“The Case for Christ - ‘Salt with Fire’ and Marriage”

We continue with the text of Mk 9:50 tonight: ‘Salt is good: but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.’

The disciples were to become spiritual influences in the name of Jesus in the world. So Jesus spoke of how ‘salt with fire’ would work in them for such an influence.

Since the marriage relationship is such a leading influence in our present world, I would like to take the liberty tonight to look at marriage with the ‘salt with fire’ element in this same light.

So - let us go on in this direction and start by saying this: marriage is the one institution of life that bears many, many burdens in society. 

Much is expected of it yet it is a determining factor in how life goes for every person. 

When it comes to marriage, for those who do not know of the spiritual application of ‘salt with fire’, marriage and family can play havoc in society.

But - for those who do understand and embrace the spiritual application of ‘salt with fire’, it strengthens marriages and families and helps mold the lives of its family members toward strong spiritual influences in the world.

For it is godly marriages and godly families that are part of the church’s stronghold of radiating influence to the world.

So because of its practicality in life’s situations, marriage and family take primary importance in the kingdom of God.

But - by the time Jesus appeared upon the earth, distorted notions about marriage were common and extensive.      

Thus, He set about correcting some of the delusions and deviations about it. 

It was on one occasion, in Mt 19:7-8, when some Pharisees asked Jesus a question about divorce, that He replied, by  making the statement: ‘...but from the beginning, it was not so.’

He was referring them back to the divine intention and told them that their judgment about marriage was not the way it was originally intended to be.  

The trappings of sin down through the years had changed its created pattern to an entirely different pattern.  

There had been serious departures from it then - that, unfortunately - continue to this day and, in fact, are even considered the ‘norm’ now.

But, in taking the Pharisees back to the Old Testament writings of Gen 1:27 and 2:24, Jesus quoted for them what the divine sanction for marriage actually was.

And He used this divine revelation as the authoritative declaration of what God’s will is concerning it. 

It originated in the days of creation, He was telling the Pharisees. 

God put it into place in this way: ‘God created man in His own image, in the image of God, created He him; male and female created He them.’ (Gen 1:27)

God had said: ‘It is not good for man to live alone’ or, as the Hebrew text renders it: ‘It is not good for man to be in his separation.’

And, although Adam was surrounded with cattle, the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the air, yet these could not help Adam overcome his consciousness of something yet lacking.

He was incomplete. Adam was not yet whole. 

And why not?

Human life was not yet finalized into the complete image of God. 

Thus, as man was created in the likeness of God and in the reflection of God’s glory, so also was woman created.

And, as Jesus reminded the Pharisees, it was at that moment that God established marriage between the man and his wife.

He made it a lasting ordinance for all time, among all people, at that last act of creation.

It was to be basic for how marriage was to be. It gave the proper estimation of it, and it showed how it was to be conducted.

And, although its doors have been thrown open wide to all sorts of destructive and corruptive influences, God had ordained it so from the very beginning.

Jesus reminded the Pharisees of this in Mt 19:4-5.

There, He said to them: ‘Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female. And said, For this cause shall a man leave his mother and father and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.’

‘...they twain shall be one flesh.’

The union of husband with wife was the act of creation that completed the revelation of God - the revelation of the fullness of His image - to mankind. 

It completed the oneness of God’s character that would also be basic in the marriage union.

This was why Jesus made the astounding statement, in v 6, ‘What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.’

But - when sin entered the world, it marred this revelation of God to mankind.

But Jesus came. 

He came to bring this revelation back to its God-given intention - back to its proper place. 

Not only was He sent to take care of the sin problem, but He also came to finish this revelation of God to mankind by revealing the ‘oneness’ of the divine nature, as well.

‘This is the form of marriage ordained by God from the beginning,’ Jesus was saying to the Pharisees.

That is what makes marriage sacred. This is what ranks it among the highest of God-ordained institutions.

It is in the marriage union that husband and wife are so intimately united in heart and affection that a fixed bond has been created between the two.

It makes them one in the likeness of the ‘oneness’ of the  character of God.

With this ‘highest quality’ is how God intended the marriage union to be from the beginning.

This is why a husband and wife united in marriage are never to be looked upon as one being separate from the other.

They are to be looked upon as having been granted the privilege of becoming one together. 

Husband and wife are brought together in such a way that this union is to operate in the divine intention.

But how will it work for the Christian toward what God intended it to be?

First, let me say this: for the Christian, God made the provision for making that mutual bond secure by the fact of the believer’s oneness in Christ.  

The all-sufficient name of Jesus - in the power of His strength and glory - will protect and keep safe the marriage tie. 

This is why no young Christian woman, no young Christian man ought to fear failure in going into a marriage relationship.

Once the marriage vows are taken, the insecurities ought to automatically drop for God’s way in Christ makes them secure: they are in this life together in Him. 

And, then, secondly, the view from that point onward is toward the increase of that mutual bond.

They move along together with the goal of being enlarged in the ‘likeness of Christ, in the image of God.’

It is not to be just a sexual union between two creatures. 

But it is to be a union between two spirits with the design toward polishing and completing the nature of both. 

Someone once said: ‘A person’s character is only half-formed until the time of marriage.’

That may be true for it is in the process of marriage that the character of both is given ample opportunities to come to that place of becoming complete in Christ.  

And - here, I would like to remind ourselves of the work of the Holy Spirit Who employs the element of ‘salt with fire’ to construct this balanced harmony God intended in His design. 

Since the wife and husband have been made ‘heirs together in the grace of life’, they are living parts of Christ and His church. 

So - just as the Holy Spirit was to operate among the disciples to change their attitudes of self-exaltation to the glory of God in the power of Jesus’ Name, so is the husband/wife relationship to operate.

The husband finds in the love and life of the wife what is lacking toward the completion of strength of character and firmness of moral will. 

And the wife finds in the husband one who is her guardian and friend that her physically weaker and gentler nature needs.

They each have their separate temperaments that need the Spirit’s ‘salt with fire’ so that God’s goal of the perfection of character, of being ‘conformed to the image of His Son’, is reached. 

But for this to happen, each supports and helps the other to reach that place.

And what place is that?

It is the place of ‘peace between themselves’. (Mk 9:50)

It is the place of how God intended life to be, the place of the highest quality of life together, and of the highest purpose of life together.

And it is the place of such a godly influence that that influence just radiates out from husband and wife together in the ‘unity of the Spirit’. 

So transformed by Christ are they that, in such a place, they - together - become fused into a single entity, into the ‘holy, blameless’ image of Christ together. 

Paul was so right when, in speaking of marriage, he spoke of the ‘two becoming one flesh’ as a profound mystery.

Yes - it is but, greater yet, is the fact that it is a mystery about Christ and His church, of that ‘all-glorious’ bride of Christ that finishes the mystery of God.

One couple - of husband and wife having been joined together as one in Christ alone - can never accomplish that.

But His whole church can - and will one day.  

But - in the meantime, one couple, one at a time, will be part of finishing that mystery of God as each submits to the power of the name of Jesus in marriage.

And that couple becomes the pervading influence in the world through the power of the Name of Jesus.

I will close for tonight but I hope you are able to see how the institution of marriage is the significant divine gift that completes life in mankind.  

And how it supports the finishing of the mystery of God through the bond of the marriage union of every couple in Christ’s church. 

I pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to us in a very special way as we ponder all of this during the course of this coming week. 

May the Lord bless you richly as you do. And I pray each one of us will be fruitful to every good work and be the influence ‘salt with fire’ creates.

Amen. Let us pray.