In this brief passage of holy scripture, we have two distinct classes of people indicated, and two solemn facts enunciated. In the first place, we are told that “everyone shall be salted with fire.” And, secondly, we are told that “every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” Both these statements, taken together, open a very wide field of divine truth to our view. May the Eternal Spirit enable us to enter and make our own of it! May we feel its deep solemnity—its soul-subduing power!
1. In the first clause of the passage, we are distinctly taught that judgment is appointed unto man. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27).) And again, “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
This is the solemn appointment for men— “death and judgment.” We may reason as we will; we may seek to put it away from us; we may argue against it; we may say we do not believe in such things. But that, in no wise, affects the weighty fact. Of what use would it be for a poor guilty criminal, on whom sentence had just been passed, to say that he did not agree with the testimony of the witnesses, the verdict of the jury, or the sentence of the judge How could this alter the fact of his condition? He may say, he does not believe in such things as witnesses, juries, or judges at all; but he is a guilty and condemned criminal all the same; and, in a few days, he will be executed. His thoughts and his reasonings can, in no wise, touch the facts of his case. Opinions are one thing, and facts are another.
In like manner, men may call in question the truth of our Lord’s solemn statement, that “ everyone shall be salted with fire.” They may affect not to believe in judgment to come, or in eternal fire. They may treat such things as old wives’ fables, wholly unworthy of the belief of rational, intelligent, cultivated men, and only suited for silly women and children.
But the question is, Whose word shall stand—Christ’s or theirs? If Christ declares that everyone shall be salted with fire, it is our wisdom, our safety, to say nothing of our bounden duty, to believe what He says—to bow down under the weight and authority of His word, to give to the winds all our own stupid reasonings, foolish notions, and proud imaginations. It is of no possible use for us to attempt to define what is or what is not suitable for God to say or do. If man is competent to judge God, then he really denies God’s existence altogether, and puts himself into God’s place; for, clearly, if there is a God, He must be the supreme and infallible judge of all, and man must submit. This is man’s true wisdom. He must bow, sooner or later. How much better to bow in this day of grace, then to be made to bow in the day of judgment.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ declares, three times over, in Mark 9, that hell fire is eternal. There is no gainsaying this. He says, “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” This solemn statement He reiterates three times over; and hence, though all the infidels, skeptics, rationalists, that ever were, are now, or ever shall be in this world, were to presume to say that punishment is not eternal, we should place our blessed Lord’s statement in front of all their arguments, reasonings, deductions, conclusions, and imaginations, and utterly and absolutely reject them all. This we consider to be our true wisdom, our moral security, our bounden duty.
It is, in our judgment, mere waste of time, to say the very least of it, to attempt to reason with men who presume to set themselves in opposition to God—to judge His word, and to pronounce upon what is, and what is not worthy of Him to do or to say. A man who dares to sit in judgment upon his Creator is not likely to be moved by the arguments of a fellow-creature. And most assuredly all those who take upon them to say that it is unworthy of God to permit any of His creatures to suffer everlasting punishment, do, really, and to all moral intents and purposes, sit in judgment upon their Creator; and all such shall learn their egregious folly, sooner or later. Every true Christian knows and feels that “ the Judge of all the earth shall do right;” but infidels presume to sit in judgment on the Judge. They are clearly wrong. Scripture is against them: and scripture cannot be broken. “Every one shall be salted with fire,” and that fire never shall be quenched. The stamp of eternity is upon every wave of the lake of fire, and upon every fang of that worm which shall be the sure portion of all who die in their sins. “ There is a great gulf fixed.” Hell is a fixture. It can never be removed.
The wrath of God abideth.”
Unconverted reader, think of these things. Think of them now. Think of them not in the darkness of infidel reasonings, but in the light of God’s word. Flee, we beseech thee, from the wrath to come. Flee, at once. God has provided a way of escape for sinners. He, in His infinite love, has devised a means by which men may be delivered from this terrible salting with fire. He has given the Only-begotten Son of His bosom, to die the Just for the unjust. Jesus, the spotless holy Lamb of God, exposed Himself to the fire of divine judgment, in order that all who will simply trust Him and put their case into His hands, may not be condemned, bat freely forgiven, and have eternal life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt never be salted with fire. “The torment and the fire thine eyes shall never see.”
Why? Because the precious Savior met the judgment of God in the sinner’s stead. When there was no other possible way of escape, He came, in perfect love, and exposed His own bosom to the stroke of infinite justice; and having borne the judgment, paid the penalty, died the death, God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavens, crowned with glory and honor; and now all who believe in His precious, peerless name are as freed from guilt and condemnation as He is Himself. All who put their trust in Jesus are brought into the very same place of acceptance with God that He Himself occupies. Nothing less than this could satisfy the loving heart of God—nothing less than this is worthy of the perfect sacrifice of Christ—nothing less than this could fully glorify the eternal Trinity.
Reader, is it not very much better, safer, and wiser to accept God’s blessed way of escaping the judgment than to adopt the infidel plan of denying it? “Every one shall be salted with fire.” This cannot be set aside. But “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,” and all who believe in Him are taken, clean and forever, off the ground of judgment. He endured the fiery salting in our stead, so that it can never apply to us who believe in Him. The heavy clouds of death and judgment burst upon the head of the sinner’s Substitute, in order that the believing sinner might pass off the platform of judgment into a region where there is neither enemy nor evil occurrent.
2. And, now, we are in a position to enter into the, meaning of the second clause of our weighty text which declares that “every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” This applies to all those who, through grace, are delivered from the wrath to come—from the salting with fire—from the fear of judgment. It is to such that the apostle addresses these most touching and powerful words at the opening of Rom. 12, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Here the “salt” will be needed. “Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking with thy meat-offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” (Lev. 2:1313And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. (Leviticus 2:13).) “Let your conversation be always with grace seasoned with salt.”
Thus we see what a very important ingredient salt is, in the daily life of a Christian. It is absolutely indispensable, if we would present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. “With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” “Every oblation of thy meat-offering thou shalt season with salt,” If we, by the mercy of God, and the atoning death of Christ, have been taken, once and forever, off the ground of divine judgment, what remains? To what end is it? Surely that we may be a living sacrifice to God, that we may present the continual oblation of Christ, in all His preciousness, His fragrance, and His excellency, to the heart of God.
Yes, this is to be our grand business, morning, noon, eventide, and midnight; and for this there must be the “salt.” “Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” He does not say “ everyone shall be salted with salt.” Alas! alas! it is not so. It is only those who know something of the mercies of God—something of the constrainings of the love of Christ, that can be a sacrifice, and all such must use salt. “Salt is good.” It is pungent and preservative. “But if the salt have lost its saltiness, wherewith shall ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”
Mark the order and moral connection! “Salt and peace.” The claims of holiness must be attended to ere there can be peace. It is not peace first and then salt. No; this must not be. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.” Such is the divine order which must never be reversed. All our sacrifices, whether as holy priests or as royal priests—our sacrifices of praise to God or of doing good to men, must be accompanied with salt. There must be purity, holiness, and self-judgment, for “every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.”