Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 5:13

"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men." — Matthew 5:13 (ASV)

You are the salt of the earth:

The earth would go putrid if there were no salt of grace to preserve it. So, dear friends, if God's grace is in you, there is a pungent savor about you which serves to preserve others from going as far into sin as they otherwise would have done; You are the salt of the earth:

It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

There are people who believe that you can be children of God today and children of the devil tomorrow; then again, children of God the next day and children of the devil again the day after. But believe me, it is not so.

If the work of grace is truly worked by God in your soul, it will last through your whole life; and if it does not so last, that proves it is not the work of God.

God does not put His hand to this work a second time. There is no regeneration twice over. You can be born again, but you cannot be born again, and again, and again, as some teach, for there is no record of that kind in Scripture.

Therefore, I rejoice that regeneration, once truly worked by the Spirit of God, is an incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever.

But beware, professor, lest you be like salt that has lost its savor and is therefore good for nothing.

Thus He speaks to those whom He enrolls in His kingdom. In their character, there is a preserving force to keep the rest of society from utter corruption. If they were not scattered among humankind, humanity would putrefy. But if they are Christians only in name and the real power is gone, nothing can save them, and they are of no use whatever to those among whom they mingle. There is a secret something, which is the secret of the believer's power. That something is savor. It is not easy to define it, but it is absolutely essential to usefulness. A worldly person may be of some use even if he fails in certain respects, but a Christian who is not truly a Christian is bad all around; he is good for nothing.

Utter rejection awaits him. He will be cast out, and trodden under foot of men. His religion makes a footpath for fashion or for scorn, depending on how the world chooses to view it. In either case, it is no preservative, for it does not even preserve itself from contempt. How this teaches the necessity of final perseverance! For if the savor of divine grace could be entirely gone from a man, it could never be restored. The text is very clear and definite on that point.

What unscriptural nonsense it is to claim that a man can be born again, yet lose the divine life, and then get it again! Regeneration cannot fail. If it did, the man would be forever hopeless; he could not be born again, and again, and again.

His case would be beyond the reach of mercy. But who is hopeless? Are there any whom it is impossible to restore? If so, some may have entirely fallen from grace, but not otherwise. Those who speak of all people as within the reach of grace may not scripturally or logically believe in total apostasy, since it is impossible to restore them unto repentance, if any have really apostatized.

The great lesson is that if grace itself fails to save a man, nothing else can be done for him. If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? You can salt meat, but you cannot salt salt. If grace fails, everything fails. Gracious Master, do not permit me to try any experiments as to how far I may lose my savor, but always keep me full of grace and truth.

It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Mark this, then, either the saints must persevere to the end, or else the grace of God has done nothing for them effectively. If they do not continue to be saints and to exercise a saintly influence, there is no hope for them. There cannot be two new births for the same person; if the divine work has failed once, it will never be begun again.

If they really have been saved, if they have been made the children of God, and if it is possible for them to lose the grace which they have received, they can never have it again.

The Word of God is very emphatic on that point: If they shall fall away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance. Falling may be recovered from, but falling away can never have a blessed outcome.

There are countries where salt is found from which the pungency has completely gone. It is an altogether useless substance. And if there are men, who ever did possess the grace of God, and who were truly God's people, if the divine life could go out of them, they would be in an utterly hopeless case.

Perhaps there are no powers of evil in the world greater than apostate churches; who can calculate the influence for evil that the Church of Rome exercises in the world today?

But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?

If the God-given grace could be taken from you altogether, if you had no sanctifying power about you at all, what could be done with you? You would be like salt that has lost its savor.

Ye are the salt of the earth:

Followers of Christ, ye are the salt of the earth. You help to preserve it, and to subdue the corruption that is in it.

But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?

A professing Christian with no grace in him, a religious man whose very religion is dead, what is the good of him? And he is himself in a hopeless condition. You can salt meat, but you cannot salt salt.