Salt - The Weight of the New Covenant

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Okay. So today, we're jumping into one of Jesus's, well, most famous metaphors, the salt of the earth.

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You hear it all the time. Right? But, uh, what did it actually mean to the people actually hearing him say it?

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Exactly. It's, uh, it's one of those phrases that sounds simple, but the context is everything.

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The ancient world, the old testament background.

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It's rich. And that's what we wanna dig into. We'll be looking at the key bits in Matthew,

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Mark, and Luke, plus pulling in some crucial Old Testament context

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from, you know, Leviticus, Numbers, second Chronicles.

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These really light it up. They really do. They provide the foundation.

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. So our mission, if you will, is to unpack what Jesus really meant beyond just, I don't know, be a good person.

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It's, uh, it's much deeper, much more challenging than that.

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Definitely more challenging.. . Jesus brings up salt in a few key places.

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We've got Matthew five verse thirteen, Mark nine verses

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forty nine to fifty, and Luke fourteen verses thirty four to thirty five.

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Mhmm. And each one gives it a slightly different spin depending on the context.

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Yeah. Like in Matthew five, that's the Sermon on the Mount. Right? Big picture stuff.

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Right. There, it feels very outward focused.. Disciples are salt of the earth.

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It's about their influence, their, uh , preserving role in the wider world.

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But then Mark nine, that feels different. More inward.

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I think so.. Mark puts it right after these really

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intense warnings about causing others to stumble.

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About, you know, Gehenna. So the focus shifts to inner character, purification, staying

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salty within the community, and peace.

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And Luke Luke connects it to, well, the tough stuff.

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Yeah. Luke fourteen places it squarely in the context of the cost of discipleship.

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If you're not willing to pay the price, you're like salt that's lost its taste, utterly useless.

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So preservation, inner purity, costly commitment, that's already a lot packed into one little word.

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It is. And remember what salt was back then. It wasn't just cheap table salt.

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. It was valuable, essential. Hugely valuable for preserving food, obviously,

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especially meat, but also flavor and, crucially, for

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symbolizing faithfulness and covenants, like in Leviticus two verse thirteen.

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Ah, the covenant connection. That feels important.

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It's central. Leviticus two verse thirteen says salt had to be included with grain offerings.

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It signified loyalty, permanence, purity, God's commitment, and the worshippers commitment too.

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So Jesus calling his followers salt, that's not a light thing.

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He's essentially saying, you are my covenant people embodying permanence, purity, loyalty.

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Precisely. He's declaring their mission. Preserve the world from decay, season it with God's

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truth and grace, and live out that covenant faithfulness.

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It's not about hiding away. It's active engagement.

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And it's interesting. He's not calling for, like, a huge army.

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It's like salt in food. A little goes a long way. Disproportionate influence.

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That's the idea. A small group, faithful and distinct, can have a massive impact.

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There's always a but, isn't there? This power comes with a serious warning.

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What if the salt isn't salty anymore? Yeah.

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The failure scenario. Jesus talks about salt losing its taste.

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And the Greek word he uses there is fascinating. It's… What does that actually mean?

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What literally means to become foolish or dull? Foolish, not just tasteless.

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Right. So figuratively, it means tasteless. But the root implies a kind of spiritual or moral

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foolishness, a dulling of what makes a disciple distinct.

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So it's not, like, scientifically, salt losing its sodium chloride.

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No. Pure salt doesn't really lose its saltiness chemically.

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But think about the salt they often use then, maybe from the Dead Sea.

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It was often impure mixed with other minerals Okay. If that kind of salt got damp, the actual

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saltiness could leach out, leaving behind this white powder that looked like salt, but had no flavor, no preserving power.

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. It was useless. Wow. So visually, it still looked the part.

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Exactly. But functionally useless. Yeah. Spiritually, that points to, you know, compromise

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, hypocrisy, losing your distinctiveness, your loyalty, becoming like the world around you.

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And the consequence? Stark, thrown out, trembled underfoot

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, publicly discarded because it fails its purpose.

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It's like an offering without salt, unacceptable. That

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image of becoming foolish or dull, it makes you think, doesn't it?

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. How subtly that could happen. A slow slide into compromise.

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It's rarely dramatic, usually gradual. And that warning kinda sets the stage for maybe the

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most intense phrase in Mark nine verse forty nine, For everyone will be salted with fire.

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. Okay. Salted with fire. That sounds… painful.

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What on earth does that mean? Judgment?

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Purification? It's a really debated phrase. Context is key again.

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Remember, Jesus has just been giving these incredibly severe warnings about sin, cutting off

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hands and feet, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.

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Right. So option a could be. that everyone refers to the wicked.

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They are salted with fire, meaning they're preserved in judgment.

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Like, salt preserves something. The fire of Gehanna preserves them in that state of eternal consequence.

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It makes the judgment permanent unquenchable. Some link this to Isaiah sixty six verse twenty four.

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Okay. That's intense. What's option b? Option b, which I personally think fits the flow a

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bit better here, is that everyone refers to Christ's followers.

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They are salted with fire, meaning they will be purified through trials, through suffering,

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through the refining fire of testing and self denial.

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Like gold being refined. Exactly.. Like, first Peter one verses six to seven talks about.

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And there's even a textual variant, a note in some manuscripts of Mark nine verse forty nine

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that adds, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt, which pulls right back to Leviticus

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two verse thirteen, purification for service.

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So judgment for the wicked or purification for the believer.

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Why do you lean towards purification in this spot?

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Because of what Jesus says immediately after in Mark nine verse fifty.

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Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

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That's an instruction to the disciples. It makes more sense, I think, if the salting with

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fire they just heard about is the process they undergo, the purification that leads to having

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genuine salt within them, which then fosters peace.

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So the fire refines them, makes them truly salty disciples, enabling peace within the community.

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That seems to fit the flow. It's still intense, but it's a purposeful fire for believers, not just destructive.

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It creates the stark contrast then. Everyone faces assaulting with fire, but the outcome is radically different.

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It hinges on your relationship with Christ. You mentioned Gehenna earlier.

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Can we just clarify that? It's often just translated as hell, but you're saying it's more specific.

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Yes. It's important. Gehenna, in Greek, Jena, comes from the Hebrew Valley of Hinnom.

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This is a real place outside Jerusalem, historically infamous for pagan worship, even child sacrifice.

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A place with horrifying associations. Exactly. So Jesus uses this specific deeply resonant

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image to describe the final place of eternal judgment for the wicked.

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It's distinct from Hades, which is more like the general realm of the dead before final

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judgment or Tartarus used for fallen angels.

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Gehenna signifies finality, unquenchable fire.

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Using this specific term helps us grasp the weight Jesus intended,

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avoiding the sometimes vague connotations of the English word hell.

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Okay. That's helpful. So whether this fire of judgment or the fire of purification, this

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salting involves serious even eternal consequences and commitments.

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Where did this whole salt and covenant idea really take root?

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We need to go back, right, to the Old Testament. Absolutely.

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. You can't understand Jesus here without understanding the Old Testament background.

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It's not just a passing mention. Salt is woven into God's covenants.

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So that phrase may be from Mark nine verse forty nine, every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

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Its roots are deep. Deep in Leviticus two verse thirteen.

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God explicitly commands, you shall season all your green offerings with salt.

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With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. It wasn't optional.

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Not at all. It symbolized, as we said, covenant loyalty, permanence, purity.

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Adding salt consecrated the offering made it acceptable.

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Without it, unacceptable. It marked the seriousness of approaching God.

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And it wasn't just sacrifices. Right? No. In Numbers eighteen verse nineteen, God's

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permanent provision for the priests, their share of the offerings, is called a covenant of salt.

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It signifies an enduring, binding, incorruptible agreement, permanent loyalty.

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Okay. So sacrifices, priesthood… anything else.

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Kingship. Second Chronicles thirteen verse five describes the kingdom God promised to David and

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his descendants as a covenant of salt.

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Again, signifying God's unbreakable promise, the permanence of that Davidic line.

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. Worship, priesthood, kingship, the absolute pillars of Israel's relationship with

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God, all marked by this covenant of salt.

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It's not just a spice. It's a sign of unbreakable, serious, permanent commitment.

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That's the weight it carried. But here's the twist, the really mind blowing part.

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Jesus takes that symbol loaded with all that history

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tied to Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, the kings.

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And he applies it to his disciples. Yeah. That's the radical shift.

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Explain that. How does he do it? Well, think about the Old Testament pattern.

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Salt was linked to Jerusalem Right. The temple, the Levitical priesthood based there, the Davidic king ruling from there.

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It was geographically and institutionally anchored. Right. But Jesus, especially in Mark nine

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verses four nine to fifty, takes that exact imagery.

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Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt, have salt in yourselves Yeah.

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And relocates it. Not in a building or a lineage, but in his followers.

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Let's just pause there. That is huge. He's saying the place where God's unbreakable covenant promise resides.

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It's not stone anymore. It's you. Exactly. You are the living sacrifices.

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You are the royal priesthood. You are heirs with David's son, the true king.

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The covenant reality is now embodied in his people. How

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would the disciples have heard that people steeped in the Torah?

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, it would have been staggering. They knew the weight of the covenant of salt.

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To hear Jesus apply it directly to them, fishermen, tax collectors, casting them in roles

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previously held by the temple, the priesthood, the monarchy.

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It was revolutionary. It conferred immense dignity, but also immense responsibility.

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And it's easy for us, maybe less familiar with the deep roots in

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Leviticus or Numbers, to just hear salt and think, add flavor.

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Precisely. We flatten it. We miss the profound covenantal significance, the call to

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permanence, purity, unwavering loyalty embodied in their very lives.

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This shift away from a physical place, it reminds me of that story with Jeroboam.

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Yes. First Kings twelve. Jeroboam rebels against the Davidic king Reboam, and he worries his

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northern tribes will keep going back to Jerusalem to worship, and their loyalty will drift back.

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So he sets up his own rival worship centers, golden calves.

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Exactly. A counterfeit system trying to sever that connection to the Davidic covenant and the Jerusalem temple.

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And this, of course, deeply shaped Samaritan worship later on. Which Jesus addresses directly, doesn't he?

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He does. With the Samaritan woman at the well in John four verses twenty to twenty three, she

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brings up the whole… Jerusalem versus this mountain debate.

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Mhmm. And Jesus says the time is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship neither on

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this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth.

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Worship is centered in him, not a location. So he fulfills the temple, the priesthood, the

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kingship, and the covenant of salt now rests on his followers wherever they are.

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It's a radical redefinition of covenant identity, profound seriousness, enduring loyalty to

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Christ, not tied to geography, but to a spiritual reality in his people.

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But that brings us back to the warning, such a high calling.

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. But what if you fail? What if the salt becomes unsalty, dull, foolish?

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Jesus doesn't mince words. Losing your saltiness, again becoming foolish or dull.

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It means spiritual corruption, compromise, losing that distinct God honoring quality.

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Like that dead sea salt losing its punch. Just like that.

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It looks like salt. Maybe talks like salt, hangs around other salt, but it has no preserving

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power, no flavor of grace, no mark of covenant loyalty.

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It's become like the world. And spiritually, how does that happen?

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Hypocrisy is a big one. Saying one thing, living another, compromising core convictions to

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fit in or avoid trouble, letting your heart become corrupt, loving money or power more than

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God, or simply rejecting the cost refusing to take up the cross.

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It's essentially presenting an unsalted offering, worthless.

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Are there Old Testament parallels for this? God rejecting offerings

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…

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blasts the priest because they're offering blind, lame, sick animals.

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. Cheap, casual, contemptible sacrifices. God says he curses them for it.

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The salt of true value and reverence was missing.

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Okay. Any others? Isaiah one. God says, he's sick of their

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festivals, their sacrifices, their prayers because their hands are full of blood.

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They do the rituals, but there's no justice, no holiness.

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The salt of a righteous life of covenant loyalty and action wasn't there.

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And Amos two. Right? Amos five. Yeah. God says, I hate.

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I despise your feast. Take away from me the noise of your songs.

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Why? Because there's no justice rolling down like

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waters, no righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

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The offerings lacked the salt of justice. They were a stench to him.

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So God looks past the outward ritual to the heart, to the actual saltiness of the life behind it.

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Always. This is quite convicting. If this warning is so severe, who in the gospels would

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be the most tragic, maybe the ultimate example of someone who looked salty but wasn't?

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It has to be Judas Iscariot, doesn't it? Yeah. He's the embodiment of the unsalted sacrifice.

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Outwardly, he's one of the twelve. He's doing ministry, hearing Jesus teach.

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He's even the treasurer. Seems fully part of the inner circle.

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The others didn't seem to suspect him until the very end. No.

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But inwardly, John twelve verse six tells us he was a thief pilfering from the money bag.

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His heart was corrupt. His discipleship was self serving, ultimately treacherous.

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He heard all these warnings from Jesus about salt, about cost, about hypocrisy.

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And yet And yet his heart leaned towards betrayal, not peace.

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His final act, the ultimate saltless betrayal, leads him, as acts one verse twenty five puts

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it, to go to his own place, discarded, like useless salt trampled underfoot.

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Wow. That is sobering. You can be so close, hear everything, be part of the community.

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But if the heart isn't truly consecrated, truly loyal, you can still be saltless.

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Judas is a terrifying warning for anyone in the church. A permanent warning.

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Outward association isn't enough. Okay. Let's pivot from that darkness.

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If the covenant of salt is now with us as believers, how do we actively add salt to our life or sacrifice?

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How do we live this out? Well, if our lives are the offering now, then adding salt means

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living as consecrated, enduring, covenant loyal disciples.

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It's about the quality of that life offered to God how does that look practically several ways

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connect directly first consecration Romans twelve verse one… present your bodies as a living

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sacrifice holy and acceptable to God…that's offering your whole self intentionally set apart

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for him that's salty okay consecration what else endurance under fire first Peter one verses

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six to seven again letting trials test improve your faith purifying it like gold…That

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suffering endured with faith seasons the offering, proves its genuineness.

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That adds salt. Right. Trials aren't just pointless pain.

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They can be refining fire. And covenant loyalty.

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Luke fourteen verse thirty three. So, therefore, any one of you who

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does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

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That radical commitment, putting Christ above everything else, family possessions, self demonstrates true allegiance.

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That's the salt of loyalty. Consecration, endurance, loyalty, anything else.

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Else. Yes. Our speech and conduct, Colossians four verse six

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, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.

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Our words should have that distinctiveness, that purity, that grace,

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that flavor of heaven, preserving goodness in our interactions.

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So it impacts everything, our inner life, how we handle hardship

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, our ultimate allegiance, even how we talk to people.

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It's holistic. And this brings us back to Mark nine verse fifty.

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Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

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There's a vital link there. A crucial link. Jesus says that having this inner salt, this

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purified character, this covenant loyalty is what produces peace within the community.

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Remember, the disciples had just been arguing about who was the greatest.

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Uh , right. Rivalry, ambition, the opposite of peace.

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Exactly. Jesus says get the salt right internally.

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Deal with your sin. Embrace the purifying fire. Be truly loyal.

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And the result will be harmony, humility, peace with each other.

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. So the salt of covenant holiness and the peace of covenant unity,

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they go hand in hand, inseparable marks of real discipleship.

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Beautifully put. They are. Jesus often finished these really weighty teachings with a specific phrase.

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He uses it in Luke fourteen verse thirty five right after the salt warning.

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He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Yes.

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That's not just filler. It's a signal flag. It means pay attention.

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This is fundamentally important. It's a call for spiritual perception, not just physical hearing.

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Everyone heard the words, but Jesus is calling for people to truly understand the depth, the

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implications, the life or death seriousness of what he just said.

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So it's an invitation to really grapple with it, not just nod along.

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Exactly.. Have spiritual ears open to grasp the

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cost and the glory of being a truly

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salted disciple. Are you just listening, or are you hearing?