I teach a high school Sunday school class. This year we are going to be working our way through Galatians. Before starting though, we spent 4 weeks on asking the question, “What is the Gospel?” Figured it was kind of important to get some re-grounding in the gospel given it’s at the core of why Paul gets so choked at what was happening to those “foolish Galatians.” It’s foundational . . . and if you mess with the foundation . . . if you don’t get the footings right . . . the rest of the building is going to be severely compromised . . . maybe even come crashing down.

And so, in the class, we focused on Romans 1:16 where Paul says the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” And based on what I read in 1Peter this morning, the gospel is also the power to grow up.

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.    (1Peter 2:2-3 ESV)

If we think of salvation solely as the event that occurred in the past when I first believed, then I’m thinking we may tend to also think that the gospel was something for our past. But if, as Peter alludes to, salvation is also a process . . . if it is a current dynamic . . . if it is something we are to “grow up” into . . . then isn’t the gospel still the power of God for salvation?

By faith we trusted the good news that Jesus, through a perfect life, a once-for-all atoning sacrifice, and a death-conquering resurrection, has fully paid the price of our redemption and has imputed His righteousness to our account. And in that we were saved. If now, as Peter encourages believes, we to grow up to salvation . . . if we are now in the process of “being saved” . . . then aren’t we to be just as dependent on the person and finished work of Christ on our behalf. We were saved, from the penalty of sin, by the power of the gospel. We are being saved, from the power of sin, and I’m guessing that too will be by the power of the gospel.

The gospel is not just how we begin in Christ, but it is also how we grow in Christ. Someone has said it’s “not just the diving board off of which we jump into the pool of Christianity; it is the pool itself. It’s not just the ABC’s of Christianity; it is the A–Z” (JD Greear).

Peter says you’ve tasted the Lord’s goodness . . . you’ve experienced the grace . . . you’ve known the rest that can be yours through a work finished on your behalf . . . you’ve had encounters with the infused energy of being a new creation because the righteousness of Another was credited to your account . . . you’ve had an inkling of the freedom that can be known because it’s not about who you are or what you can do. Therefore, Peter urges, be like newborn infants . . . don’t let anything keep you from the pure, spiritual milk of the Word that has saved you . . . drink deep of that which you have already tasted. Nurse on the milk of the gospel . . . fill yourself up with the grace of God by the grace of God . . . swim in the pool . . . and then know the reality of “being saved” . . . of growing up into salvation.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation past . . . for the forgiveness of sin . . . for the work of justification. The gospel will be the power of God for salvation future . . . when we are delivered from the presence of sin . . . when we are promoted into the realm of God Himself . . . the work of glorification. And praise God, the gospel is the power of God for salvation present . . . for shedding the chains of sin’s bondage and knowing a functional release from the power of sin . . . His glorious on-going work of sanctification in our lives.

O’ taste and see the Lord is good. Feed deep on the good news of His amazing grace. It really is the power to grow up! Amen?