For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Jesus has just been warning about the fire that is not quenched, and the word "for" ties this saying back to that warning. So why is fire, which destroys, linked here with salt, which preserves — and does the warning fall on everyone alike?
The statement leaves no one out. It reaches everyone, but not in the same way.
Now everyone (it is completely unlimited) will be salted with fire — even the believer, for he needs its discipline; it is for his preservation as a believer, and for his salvation. But the godless will have it in a different way. For them it will be "unquenchable" fire, because evil there must always be held down — held down by judgment, where nothing but judgment will do. The Lord adds, "And every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." That is the turning point, where He begins to speak of the believer alone.
One picture speaks of holiness. The other speaks of judgment.
Here salting with fire and salting with salt are two different things. Salting is a picture of preservation. "Salt," which the Lord calls "good," and which always has a good meaning in Scripture, pictures that energy of holiness which keeps us for God by shutting out corruption. But salting with fire is very different from salting with salt. Fire, as always, is the picture of divine judgment.
Here is the puzzle at the heart of the verse.
Now salt preserves. Fire, in the physical sense, destroys; it is the very opposite of a preservative. Yet in the next world, the Lord Himself speaks of the fire as acting to preserve.
The same fire that is final for one person is a test for another.
Everyone will be put to the test. The fire will test both believers and sinners... The sinner who rejects Christ will pass into the fire that is not quenched. But for the true believer the fire takes the form of trials or even persecution. Peter tells us that fire may test our faith. He warns us not to think it strange when we go through a "fiery trial." We should rejoice instead, because if we share in "Christ's sufferings" we will also share in "His glory" (1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:12-13).
The second half of the verse takes up a rule from the offerings brought to God.
Salt must be there — "the salt of the covenant of your God," which is the separating power of holiness... Everybody will get judgment; wicked and good will get fire. But only sacrifices offered to God have the power that separates from evil and keeps evil away.
Salt also points to what lasts forever.
Salt preserves, and here it may speak to us of what is eternal... Eternal judgment is the portion of all who die in their sins. But with the sacrifice, its value and its results will last forever. It is "the salt of the covenant of your God." In it God, as it were, binds Himself to bless us according to His own heart, on the ground of the everlasting value of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
A note on the text: these writers quote a second half of the verse, about every sacrifice being salted with salt. Some manuscripts leave it out, and so does the ESV.
Some manuscripts, and the revisers who follow them, leave out the second half of verse 49... The substance of the truth remains, no doubt, but the warning sounds less solemn in the shortened form.
Salt kept inside a person shows up in how he treats other people.
The result is simple and powerful — "salt in yourselves… peace with one another." The more real power of grace there is in us, the more we honour the Name of the Lord Jesus. The more we truly sense our own nothingness, the more we share in the power of His Person — and so the more peace there is among us. When real grace fails, gifts may remain, but there will be jealousy and self-seeking through those very gifts.
- Everyone. The saying leaves no one out. God's fire tests believer and sinner alike, but not in the same way.
- Two fires. For the one who rejects Christ, it is the fire that is not quenched. For the believer, it comes as trials or persecution that test faith.
- Two saltings. Fire stands for divine judgment. Salt stands for the holiness that keeps corruption out. The verse puts them side by side, but they are not the same.
- One sacrifice. Salt was never missing from an offering, and it pledges that the value of Christ's sacrifice lasts forever.
- One result. Salt kept in yourselves brings peace with others. Where grace is real, jealousy and self-seeking die.
Salt [is] good, but if the salt is become saltless, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.
Mark 9 ends with a word to disciples who had argued on the road about which of them was the greatest. The Lord asks two things of them: something inside that keeps them from going bad, and something between them that keeps the peace.
This is not abstract advice. One writer names the danger it guards against, and the root under nearly every dispute among God's people.
There is the ever present danger of falling out along the way. Behind all the disputes that have ever taken place among the people of God, it will probably be found that, whatever the immediate subject of dispute, the root cause was that someone wanted to be great. Only as we count each other better than ourselves will we be able to be at peace among ourselves.
The Lord calls salt good. One writer explains what sort of good that is.
Salt is good. It is not an element which excites for a moment and then passes away; it has the savour of God's covenant.
One writer names what this salt is in a person, and what cannot happen without it.
Salt has been described as symbolizing that "power of holy grace, which binds the soul to God and inwardly preserves it from evil." We cannot present our bodies a living sacrifice to God if that holy grace is absent. It is truly good, and nothing could make up for its absence. We are to have in ourselves this holy grace, which would judge and separate us from all that is evil. If each of us cares to have it in ourselves, there will be no difficulty in having peace among ourselves.
The question sounds strange to modern ears, since salt as we buy it cannot go flat. The salt of that region could.
Eastern salt was different from what is commonly used now. It was not pure sodium chloride. It held plant and earthy matter, and sun and rain could turn it tasteless and useless.
One writer follows the loss of savour to where it ends.
Grace produces not only love but separateness to God in the believer. Easy-going unbelief destroys all savour in those who bear the Lord's name without self-judgment. What must the end of this be? Not only unrighteousness but apostasy.
The command points at ourselves first. It is not a licence to go salting the neighbours.
Salt is the energy of devotion to God that keeps out corruption. So "salt is good" — and if it loses its power, what shall replace it? Salt, therefore, we must have in ourselves. It will spread its savour around, of course; if it has any, it will surely do so. But this is ministering, not requiring. We must be watchful over ourselves.
The order of the two clauses is not accidental. Peace that skips the first half is not peace at all.
The salt of the covenant was God's pledge of a savour that never passed away. On our side, then, we need a holy energy that separates us to God and keeps us from corrupt words and ways. That separating power applies here to ourselves; the gracious spirit is for one another. Without holiness, peace with each other would be an illusion.
Read the other way round, the same link explains why gifted people still split apart.
The result is simple and powerful — "salt in yourselves … peace with one another." The more real power of grace there is in us, the more we recognize the Name of the Lord Jesus. There is a truer sense of our own nothingness, and more sharing in the power of His Person. And so there is more peace among ourselves. When real grace fails, gifts may remain, but jealousy and self-seeking will work through those very gifts. The Name that binds us in power and unity will be ignored, and division will follow.
The same salt shapes life among believers and speech toward those outside.
Among God's children, self-judgment and peace should rule inside. Gracious speech (guarded by the truth), wisdom and zeal should mark them outside. We need the salt of the covenant of our God to keep peace inside, and to show God's grace outside.
- Cause — The disciples argued over who was greatest. Wanting to be great is the root under most disputes among God's people.
- Salt — Not a thrill that fades, but preserving power that binds the soul to God and keeps out corruption. It carries the savour of God's covenant.
- Loss — Salt in that region really could go tasteless. So can a believer who drifts into easy-going unbelief without self-judgment. The writers see that road ending in apostasy, a complete falling away.
- Yourselves — The command points inward. Salt spreads its savour by itself; the job is to watch yourself, not to season everyone else.
- Then peace — Purity comes first and peace follows. Where real grace fails, gifts only fuel jealousy and division. Where it is real, peace with one another shows.