Being Salt

            Our God is truly great and sovereign, and He has placed each of us in our proper places for history to glorify Him.  Those of us in the United States today have been placed here by Him for His glorious purpose.  Jesus spoke of believers’ relationship with the outside world when He said, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt becomes tasteless, with what shall it be salted?  For it has strength for nothing any more but to be thrown out and to be trampled under by men.” (Matthew 5:13)  The question that arises naturally from the text is this, “How does salt become tasteless, and how may it maintain its flavor?”  It is to this that we turn our attention.

            Salt is, by nature, salty.  It does not need to do anything to make itself more salty.  To be effective as salt, it must be in the food.  Thus we also are to be in the world.  We act as flavor and preservative.  Unfortunately, not all is as well as it ought to be.  Considering the United States, it appears as though the salt within has lost its flavor.  But how did this happen?  Why does salt, that is, why do we, lose our preservative effect on the world in which we live?  The reason is simple: we have lost a Christ-focused worldview. 

            Without Jesus Christ at the center of our worldview and of everything we do, we become tasteless salt.  We are still salt, that is, we have not lost our salvation, but we have lost our preservative effect on the world around us.  When we are like Christ, we do, in fact, have a preservative effect on the world.  It is not an option, or even a command.  It is a statement, most like a promise, phrased, “You are…,” rather than, “You shall be…,” or “You should be…”   It is a state of being.  When we drag our desires and the like into our lives, and lose our focus on Jesus Christ, we become tasteless.

            Out of our love for Jesus comes a love for our neighbor.  This love must be expressed within the context of the neighbor in question, considering the culture at large, the subcultures, and the individual’s personality.  This is not, however, the center of our focus.  Our focus is on Jesus Christ.  We do not become more effective ministers to our neighbors primarily by getting to know them, studying their culture, and contemplating the best method to share the gospel with them.  These are good things, but they are not the focus.  We become better salt, not by focusing on our nature as salt, nor on the nature of the food that we are in, but on the Lord Jesus Christ.  When our focus is on Christ, satellite issues find their proper place and function accordingly.

            Within the context of Christ, this particular satellite issue of ministering in today’s postmodern culture may now be addressed.  It is no longer expedient or effective to use a cookie-cutter method for sharing the Gospel with today’s youth.  This style of using propositional truth is objectionable to them.  What they want is a story.  We need not be alarmed, because the Scripture arms us with a vast multitude of stories about the glory of God, the gospel, and the experience of the godly and ungodly men who came before us.  History provides us with countless more examples of sinners and saints.  Finally, we are armed with the stories of our own salvation.  In all, may Jesus be glorified.  Likewise, arguments are replaced by questions.  Jesus used a lot of questions, and in a culture that does nothing but ask questions, this is a very effective method.  The difference of Christianity is that Jesus has answers that no one else can give, the truth.

            As for me personally, by gazing at Jesus Christ, I must forget my own particular subcultural biases against my peers, crucify my arrogance, and care for the souls of the postmodern people I minister to.  When looking at Jesus, I can see the preciousness of each soul, and my own preferences and feelings take an immediate second place to doing whatever it takes to bring the gospel to the lost.  Naturally I will learn more about this culture, and develop a repertoire of questions to ask, but this comes second, when I gaze at the face of Jesus.

            And for Hidden Acres, we must do likewise, to gaze at Jesus.  I think that our proposed teaching method for next year aptly fits this topic.  We plan to use different stories from the Scripture to teach the principles they convey.  While we will need to be keenly aware of avoiding legalistic moralism, that is, the idea that godly principles are enough, apart from the gospel, this approach does well to meet the teaching style of this generation.  Kids are more likely to respond to a story of a godly man from the Scripture than a doctrinal monologue.  It is important, in all, to remember and glorify the Lord Jesus, because if we do not, we will be merely nice people with happy stories that can never change lives or save eternal souls.