As we look at this section of Scripture, how are we to understand it? I think we have to agree that Matthew 5-7 is one unit. It stands and falls together, so we have to understand the passage as a whole. This is the first of five talks Jesus gives in the Gospel of Matthew. He gives each of these teachings for various purposes. If you remember from looking at the Beatitudes (vv. 3-12), the theme for those verses comes out of Jesus’s opening message in His ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So what is the subject of this first discourse? It is repentance and entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.
In the prelude to this material (4:23) we find Jesus preaching the “gospel of the kingdom.” As we enter chapters 5-7, we find the term kingdom (or kingdom of heaven) eight times within it. We see it first in 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Then toward the very end of the section, 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” At the beginning of this address we see those who enter the kingdom, and at the end of the section we see those who do not.
In the Beatitudes (vv. 3-12) Jesus describes the genuine attitude and response of repentance. What does repentance mingled with faith look like? From 5:17 to the end of His discourse in chapter 7, He is seeking to elicit a response of repentance from His hearers. He systematically demolishes the self-righteousness of everyone who has ears to hear. After the fusillade of cannon fire dies down, there is not a man with ears on his head still standing. (Of course many of the Pharisees and scribes remained upright but only because the shot and shrapnel flew right into one ear and out the other since there was nothing in between to stop it.) And so, if you have ears to hear (and not to act as an entrance for a wind tunnel), this message should do the same to each one of us. It should allow us to lean solely upon the gospel of God’s grace instead of our own righteousness. For, as Jesus begins his opening salvo in chapter 5, we find him declaring our own righteousness null and void with the words, “I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you WILL NOT enter the kingdom of heaven.” In this short message, called the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays bare the heart of the people and shows them their true nature and their desperate need to receive by faith a righteousness that comes from God.
In looking at verses 13-16 we must ask ourselves, what is the purpose of this passage? How does this fit into the scope of a picture of repentance and a call to repentance? These verses are a bridge between them, for Jesus moves from what repentance looks like to His material to induce repentance.
I. Their Identification
If these verses serve as a bridge between what repentance looks like and that which Jesus is using to engender repentance in the heart of His hearers, then our next question must be who is Jesus addressing in verses 13-16? Who are these that are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”?
They must be those who have received the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus has been preaching. They have already repented and come to the Messiah. They have entered the kingdom through faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have recognized Him as the Messiah and have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So Jesus is making a distinction between those He has already described as having been born again and those who still need to receive this kingdom through faith.
No one else can qualify as the salt of the earth or the light of the world. It is these Jesus has mentioned in verses 3-12, those who are blessed through entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
II. Their Interaction
Secondly, we want to understand their interaction. When Jesus calls them “the salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” He is implying that they ought to be interacting in the world in which they live in the same way that salt and light interact in their environment around them. He did not say, “You are the salt of your group,” or “You are the light of your house.” He used widely inclusive terms like “world” and “earth.” Jesus’s gospel of the kingdom was to include the entire world. They were not to content themselves with a small focus but were to reach out into the world around them and affect it as much as salt affects what it touches and light what it shines upon.
Why are they the salt of the earth and the light of the world? From the previous verses we see that they are involved in it. They are peacemakers, seeking to bring people to find peace with God. They have found peace with God and now they are seeking to communicate that peace to others. They have found a new relationship with Him that cannot be severed and they are intent on seeing that others know of this glorious news. However, Jesus also made it clear that their interaction with the world would cause problems with others. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness… when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”
These people have found peace with God and are seeking to bring others to peace with Him. But some of those with whom they interact are not at peace with them. It seems that they are at war against these peacemakers. They don’t want to hear about Jesus.
Sometimes the interaction of salt and light in a person’s life is not at all pleasant and there may be reaction against it. Salt in a wound isn’t pleasant, nor is light in the eyes of someone who is in darkness. Nevertheless we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, regardless of its reaction.
A. The salt
Let’s talk about the salt first. Why does Jesus call them the salt of the earth? In verse 13, He speaks of their savor or taste. Since Jesus speaks in this term of taste then we should perhaps lay aside its other properties, such as disinfection (cleansing), preservation, and immutability. There are a few references to salt in the Scripture. Some speak simply of place names. There are two references to salt being used in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament priests. There it denotes the eternal nature of Israel’s covenant with God. But there is only one reference outside this metaphor in the gospels that relates to taste or seasoning. That passage also speaks of the believer’s interaction with those in the world. If you are to be the salt of the earth then let your life and lips show it. In Colossians 4:5-6, the apostle Paul says, “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
God’s grace ought to be reflected in how we speak to others. In this passage, Paul is specifically speaking about our speech to (as Paul calls those without Christ) outsiders.
How are we to interact with the world? Our speech is to convey the grace of God. It is to be gracious. The grace of God conveys forgiveness, His favor and kindness toward someone. It is free. It does not coerce deeds or works from a person to earn favor or grace. A “be kind to me and I’ll be kind to you” type of mindset is not grace. Luke 6:35 is a picture of this grace of God toward the ungrateful and evil: “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”
So how are you to season your speech with salt? Let the grace of God to you be the example for your speech. If our speech is to be salted with grace, then how about our lives? They are also to be a picture of God’s forgiveness found in His grace. Isn’t this what the Beatitudes reveal? Blessed are the merciful. In being a recipient of mercy one is able to shower mercy upon others. Blessed are the meek (gentle). Those who have been treated gently by God are, through the Spirit, able to be gentle with others.
How then would salt (the salt expressing the grace of God) lose its flavor? Salt itself cannot lose its flavor. But in Israel the salt they had was evaporated from the Dead Sea or found at the Salt Hill, a fifteen square mile tract of land on the southwest corner of the Dead Sea. But because of the impurities in the salt, sometimes the salt mixture would become insipid, or flavorless. So what could make salt tasteless? Dilution with impurities.
What would cause one who has received God’s grace and is now speaking out of God’s grace and living out the forgiveness of God’s grace to misrepresent God’s grace? When is salt no longer doing what it should do? When it is diluted. When is grace no longer doing what grace should do? When is salt not salt? When is grace not grace? In Romans 11:6, the apostle Paul says, “If it (salvation) is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
When a person who has been born again begins to promote “works” in salvation, either in how they act (fearfully seeking to keep a set of rules to please God) or perhaps by what they say to others about how someone certainly can’t be saved because their life is not up to a certain standard, they lose the salty nature of grace that they should express. For when someone who has received the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ begins to add works as a means to please God they are diluting the very thing by which they were saved.
We wouldn’t do that, would we? Why would we do this? Perhaps we should consider it for a moment so that we can rest in God’s grace for our salvation and not in our works. For even if you have been born again you can lose your confidence if you begin to waver in the matter of grace and works. When that happens you are no good to anyone else and you are making the matter of salvation cloudy to others (tasteless). If you have no confidence because of your wavering over whether you have done enough things to get to heaven, then how can you give anyone else any hope? That is tasteless grace that requires someone to earn God’s favor.
Some time ago someone left the church over this doctrine. They wrote to me saying that in order to be saved, not only do you have to believe in Jesus but you have to be baptized by immersion and then you have to obey the will of God perfectly. This person couldn’t obey God’s will perfectly, so how could they give any hope to anyone else? They had received this teaching of slavery from someone on the internet and were in bondage to it. They weren’t obeying God’s will perfectly. Who can? If that is the requirement for heaven neither they nor their new guru has assurance of eternal life. How can you, when you dilute the grace of Christ with works? If Christ didn’t pay it all then you are back to the question, “How much is enough?” If simple faith and repentance in Christ isn’t enough, then how much is? You can never know and you are locked in bondage to your flesh that is always sinning. And you have removed yourself from being under the work of the Spirit of God.
Paul addressed the Galatians in this matter of grace versus works. In chapter 3:2-3 he asks them, “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
God perfects us through the sealing and sanctification of the Holy Spirit when we trust Christ as our Savior. Why would you want to go back under the Law? You cannot be the salt of the earth if you are resting in what Christ has done for you. If you waver like a wave on the sea you cannot be a help to those around you for the gospel. Don’t let others remove your confidence in Christ alone. Don’t put your trust in how good you are; it is a house with no foundation. If Christ’s work is not our bedrock on which to rest then we have become insipid salt, good for nothing. Works mixed with grace dilutes the pungent tastefulness of the salt we are to be.
If you don’t have this confidence, why not? Has there been a time in your life to which you can point when you received Christ as your Savior? If not, perhaps that is why you have been wavering and are without that confidence. If that is the case then get it settled today. Call upon Him today and put your trust in Jesus Christ alone. Let what He has done for you through His death and resurrection be your confidence.
Perhaps there have been others who have convinced you that you have to do more than call upon the Lord in faith and repentance to be saved and you, like the Galatians, have been putting confidence in your own works. You have been saved, you know it. You know there was a time you called upon the Lord, but you are wavering about the truth of gospel. And the bondage has stolen your joy and you have lost your saltiness. You need to stop mixing the salvation available through the grace of Christ with works.
B. The light
If the salt that we are to be is an expression of the grace of God and our resting in that grace, then what is the light? “You are the light of the world.” Jesus is saying that no one but those who have been born again are the light of the world. Note: there may be counterfeits. Paul said in 2 Corinthians that Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light and it is no wonder if his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
See that Jesus describes for us the purpose of light. It is not to be hidden. “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket.” Why light a candle if you are going to cover it with a basket? Why turn on a light switch if you are going to blacken out the bulb? There is one purpose for light and that is to shine. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
But what is the light that Jesus is telling us to let shine? First we need to look at how light is used in the Scripture. What, in the Scripture, is called light? God is called light. In 1 John 1:5, John says, “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” James calls Him “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (1:17). This speaks of God’s moral perfection and character. In Him is NO darkness at all. Light is also a reference to His glory: “who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16).
And so it’s no wonder that Jesus Christ Himself is called “the Light of the world” (John 8:12) and “the true Light” (John 1:9) because He is God and therefore should possess the characteristics of God, in this case the characteristic of light and moral perfection.
What else is described as light in the Scripture? The gospel is also called the light. The gospel is an extension of God’s character. He imparts the light of life to those who believe. The psalmist says, in Psalm 36:9, “With You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” Here the psalmist speaks of the fountain of life (the gospel) as proceeding out of the light of God. In the light of Your moral perfection and righteousness we see the light of the gospel that brings life. The apostle John, in the opening of his gospel, does something very similar. He said that in Jesus “was life (the gospel), and the life was the light of men.” In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul notes that Satan seeks to blind the minds of the unbelieving lest they see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” This is the light of which Isaiah speaks in chapter 60 when he says, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you… Nations will come to your light.” Nations will come to your light? Why? Because you are the light of the world.
And so what is this light in Matthew 5 that they must let “shine before men”?