The following is a message given at our church’s food pantry ministry on Saturday, January 10, 2026.
Beginning in 2024 and continuing through 2025, I spent time each day studying Matthew chapters 5 through 7, what we often call the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon contains some of the most important words Jesus ever spoke, and it was likely a sermon He taught often.
Matthew 5:13 is a familiar verse, yet also a strange one.
Jesus said to the crowd of disciples gathered around Him:
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
Salt has many uses. It makes food taste better. It preserves food so it does not rot. Our bodies even require salt to live. Yet it is difficult to imagine salt losing its saltiness. Salt dissolves, but what is unsalty salt? Isn’t that just called sand? Dirt?
Some forms of salt in the ancient world could lose their effectiveness as they became mixed with other minerals. But Jesus’ point is clear. Salt that is no longer salty has lost its purpose. It is useless. If the salt in your salt shaker were not salty, you would throw it away. You would not try to fix it. You could not restore it.
Jesus told His disciples, including people like Judas who would later betray Him, “You are the salt of the earth.”
Like salt, God created human beings with a purpose. Our purpose is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet Scripture tells us that all of us have failed in this purpose. We do not love God as we should, and we do not love one another as we should.
Though humanity is the crown of God’s creation, declared “very good” in the garden, all of us have sinned. Sin is the opposite of loving God and loving others. It is rebellion against a holy God. Because God is a righteous Judge, He has sentenced us to death. That sentence is just. It is what we deserve.
Jesus asks a sobering question: “If salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” I believe we are meant to pause here. Jesus is saying there is no hope for unsalty salt. He answers His own question: It is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
In this illustration, we are the salt! Left to ourselves, that would be the end of the story.
But we know the rest of the story. God loved the world so much that He sent His Son. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, and lived a sinless life. He died on the cross as a payment for sin. He rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.
Yet this does not mean everyone automatically goes to heaven. Scripture teaches that we must be born again by God’s grace, through faith in Christ and that work of his on the cross. By grace through faith we are born again, and to be born again means to become a new creation.
Jesus uses other images to explain this truth. He taught that diseased trees cannot bear good fruit, and that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Sin is bad fruit, and every one of us produces it. Without a miracle from God, every one of us would face only judgment.
Jesus also said that anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be His disciple. He told us to cut off whatever causes us to sin and throw it away. Earlier, in Mark chapter 7, He explained that sin is caused by the fallen human heart. What we need, then, is not behavior modification but heart replacement. We need God to give us new hearts.
Has He done that for you?
For some, even among those reading today, I fear the answer may be no. Most people do not truly repent and follow Christ. Jesus Himself said “The way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
If you are unsure whether you are following Jesus and heading toward eternal life, that uncertainty itself should concern you. Biblical faith involves confidence and assurance. Scripture tells us to make our calling and election “sure.” (2 Peter 1:10) Faith is being “certain” of what we hope for. (Hebrews 11:1) Jesus said “this is the work of God: that you believe…” (John 6:29)
God promises that when we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him. (Jeremiah 19:13) Have you sought Him with your whole heart?
For those who are true believers in Christ, we know that we have eternal life. That certainty does not come from looking at ourselves, but from looking at Jesus. As Martin Luther once said, “When I look at myself, I cannot see how I can be saved. But when I look to Christ, I cannot see how I can be lost.”
The world tells us to believe in ourselves. Scripture tells us the opposite. If we trust in ourselves, we are lost. If we trust in Christ alone, we live. His work on the cross is finished. For the believer, death itself has been defeated forever.
Those who are born again are a new kind of salt. By God’s grace, we are preserved, useful, and purposeful. We desire to obey Jesus, even though we fail at times. We desire to love God with all our hearts and to love His people, gathering together in worship and fellowship.
Our purpose remains to love God and love one another, not by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within every true believer. And because of Him, we will never lose our saltiness.
Adorn the Gospel 