“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” -1Peter 2:2.
Our verse defines a practical focus for our consideration, “growing up into salvation.” Obviously, Peter is speaking to people who are already in Christ Jesus, people who have been born from above and now have Spiritual identity.
A person can’t be born again without growing up Spiritually … but many choose to indulge their new life in temporal comforts …slowing growth. Many new born believers do not understand “being saved” actually is endowing an abundant Life. It is very difficult for some new-borns to understand they no longer depend upon personal strength to live Life “abundantly;” rather, it must be lived in the resurrection power of God, “in Christ!” This is what grace is all about!
“ .., I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” -John 10:10b
Receiving this gift of eternal Life is our entrance into the Kingdom of God; it doesn’t happen when the rapture takes place, it doesn’t happen when we die, it happens when we are set apart by God for regeneration and redemption; it happens when we are born from above, born a second time by God Himself; we received a new Spiritual identity, a new person is created in our flesh when created Spiritually in Jesus the Christ. This new eternal Life, abundantly provisioned, now is our regenerated soul as a new Spiritual existing person!
Taking it seriously tells by personal choices! These choices may or may not grow us into consuming God’s grace, grace upon grace. Consuming grace makes room for more grace increasing our capacity for faith and increasing grace capacity to grow through knowledge into Jesus, our saving Lord.
Making wise Spiritual choices adds dimension and capacity for learning Spiritual Life in God’s grace culture, and it develops legs of faith for Spiritual walking. We must learn both living and walking Spiritually in God’s grace culture, but Milk comes before Meat! Milk provides Life, developing the bones for the Meat to hang on!
We must learn to live in Christ in order to Spiritually walk on earth.
We are now Spiritual beings learning Life in a heavenly grace culture while walking on earth in a human culture. We depend upon God (faith) leading our soul out of worldly bias into the riches of God’s glory of grace in Christ Jesus.
Walking is all about behavior; first we need Milk out of the Word (Spiritual Milk) to grow our faith bones so we can begin walking in the righteousness of Jesus. Spiritual living is learning faith choices in a physical world, a world of human culture!
Peter tells us, in the above scripture, we need to satisfy the Spiritual yearning in our new Spiritual Life because it is already provisioned to be “abundant.” The Spiritual Milk contained in scripture is labeled the Logos (λογοs) of God. This is our Spiritual essence, this is our power and authority, our truth and righteousness, light and agape love, all contained within our new creation birthed by God in our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit indwelling us, opens our understanding through Logos. It lays in scripture waiting for us to drink it out as Spiritual Milk! The Holy Spirit is joined to our spirit giving us understanding to apply Logos into our own personal needs and gifts.
The hope of our salvation is measured by the intensity we pursue this amazing gift of God’s Life into our own personal care. What we do with it is up to us! Do we love Him back with our thankfulness and devotion? Do we acknowledge His divine power and authority kneeling in humbleness? Do we seek Him so we can really know Him intimately? Or do we bury our treasure and enjoy the comforts of our physical life in the now, saving our treasure for later? We need to feed our personal Spiritual desire with intentional commitment, growing our soul into God’s grace culture!
The spiritual Milk of the Word is God’s starting point for us. It is where we begin to understand the difference between grace and law. It is where we spiritually discern our death from His Life; it is where we grasp the mind of Christ; it is where His life becomes visible in our mortal flesh; it is where we begin to put on the righteous deeds of the saints; it is where we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
“Deep Breathing” is the process of inhaling the purity of Jesus and absorbing the righteous character of His new creation into our sanctification. It pierces our soul with the rays of His righteous Light and Love allowing access into our deeper and deeper choices. By drinking the Milk of the Logos Word, we are rooting ourselves into Jesus so that we become His vine yielding much fruit!
Jesus Himself develops the effect of Logos within our new creation in John 15. He is the Vine and we are the “branches.” Jesus explains the “abundant” Life in John 10 is measured by “our fruit” in John 15. We will drill this detail down later but introducing it here is important because it is an extension of “Deep Breathing.” Fruit is the effect of Deep Breathing the Logos of God into our soul. We start with Drinking Milk so that we yield not only fruit, but much fruit.
In this John 15 passage our “branch” in the Vine is better translated from the Greek “tender new growth.” We are broken off from our humanity and grafted into Jesus so that we become rooted and grounded in His Love! Having Life in His name is not only created Spiritually new, it is being managed by our Vine Dresser, God the Father, so that our joint into Him with its “tender new growth” is kept clean, and nurtured to produce “much fruit.” …. but first we must develop bones for walking!
Breathing deeply develops our soul’s capacity for logos (λογοs) power and authority! It’s in the Milk! It is in the Spiritual Milk of the Word; we are building up our capacity to breath deep, producing a faith behavior in our flesh. This is what Paul calls putting on the “new self” created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Our focus for the next three GraceNotes is using the Milk of the Word, to effect a faith producing behavior, producing much fruit, glorifying the treasure of Jesus within us! Breathing deeply produces grace upon grace into our soul!
This is what we see in the life of Peter. We are laying out the principle of “Breathing” in this GraceNotes and, Lord willing, we will illustrate the Biblical account of Peter’s life with His Lord in the next GraceNotes to display grace moving us from Milk to Meat as seen in Peter. Then in the third GN we can look at this faith illustrated by fruit.
But first, we need to lay a discussion foundation for the use of our Greek word “logos” (λογοs). We are taking its meaning out of John’s prologue, Jesus’ numerous uses in the upper room with His disciples as awell as His common usage. Jesus said: “If you abide in my (λογοs) word, you are truly my disciples,” (John 8:31); He also said: “Already you are clean because of the (λογοs) word I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3). Jesus also uses logos in the parable of the sower.
To the Greeks and Romans, god was an unknown power separated from the finite capacity of man. Logos was a Greek and Roman way of linking god to man. The Greek gods of literature were connections for people to the presumed powers of the universe. Temples and idols were human links and instruments of communication with these unseen powers. Logos was an identification for unseen sources of ultimate unseen power and authority ruling all of creation.
Logos was probably not a term on the streets in Jerusalem but certainly conversant to the Pharisees. It was a way for people to recognize invisible sources of created life and the powers that obviously governed their own personal circumstances.
Alexandria was the intellectual center of the known world at the time of Jesus. Philo was a Hebrew scholar living in Alexandria born about 50 years before Jesus and died after Christ’s assentation back to the Father. He was a Hebrew scholar who addressed logos from both Greek and Israelis’ Jehovah God perspective. But John, under the Holy Spirit, took it to a new level. John transcends Platonic Idealism with the Truth as it is in Jesus using the Greek term to reveal our oneness in God through the gospel of Jesus as the Hebrew “Word” used in the Old Testament. Logos is an apt description of what the “breath” of God looks like. It represents both the dunamis (δuνιμιs) power that formed existing universes as well as the exousia (εζουσια) authority power that rules mankind.
Jesus embodies the source of all Life itself in addition to all things merely seen! Jesus is now presented in flesh, on earth, as The Logos!
Breathing God’s breath into us out of the Milk of the Word inhales God thru His indwelling Holy Spirit, exposing our heart and mind into an understanding of who we now are “in Christ Jesus.” This happens when we intentionally absorb the Milk of His word, seeking out our Lord Spiritually. God granted us a will to make these huge choices; He does respect our will to choose with blessings!
We can, in grace by faith, produce in our flesh body the behavior of “deep breathing” Faith! Breathing into our soul the Logos (λογοs) of God fuels God’s Light of Love into the existing darkness of God’s in our mortal flesh! The invisible become visible when we become diligent in making our calling an election sure.
Peter, the unschooled fisherman, wrote this following elegant passage in his first epistle. Lets open our minds, making ourselves vulnerable to what this humble man, who denied Jesus before the crucifixion, here finds in his heart to share after drinking gallons of Spiritual Milk and eating a steak or two:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born from above to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love (agape) him. though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, the salvation of your soul.” -1Peter 1:3-9.
Believing causes behavior … when it is deep enough! The Greek word for believing is the same root word for faith. Deep believing is complete dependence on God and is translated into the word “faith.” The scriptural definition is much more specific than our Webster’s accommodates!
“Believing” is a spiritual gift leading into eternal life in the same way living a Spiritual Life is “believing.” The λογοs Word provides Spiritual Light to see our human darkness but Jesus’ resurrection power for living an abundant Life cannot be tainted with our effort. Spiritual abundant life must be lived in the power of God, not out of our own personal strength. Believing and faith both include the process of putting to death a confidence in the flesh. Paul put it this way: “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
The life of grace is more than a high moral code, it is so much higher, it is the divine order of Life; it can only be realized in the power of Jesus’ own resurrected Life. We cannot add to it after receiving it. To add our effort into God’s grace destroys His purpose and negates His power in us; it becomes limp and destroys the glory of Jesus presence! Relying on self is the opposite of faith; “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Growing into an abundant life means drinking Spiritual MILK, gradually moving into eating the meat to produce fruit. It is a process of leaving an earth bound culture and entering into an eternal Spiritual culture of faith governed by God’s grace.
Notice the qualification in our verse, Spiritual Milk! We capitalize it because it represents God Himself. It is not natural milk, or even almond milk, its Spiritual Milk.
We are talking about a new Spiritual Person God created within our garment of flesh. The person created spiritually new is us, living in our own flesh! We have become a Spiritual Person just as God is a Spiritual Person, but we are in a container of flesh.
If you are a believer in Jesus, “born again,” you are equipped Spiritually to live abundantly, breathing Spiritually, so that you will produce fruit! You have not been modified or changed, you have not been given a special “Spiritual” dispensation, YOU HAVE BEEN CREATED NEW IN CHRIST JESUS! This means you are NOT the same person you were; you have been birthed by God into a Spiritual Person. You are now a “child” of God! Your new identity unites you into Jesus, so that, His resurrected Life is now your Life.
This is not weird or far out, this is what scripture reveals to be Truth! You are not your own any longer, you have been bought with a price and are now redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, brought into His heavenly family with a Spiritual capacity to hear and see Spiritually, that is, with the capacity for personal, intimate fellowship with God thru Jesus Himself!
We are using the word breathe (above) because we read in Genesis that God formed man out of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living person. Jesus was in the upper room with his disciples after the resurrection, and He breathed on them, so that, they received the Holy Spirit.
This is where the Spiritual Milk comes in; it is also breathed out from God into our soul through our spirit which is joined with God’s own Holy Spirit.
“All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” -2Timothy 3:16-17.
When we first start reading the λογοs Word, it is Spiritual Milk. But notice what happens, it is profitable for:
1. Teaching.
2. Reproof.
3. Correction.
4. Training in Righteousness.
… so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This is where the abundant Life comes in! Now we are entering into the faith arena where we produce fruit by our behavior!
Remember what John declares is the purpose of his writing the Gospel of John, “… that by believing you might have Life in His name.” Jesus came into flesh delivering “grace and truth” and the Holy Spirit of God is within us because we have been created new in Christ Jesus; Jesus told us that the Holy spirit is to make known to us “all things,” including grace and truth!
The Holy Spirit is also interceding on our behalf with groanings too deep for words so that we might be trained in the righteousness of Jesus. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is the process of growing into maturity which requires constant practice. Our Spiritual skills are called discernment. Our Spiritual understanding requires a process of Spiritual training in God’s Spiritual culture of “grace and truth.” We are now “in Christ Jesus’ workmanship” so that we can walk in good works (fruit). This is part of God’s culture of grace and truth growing us into meat eaters of God’s Word.
Paul summed it up to Titus this way:
“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out “upon” us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” -Titus 3:5-7.
He saved us! That is a done deal! But there is more to salvation than walking thru the pearly gates. This is major, to be sure, but Paul says in Romans 5, “there is so much more.” We are not only saved, we are also being saved by the washing of regeneration! This is what Peter means in our headliner verse, “… that by it you may grow up into salvation.” -1Peter 2:2. Then Paul adds, “and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.” Paul is giving us this added piece about the constant presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, being there for our support, guidance and back up, so that, we will grow in Jesus and produce much fruit!
Jesus instructed the disciples in the upper room that the Holy Spirit had been given to be with them but now He will be in them and functioning as a teacher to make known all the things of Jesus. But it is much more than that, the Holy Spirit has been richly poured upon us, so that being justified, having His imputed righteousness giving us cover, we become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Don’t pass by this point! We have a variable here!
What does your Hope in Christ Jesus look like?
We start at a Milk level but through constant practice, in constant fellowship with our Father through Jesus, we grow into grace and truth, grace upon grace. Our commitment must be intentional, like Paul, “This one thing I do,” because our hope in each of us is different!
Essential in this growth process is knowledge of God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, and the Holy Spirit. We are created for this purpose, to enter into intimate fellowship into God’s personal family as children and sheep becoming “overcomers” in a world of darkness, flesh and Satanic forces. We move from the darkness of man’s earthly cultures into a Spiritual culture waring with Spiritual forces in heavenly places! Victory over flesh has been delivered into our hands but we must learn to walk by faith rather than sight, considering ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. “I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true what we have learned.” We can grow our Hope!
We are “Spiritual,” when born from above, and in that sense, you can say we are breathing the breath of God when we are “living in His name.” “Living in His name” is John’s purpose in writing to us his gospel letter. It is believing in Jesus, yes, but the purpose for believing, he tells us, is Living in His name! This is the abundant life he quotes from Jesus in John 10 regarding our “good” Shepherd. It also requires abiding in the Vine so that, “then the rubber meets the road” we are producing “much fruit.”
A person created new in Christ Jesus has the Spirit of God, and Jesus, within them breathing into them the breath of life. This is not the life of natural man, this is not natural breath keeping our body alive, this is the breath of Life which is the Light and Love of God and His Truth! This is the Abundant Life and it is contained within us. It is the “Treasure” we have in jars of clay.
The creation of our new identity in Christ Jesus is a miracle we can’t explain but we have His testimony within us and our fellowship with God’s Spirit in Jesus confirms this and other Biblical Truth. We not only have the living scriptures revealing this reality, His fellowship is within us; we experience it by receiving the peace of God and joy of salvation as we become His living child, “grace upon grace.”
The God of all grace, who has called you “into” His eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.