James 1:18

James 1:18. Of his own will ‘After the counsel of His own will,' as St. Paul expresses it(Ephesians 1:11). Regeneration is here alluded to as the highest instance of the Divine goodness. It is not a necessary act of God, but proceeds from His own free will.

begat he us. It is evident from what follows that spiritual and not natural birth is here referred to: believers are begotten of God (John 1:13).

with the word of truth: the instrument of our regeneration, namely the Gospel, so called because truth is inherent in it. Some erroneously interpret the word here as signifying the Logos, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ; but this is exclusively an expression of St. John.

that we should be a kind of first-fruits: a Jewish form of expression taken from the custom of presenting the first-fruits to God. Christians are here called ‘first-fruits' because they are consecrated to God, dedicated to the praise of His glory. Those Jewish Christians also, to whom St. James wrote, might be regarded as the first-fruits of Christianity, being the first converts to Christ, and the earnest of the spiritual harvest the vast increase of converts from the Gentile world.

of his creatures: of the new creation, that great multitude of the redeemed whom no man can number: and perhaps not even to be limited to them, but to embrace all the creatures of God, pointing forward to that time when ‘the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God' (Romans 8:21).