the word of truth” – in order to give life!
[You] who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 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… (1 Peter 1:21-23).
The seed of a human parent is perishable. Since “flesh gives birth to flesh,” you will fade and die like any flower. But God never dies! Just as God is eternal, so His seed is everlasting and “imperishable.” What is His life-giving seed? “The word of God”! Peter shows he means especially “the Gospel,” which the Holy Spirit has safely delivered through His inspired spokesmen (1 Peter 1:12,24).
The picture becomes clear as we compare 1 Peter 1 with John 3. The picture is that God has the role of a father. His Spirit plants His seed (His word) by the preaching of Good News. When you learn from the Gospel, you let the seed conceive and grow in your heart. But your birth is not only from a father. Thus “water” may be likened to a mother’s part. Just as you were not born of a father alone, so you are not born of Spirit alone. Just as you were not born of a mother alone, so your spiritual birth cannot be by water alone. Christ determines that your birth must be “of water and Spirit.” When you allow the Gospel seed to work in your heart, you soon reach the point of birth. That is, you obey, passing through the “water” the Gospel requires. You come out of the water a fresh, clean person with a completely new start!
The Spirit chooses you. He is eager to give you this wonderful new birth. But, friend, He gives this birth on His own terms. He clearly reveals that He chooses baptism as a kind of mother for your birth. Your cleansing is “by the washing with water” through “the word” that teaches you to believe and obey (Ephesians 5:26). Now it is your turn to choose the Spirit. You do that by submitting to His will. Then these marvelous words can also be said of you, that you have, “purified your souls by your obedience to the truth… since you have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:22-23).