Simple Desperation and Salvation as Satisfaction: A meditation on 1 Peter 2:1-3

When David writes, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Ps. 34:8), I tend to think of this taste-testing as an expert appreciation of subtle excellencies, like wine-tasting or savoring a well-aged cheese. It takes a refined palate, a certain sophisticated expertise to appreciate what is tasted. I don't think this is the tasting David had in mind...nor Peter.

1 Peter 2:1-3 "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."

I think this tasting that the Lord is good is more like the desperate nursing of an infant than the casual critiquing of an epicurean. Why does this matter? My natural inclination is to sip, to nibble, instead of hungrily devouring. I want Christ for my intellect, but I don't want the gospel to intersect every aspect of the messy reality of my daily life.

It is significant that Peter uses the metaphor of taste to picture salvation. He could have easily written, "if indeed you have truly believed (been converted, repented, been born again)." But he chose "if indeed you have tasted." Faith is more than an intellectual assent to a system of belief. It is a savoring of Christ as infinitely desirable. Faith does not merely assent to the idea of a Savior, redemption, the gospel. It desperately hungers and thirsts for that Savior and has tasted and seen that the Lord is good! No wonder Jesus said, "This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." (Jn. 6:58)