<p>1:24 <i>For, All flesh is as grass</i> <i>and all the glory of it as the flower of grass</i><i>- </i>We shouldn't see the mortality of man and the true meaning of the Hebrew word nephesh as a negative thing that we unfortunately have to tell people who believe their loved ones are alive in Heaven. &quot;The voice&quot; tells Isaiah to cry. &quot;And I said, What shall I cry?&quot; (Is. 40:6 LXX; RVmg.). What was to be the message of Isaiah's Gospel? The voice addresses Isaiah as &quot;O thou that tellest good tidings&quot;, and tells him the good news he is to preach. It is that &quot;All flesh is grass&hellip; the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever&quot;. The reality of man's mortality is the backdrop against which we can see the eternity of God and the offer made to us through His abiding word that we really can escape from our condition. Christian preaching about &quot;man is mortal&quot; need not be bad news. The message can be turned into good news For it was this message of mortality which prepared the way for men to accept Christ (Is. 40:3-5); the mountains of human pride are made low by this message so that we can accept salvation in Christ. 1 Pet. 1:24 RVmg. quotes these verses and concludes that we are being offered salvation through &quot;the word of the God who liveth for ever&quot; - the Gospel that is prefaced by the message of human mortality. God's eternity and man's mortality are placed side by side- and thus the way is prepared for the wonder of the fact that through &quot;the word&quot; of Jesus, of the Gospel, we the mortal are invited to share in that immortality.</p><p><i>The grass withers and the flower falls</i>- The seed of all things produces fruit which cannot abide, no matter how beautiful and pleasing it may appear for a moment. The contrast is with the seed of the Gospel of Jesus, which produces permanent results. The great salvation in Christ is an inheritance which will not fade away, like the flowers (see on :4) and which produces eternal glory (:7), unlike the glory of the flower which fades. The things of the Kingdom and the great, eternal, glorious salvation in Christ are being contrasted with material things- because it was materialism which was the problem faced by the exiled Jewish believers in Turkey to whom Peter was writing.</p>