It is impossible for us fully to appreciate the significance of this text until we decide the exact connotation of this term. Our Lord took for granted that His hearers would understand what He meant, that salt was very commonly  used in our Lord's day. There was no need for any qualification whatsoever when He said "Ye are the salt of the earth."

Salt  was used for one primary and pre-eminent purpose —as an aseptic; to prevent the process of decay  and putrefaction in meats and foodstuffs.  In our Lord's day you would find in every home a certain quantity of salt, and the housewife would make use of it to prevent foodstuffs, and meats especially, from putrefy­ing.

The conclusion, therefore, that the Lord  is saying of the world in which His people lived, as in the grip of moral and spiritual decay. The world,  in effect, is in process of moral and spiritual putre­faction.

The world is dead in trespasses and sins; and the evidences of that decay are to be seen on all hands. But ye, says the Master, you, my people, you whom I have redeemed, you are the salt of the earth. You are in this world as a moral and spiritual aseptic.

You are now quite different from the world. There was a time when you were of the world, when you too were in the grip of the evil one, when you too were dead: but you are no longer in that condition.

For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1.13)

Psalm 1. Reminds  us,  “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water”  (Supernaturally planted in an arid desert)

That reminds us we cannot live our  lives drawing on our own resources which are earthy, we know from Genesis  Chapter 3. That the earth was also  corrupted when man fell.  Relying on our own resources will only  bring toil and failure.

 But You are my people ; I have called you out of the world says the Lord Jesus Christ, now you are entirely different.

You possess a different life.

Jesus Christ  was the image of  God, Jesus Christ  was pure in all his thoughts and words. He is the true benchmark of righteousness  I.e. “The ultimate of righteousness”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”  Ch.5:6

“Hungering and thirsting”  is the appetite for Spiritual things. As the physical body  needs nourishment to sustain in its daily toil of life, likewise the “Spiritual body”  needs to take in  “Spiritual food” to enable it to progress to that high calling of God.

We are encouraged by Paul In Philippians Ch.3 v13-14

Brethren, I do not regard  myself  as having laid hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul uses the analogy of a runner to describe the Christian’s spiritual growth. The believer has not reached his goal of Christ likeness, but like a runner in a race, he must continue to pursue it.

The race toward Christ likeness  begins with a sense of honesty and dissatisfaction,  The believer is to forget what lies behind, refusing to  rely on past virtuous deeds and achievements, or to dwell on past sins and failures, We will never reach that goal of total Christian until we reach eternity, nevertheless we strive  for that goal.

Romans Ch.8 v29 says

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become  conformed  to the image of His Son.

Conformed to the image of His Son, is the goal of God’s predestined purpose for his own, that they would be made like Jesus Christ  “This is the prize of the upward call  spoken of by Paul in Philippians Ch.3

The writer to the Hebrews in Ch.12. V1 says

“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us”

Though  the road is toilsome, we must hold out with patience, and be content to endure hardship.

The way is often one of weariness and hardship with many trials and difficulties and obstacles to overcome

What is our Response?

Part 3 in this series is given on Page 4

“Gods School of Prayer”

Based on Matt. Ch.6

The True Commission of the Citizen of the Kingdom of God

“You are the salt of the earth”

It is into this world that we are  to be  “The salt of the earth, and to impart  Spiritual morality“  Upon the the environment in which we live in.

 But You are my people ; I have called you out of the world says the Lord Jesus Christ, now you are entirely different.  You possess a different life.

The process of death is evident in the world around, but in you we see the evidences of life. And what a life! God looks upon His children as the recipients of a divine nature,

as those who by grace are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as those who have the mind of Christ. God looks upon His people in all generations as new creatures in Christ Jesus.

And so, our Lord looking into the faces of these His disciples, says, "You are the salt of the earth. There is something in you which is capable of stemming the tide of sin around you.

There is something in you which, by the grace of God, is capable of stopping the impetus of iniquity.

Yours is a life,

 a triumphant life,

a victorious life,

a life of true glorious, God-given victory."

This is one of the great declara­tions of the  Scriptures. God means His people to triumph over their difficulties,

to be victors over their sin,

to rise up with wings as eagles,

to run and not be weary,

to walk and not faint.

And whatever the circumstances of our life may be, He means us in the midst of the most wicked environment, to be the moral and spiritual aseptic of society.

The Christian  character is not mere moral or legal correctness, but the possession and manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians     (READ Gal. Ch.5 v22-23)

Taken together  these verses  present a moral portrait of Christ “Its no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.  Gal. Ch2:20

What we are saying in these  verses. Is

“The Christian life  is the Out-living of the In-living Christ.