Salt and Light

Salt preserves.

The call to Jesus’s followers in scripture is not to try to make earth heaven, nor to take the fallen and broken world and force it to be the kingdom of heaven. We, humanity, rebelled against God, and shalom was broken. And there is only one solution for our brokenness, only one payment for our sin, and only one who could restore shalom. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human. And Jesus has commissioned his followers to work in this broken world to be salt and light. Salt preserves. We are salt when we work toward constructive social change from a distinctly Christian worldview. We offer a foretaste of Jesus’ kingdom where there is no oppression, no slavery, no abuse, no pride, no arrogance, no broken relationships, and no one is denigrated, discarded, or used.

Light proclaims.

We are light when we proclaim the good news of Jesus and invite others to follow Jesus with us. When we consider personal evangelism, we may think of programs, training, knocking on doors, or a myriad of evangelistic literature. The hope identified in personal evangelism is a hope of a restored relationship with God. Yet, this hope is often directed through the need to understand sin and its death penalty. Light proclaims hope. When we are light, we proclaim our hope, personally and as part of the family of God. 1 Peter 3:15 teaches, “but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Light proclaims hope. We are to be in touch with our hope to proclaim our hope to others. When we proclaim our hope in Jesus as our Lord, in concert with the work of preserving, we present a gospel message that is true, transformative, and beautiful. A message of eternal hope to a dying world in immanent need of the good news of the Kingdom of God- Jesus, the Christ.