Wednesday 30th April
Read 1 Peter 1:23-2:3
“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
‘All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures for ever.’
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (NIVUK)
How does one ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:8)? How does one gain the ability to meditate on the goodness and perfection of God? Peter’s answer is clear. One must be born again and nourished on the living and enduring word of God. The goodness and perfection of God is fully revealed in the gospel, in the good news about Jesus. The gospel itself is the pure spiritual milk – it is the taste of salvation.
The image is awe-inspiring. The only thing a suckling newborn ever sees is the face of the one providing the nourishment. When Jonathan Edwards argues that to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ is to long to meditate on God Himself in all His perfections he is essentially saying the same thing as Peter. Gaze on and drink deeply from the One who gives life. Long to grow up in Him.
