The Appetite of a Living Heart
This morning as I was reading in 1 Peter I began to see a beautiful thread that runs through several passages.
When Peter writes, “Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment,” (1 Peter 2:2 NLT)
At first I got hung up on “the full experience of salvation” part and I wondered if John was referring to something more than receiving Christ as Savior, perhaps “full” meant heaven. But he isn’t saying we grow into becoming saved. Scripture is pretty clear that we’re saved by grace through faith, not by our spiritual maturity. Rather, Peter is speaking about growing into the fullness and maturity of the salvation we’ve already received.
I think of it this way:
We are justified in a moment (declared righteous through faith).
We are being sanctified throughout our lives (continually transformed).
We will one day be glorified in heaven (salvation completed in every way).
It took my mind back to before I ever thought about God in the whole scheme of things. Back then I only considered myself and what I wanted, which wasn’t Him back then at all. I realized the desire itself came from God.
I thought of John 6:44, where Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”
And so left to ourselves, we don’t naturally hunger for God. At least I never did. The very craving for Christ is evidence of the Father’s drawing.
That makes Peter’s command even more beautiful. He tells believers to “crave” spiritual milk, but even that craving is a grace God awakens within us.
It’s similar to what Paul writes, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
I noticed God doesn’t merely help us obey. He gives us the desire to obey.
So when I wake up longing to open my Bible, that’s not simply my love for God reaching toward Him. It’s His Spirit already at work within me, drawing me deeper into Christ.
Is the “full experience of salvation” heaven? In one sense, yes. But Peter uses language throughout his letter that points toward a salvation that has both a present and future aspect.
I already possess salvation. Yet I haven’t yet experienced everything salvation includes.
Right now:
My sins are forgiven.
I’m adopted.
the Holy Spirit lives in me.
I’m being transformed.
One day:
Sin will be gone forever.
Suffering will end.
My body will be raised.
My faith will become sight.
I’ll see Christ face to face.
That’s the fullness or the completion of salvation.
What I know to be true today is that the Word doesn’t merely carry us, it is one of God’s primary means of transforming us until we arrive home.
Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
The Spirit uses the Word to reshape our minds, expose our sin, comfort our hearts, strengthen our faith, and make us increasingly like Christ.
Then Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life…” (John 6:27)
And later, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” (John 6:55)
Jesus isn’t shifting away from God’s Word. He’s revealing that He Himself is the substance to which all of Scripture points to.
The Bible isn’t nourishment apart from Christ. But rather:
The Word reveals Christ.
The Spirit opens our eyes to Christ.
Faith receives Christ.
Christ Himself becomes our spiritual life.
That’s why Jesus also said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
And then He says, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35)
God’s Word continually feeds us because it continually brings us to Christ, the Bread of Life.
Another thought that came to mind as I read, I found myself wondering if Peter intentionally chose the image of a newborn because babies don’t have to be convinced they’re hungry. Hunger is evidence that they are alive.
What if the same is true spiritually? Dead hearts don’t crave Christ. Living hearts do.
The intensity of that hunger may rise and fall through different seasons, but the very presence of that longing is evidence that God has given life. The Father draws us to the Son, the Spirit gives us new birth, and then He continues to nourish us through His Word until the day faith becomes sight.
That weaves together John 6 and 1 Peter 2 into a beautiful tapestry of truth: the Father awakens the hunger, the Son is the Bread of Life who satisfies it, and the Word is God’s appointed means of continually feeding us as we grow toward the day when our salvation is complete.