Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel of the Matthew, the fifth chapter:
“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. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. …I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.“
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
These verses often seem to be used in such a way that it denies the actual intent of the passage. We’ll get to that in a moment. But, first, haven’t you heard it this way? “You must continue to be salt and light in the world. You dare not lose your saltiness or your light, otherwise Jesus will throw you out into the street and darkness. You must continue to shine your light into the world so that others can hear about Jesus. You must do this. You have to do this. If you don’t do this, you are no Christian at all.”
Even growing up in some Lutheran churches, I had heard this. And this is disappointing. Jesus Christ is not saying in this great Sermon on the Mount that this is all up to you. Though indeed, dear Christians, you are salt, you are light, but this is not because of your own doing. On what day did the sun in the sky wake up and say, “Today I am going to burn?” On what day did salt decide for itself to be salt and not tin? Never.
God made them this way. God the Father, creator of all of the universe and everything in it, created each thing to be what it is. He created the sun to shine, salt to be salty, water to wash, bread to eat, wine to drink. The Father indeed gives to us grace upon grace in this way, that we receive from His hand wonderful blessings, things that He created just for their purpose.
So then, on what day did you decide to be the salt of the earth? On what day did you decide that you would be a lighted city on a hill? These are not things we choose for ourselves, rather that Christ has chosen them for us. You were not created in order that you would be the road dirt that gets in your mouth on a warm, windy day. You were created to be salt that is given its properties by the Creator. You were not created in order that you would be dark, but all were created in order to reflect the light that it is given.
And so we have to ask, what is this salt and light? Nothing other than Jesus. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, the light that no darkness can overcome. Jesus Christ is the salt that preserves and flavors all things. Jesus Christ goes into the world through us, in ways that we cannot even imagine. Because, dear Christian, you have been reborn into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you are salt, you are light. But these are not because you have chosen to be them. This is because He has chosen you. You are salt, you are light, because He, Jesus Christ, has made you thusly.
You see, there is nothing that you can do to choose to be salt and light. There is nothing that, as a Christian, you can do to lose your saltiness, to lose your lightness. There’s nothing. Each and every day, each and every week, we see how it is that Christ is continuing to make us salt and light. He does this through His Word, He does this through His Sacraments. In fact, let’s stop using the terms salt and light for a while, and just call it what is we’re talking about. You, dear Christian, are justified, made righteous by Christ. This is what salt and light are: righteousness in the eyes of God.
In this way, we can talk about the way that righteousness gives you right standing before God. You, though you are an awful, grievous, miserable sinner, have been declared righteous by faith, by Jesus. And though you know that you are undeserving of the grace that has been given to you, you still have right standing before God the Father because the Son declared that He accomplished your salvation before the whole world and the Holy Spirit has delivered it to you through Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the preaching of God’s Word. In these ways, you are righteous, and because of that, because of that, you shall endure until the final day, the last day when Jesus Christ will return and raise all people from the dead. And you, He shall raise unto everlasting life with Him. This is because you have been declared righteous. It gives you privileges, claims. You can walk up to God, grab Him by the throat, and remind Him that He promised that you are saved, that He gave that promise to you in baptism. And He has no choice then but to say that you are right and welcome you into your eternal rest. You are righteous, therefore you are saved in Christ’s sight.
But you are righteous, not just giving you claims, but responsibilities, too. You see the righteous live by faith. But what does this mean? It means, of course, that we should live according to the Holy Law of God. In this way, we are pleasing to God, not because He needs to be pleased by us, but because we serve our neighbor. You see, Christ came to fulfill the Law, did He not? He did. And so there is nothing you need to obey in the Law in order to win for yourself salvation. You are already righteous, are you not? You are. And Christ has won for this righteousness, the key to the kingdom of heaven, the promise of everlasting life.
But Christians don’t obey they Law in order to win salvation. That’s already been done. We obey the Law in order to serve our neighbor. And how is this done? We obey our parents, being good children in order to serve them and make their parenting easier on them. We obey the police, in order to serve them and protect all the neighbors around us so that police are free to help people in true need and not just us. We do not lust or commit adultery, hurting our spouse or another’s spouse, in order that we serve those whom we love, edifying them in our marriages. We do not steal, helping instead to protect our neighbors’ belongings, and helping them be successful in all their endeavors. We do not murder or harm, but instead help others protect their bodies that they might be servants to all in the best ways possible.
These are just a few ways we obey the Law. And yet, we still do not, do we? And this becomes a problem, because Jesus says that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, who were VERY righteous men, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s right, the scribes and Pharisees were very righteous, doing all the outward signs of being good men. They would even be described as GREAT men, men certainly deserving of heaven. And Jesus says that if your righteousness doesn’t exceed theirs, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
This is how this text gets so far off track. This is why I have constantly heard false doctrine pour forth from preachers’ lips. You, dear Christian, cannot exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. You cannot. But you also cannot be salt on your own. You cannot either be light on your own. You cannot. These things cannot be done by you.
But they can be done, and they have been done, by Christ. He has won them. He is salt. He is light. He is more righteous than all the scribes and Pharisees combined. And He gives this righteousness to you. For remember, friends, Christ has declared you righteous. He has declared it because He is the ONLY righteous one who has ever lived. He is the ONLY righteous man that has obeyed the Law perfectly. And by His death on the cross, He has taken the punishment that was due each and every one of us, and He took it freely, giving freely the sweet reward of His perfect life and obedience.
We are righteous. When you do not obey the Law perfectly, and you know when you don’t and you know that you won’t, you are righteous. Not because you did everything perfectly, but because the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed you from that sin. So, repent, be forgiven, and go be righteous again. Rinse and repeat. Mess up, repent, be forgiven, go be righteous.
But, know, too, the devil and the Law will stand there and accuse you and tell you all the nasty things that you’ve done. So, when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: 'I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!’
This is our response, friends, echoing our dear Luther. We deserve death and hell, but it doesn’t matter. We know the one who has made us righteous, we know the one who bore our punishment, we know the one who has made us salt and light, and we shall not let Him go. We shall cling to Him ever more tightly in the face of the devil’s stupid accusations. If he calls you a sinner, Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of which I am the very worst. If he tells you you’re going to hell, remember that the devil is already there. If he tells you that God cannot love you, kick him in the shins and tell him, “I. Am. Baptized.”
You are justified by grace, through faith, and this work is not of yourselves. You cannot be salty on your own, you cannot be light on your own, your good works will avail you nothing. You cannot boast in any work, but the work of Christ. You should not, for this work, His life, His death, His resurrection, have won you all things. This is what God has prepared for those who love Him: Christ’s righteousness. God decreed, before all ages, that Jesus Christ would come and that He would be crucified for you. This is wisdom, this is knowledge, this is the very peace of God. The cross is your peace for it is your righteousness. And this righteousness surpassing all human righteousness. This righteousness has earned you a spot in your heavenly rest. You shall live forever, you shall enter the kingdom of heaven, for your righteousness is Christ and none other, not even yourself. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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