Matthew 5:13-16
Salt and Light

He has gone up on the mountain and begun to deliver a new Law. The King has begun to issue the decrees of his new Kingdom. And his statements are surprising. He has proclaimed the blessings of this kingdom not upon those who have righteousness, but on those who hunger and thirst for it. And he has proclaimed these blessings first, in advance of any obedience, blessings given to those who have no merit in themselves but entrust themselves wholly to God.

It is a kingdom of grace that he is ushering in. A kingdom founded upon the grace of God - God's unmerited removal of the demerit of those who confess their poverty and mourn over sin and the curse. A kingdom whose citizens then walk according to that grace, showing mercy for they have obtained mercy, making peace, for God has made peace with them.

And this kingdom, this powerful kingdom of which the prophets spoke, comes in such apparent weakness that its citizens will be persecuted for proclaiming and walking in the righteousness of this kingdom.

What then? Shall they escape this persecution by coming out of the world? Shall they retreat to the desert to form their own close-knit community of the faithful. Has Jesus come to be the founder of a commune?

Not at all. If their thoughts tend in this direction, Jesus' next words reorient them. They must live in the midst of the world though they be persecuted for it. This is the identity their Savior confers upon them. This is the mission for which he sends them out. That they should be a visible display of God's grace in the midst of an unbelieving generation. That in this way others, poor in spirit, mourning over sin and the curse, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, might see in the citizens of this kingdom the proclamation of the grace of God.

1. The Performers
   1. God
      1. Let us note this at the outset.
      2. GOD is the one who makes the followers of his Son into salt and light.
      3. If it were otherwise, how could you bear it?
         1. If he called you to be his witnesses in the world and left it to your power to accomplish this, the burden would be far too great.
         2. But Christ has pronounced a blessing not on those who have righteousness, but on those who hunger and thirst for it.
         3. He will not change that principle here.
         4. But as you hunger and thirst for righteousness and are satisfied - and you WILL be satisfied - God will also work that righteousness out in you as a testimony to the world.
         5. So this identity of salt and light comes to you from God as a gift and as an explanation for why he leaves you in the world when you long to be brought home to him.
      4. Thus God's intention is to use the followers of Christ as salt - as a preservative restraining the world from its headlong rush into corruption.
      5. And light - as a beacon of his mercy, a display of his grace, a demonstration that what the Law could not do, being weak through the flesh, God can do and is doing in his people.
   2. Christ
      1. The identity being conferred on his followers is the identity of Christ himself.
      2. He is the original and his followers are to be made into little copies of him.
      3. He is the original salt
         1. The preservative who comes into the world to restrain corruption until he can redeem those who are is.
         2. The seasoning of grace that goes out into the world making them hunger and thirst for the righteousness that is in him.
      4. He is the original light
         1. Matthew has told us as much by quoting the prophet Isaiah - "the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned."
         2. Thus he came to display himself before the world, the exact imprint of the divine nature, that he might light the way to God.
         3. They sat in darkness but now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them.
      5. So the fulfilment of this identity cannot come by our own striving and works.
      6. But rather it comes as we put on Christ, as we wrap ourselves up in his identity, as we seek by faith to show forth his glory to the world.
      7. This identity comes, then, with a second assurance
         1. The first was that God confers it on his people, so it is certainly ours, not something to be earned but something to be received.
         2. The second is that this identity has already been perfected in our exalted Head.
         3. As surely as Christ is salt and light, so surely does this identity belong to his people, to all who in meekness receive it.
   3. The Church
      1. Thus the identity is conferred upon all the followers of Christ.
      2. And this is important as well.
      3. Jesus was preaching to people surrounded by Pharisees
         1. The Pharisees considered themselves the visible representation of the righteousness of God.
         2. Not everyone had what it takes to be a Pharisee.
         3. And so a division was born between the professionally righteous and the amateurs.
         4. But in Christ, EVERYONE attains to the same degree of righteousness - perfect righteousness, the righteousness of Christ - by admitting their poverty and seeking the riches that are in Christ.
      4. The kingdom of which the prophets spoke has come, a kingdom in which they shall ALL know the Lord from the least to the greatest.
      5. Thus do we all receive the same identity from God in Christ. Jesus
2. The Audience
   1. Not Just Each Other
      1. They are not, as we said, to come out of the world
      2. Christ is not fomenting a separatist movement.
      3. But they are to live in the midst of the world and in that arena the grace of God is to transform them that God may have a witness for himself.
      4. It is for this reason that God does not call his converts immediately home to himself
         1. But rather he calls them to suffer with Christ a little while in this life
         2. and thus to be his instruments by which the lost are brought in and the world is rendered without excuse.
   2. Not Just Israel
      1. He has come as the promised King of the prophesied Kingdom.
      2. One might assume, then, that he commissions his disciples primarily as messengers to the nation of Israel.
      3. But this is too little a thing for him.
      4. He seeks to send his message out into all the world.
      5. We have seen hints of this already
         1. At birth he is worshiped by Gentile wise men
         2. He begins his ministry in Galilee of the Gentiles
      6. And he will end his statements on earth by sending his disciples into all the earth that ALL - whether - Jew or Gentile may become citizens of the Kingdom by faith in their king.
   3. The Whole World
      1. Thus the arena in which he calls his disciples to be salt and light is the arena of the entire world
         1. Salt of the EARTH
         2. Light of the WORLD
      2. There is no need for all to go to distant lands - though the Lord calls some to do so.
      3. No, we are surrounded by those to whom we are being made as salt and light.
      4. We are transformed by the Spirit of Christ in the presence of all, that they may believe in God.
3. The Instruction
   1. Salt of the Earth
      1. Preservative
         1. God will use the very presence of his disciples to restrain the corruption that is in the world.
         2. And God will restrain his hand of judgment until all his people are converted to himself and have had the privilege of sharing in the sufferings of their Savior.
      2. Seasoning
         1. Col 4:4,5 - Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
         2. So you are like salt, sprinkled on the world, bearing testimony to the grace of God by all you say and do.
      3. Who is sufficient for these things?
         1. Not you or I.
         2. But Christ. And he is OUR sufficiency.
         3. So we put on this identity of salt by continuing as we began - poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure of heart (for what is impossible with men is possible with God), peacemakers, patiently enduring persecution because our reward is with God in heaven.
         4. In other words, Christ is not saying, enough basking in the glories of 1-12. Time to get off your rear and start working!
         5. He's saying that the natural outworking of the confession you have made in 1-12 is that God will use you as the salt of the earth.
      4. If the salt loses its flavor
         1. You are in the world, but not OF the world
         2. What if, surrounded by the world, you lose this distinctive Christian identity?
         3. Like the world, you begin to strut around and boast in your own strength.
         4. Like the world, you cease mourning over your sin and begin to think you're not so bad after all.
         5. Like the world, you cease mourning because of the curse and start thinking this world isn't such a bad place. You could be comfortable here.
         6. Like the world, you stop hungering and thirsting after righteousness that comes from another and start trying to establish a righteousness of your own.
         7. Then like the world, you will cease to be merciful for you will have forgotten the mercy of God toward you.
         8. Then like the world, you will become combative, fighting for your rights, rather than peacemakers. For you will have forgotten how God has made peace with you.
         9. And you will then no longer be willing to suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness.
         10. You will seek to alleviate that persecution by making as little distinction between yourself and the world as possible.
         11. Then who will be able to tell the difference?
      5. It is good for nothing anymore.
      6. Is Christ warning you that you can lose your salvation?
         1. No.
         2. He is appealing to a horror that every redeemed person has - a horror of coming to God upon any other basis than his grace alone. (repeat)
         3. That's what the blessings of 1-12 were about, remember.
         4. And now he's saying, as you have begun in the grace of God so continue in it.
         5. If you did not rely on yourself at the beginning, do not dare do so now.
         6. And every one of you cries Amen! God forbid that I should take any credit to myself or trust in myself for anything. God must do it all!
         7. There it is. That is the attitude of the salt of the earth. It is distinct from the rest of the earth, is it not?
         8. This is the identity you have in Christ, then, that you strive by grace that everything you say and do should acknowledge that you have no merit in yourself, that everything you have is from him.
   2. Light of the World
      1. Again, remember, this is the identity of Christ
         1. When we remember that all our righteousness is found in him and walk in that meekness, we reflect the light of Christ to the world.
         2. We will take no credit to ourselves, so how can THEY give us any credit?
      2. A city set on a hill
         1. Here is the kingdom of God as God sees it.
         2. You are like a city on a hill, seen for miles around because of the light that shines forth from it into the surrounding perpetual darkness.
         3. The light of Christ has shone upon you and others can see that light.
         4. God has made you the testimony of his grace.
         5. God has put you on display.
      3. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure
         1. You see the ridiculousness of this
         2. So ridiculous would it be for God to light you with the light of Christ and then hide you from the world.
         3. So ridiculous would it be for you to try to blend in with the world, to think as they think, to walk as they walk.
         4. A new identity is given to you here, distinct from the world, as light to their darkness.
      4. Again, who is sufficient?
      5. Let your light shine before men…
         1. Contrast with Beware of practicing your righteousness before men
         2. Imagine someone coming up and saying, "I really admire you because you are a strong person who does what is right."
         3. What will you say? How will you testify? As one poor in spirit, meek, mourning, who hungered and thirsted for righteousness and was satisfied.
         4. Then the glory will go to God in heaven for the work he has done in you.
      6. Let us continue then in humility, in reliance on the grace of God, in hungering and thirsting for what only God can provide.
      7. For then we shall be the instruments of God's revealing his glory to the world and thus calling many sons to glory.

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