Passage: Galatians 2:20; Exodus 15:22-26; 2 Kings 2:19-22

The Big Idea

Being a Christian isn’t about following rules; it’s about letting Jesus live His life through you. At Marah, God showed Moses a tree that turned bitter water sweet: a picture of the cross, which heals our souls and starts our life with God. At Jericho, the city looked pleasant, but its water was bad and the land miscarried its fruit. Elisha threw salt into the source, and God healed it. Salt pictures the risen life of Jesus. We’re justified by trusting His death, and we’re changed by trusting His risen life. Every other way of living the Christian life ends in fruitless disappointment. God gives this salt without limit to the humble who believe.

No Mirror for the Heart

You all look good on the outside. Looks like everyone checked the mirror before leaving the house.

But there’s no mirror that shows your heart. What’s going on inside you? Are you in control of your life, or is Jesus? Are you living your life, or is Jesus living His life through you?

Being a Christian isn’t about following rules. It’s about letting Jesus live His life through your body.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

Jesus loved us, and because He loves us, He gave Himself for us.
He’s given us the answer to every problem, every pain, every trial, every sickness and every broken place.
The answer is Himself. He is a new life for us, a new resource to live by, a new way to do life.

The Tree at Marah (Exodus 15:22-26)

After the Red Sea, Israel traveled three days in the wilderness without water. At Marah they found water, but it was bitter. The people grumbled, “What shall we drink?” Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. And God said, “I am the Lord who heals you.”

The waters were bitter, but God showed Moses a tree that healed them.
That tree pictures the cross. The cross heals the waters of our soul.
Our souls have been bitter since the first tree, in the garden, where humanity rejected God.
At the first tree, we chose independence. We chose self. We chose death. We chose to be our own grown-ups.
At the second tree, we choose to depend on God. We reject our own efforts and abilities. We choose life from God, childlike dependence over self-sufficiency.
And we’re healed, by the life of Jesus given for us on the cross.
His name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals. He responds with healing whenever someone throws the tree into the waters of their soul.

This is the beginning: being saved from sin’s penalty and brought into new life. We call it justification, being born again.

But that’s not the end of the story, any more than the day you’re saved is the end of your life. Paul said, “the life I now live in the flesh.” So how does the Christ-life work the day after we’re washed from our sins? That’s sanctification: growing more like Christ, God’s fruit growing in us. It’s also simply called grace.

A Pleasant City with Bad Water (2 Kings 2:19)

The men of the city said to Elisha, “Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.”

The city looked lovely. Things were growing. Farmers worked their fields; gardens bloomed.
Visitors would have complimented the shady trees. Everything looked fine.
But the people who lived there had a sinking feeling. They knew the truth, and tried to hide it: the water is bad, and the land is barren.

It wasn’t that there was no water. The water was there, but it didn’t produce life. It wasn’t that nothing grew. Plants grew, but the land was barren; the word means “miscarrying.”

Every spring the residents would hope. Buds came out. Fruit began to form. Their hearts lifted. And then the tragedy struck again. No matter how much they hoped, no matter how they tried new methods, the fruit fell before it ripened and rotted on the ground.

“I really thought I’d turned a corner. I really made an effort. I really wanted to change.” But it didn’t change. We don’t change by our hopes, efforts or desires.

This city may be you: fruit-challenged believers.

I’m not talking about people who don’t care about God. I’m talking about us. People who look good on the outside: church servants, Bible teachers, worship teams, godly moms and dads, missionaries and pastors. They’re not hypocrites. They mean every word they say about loving God. But their hearts break because they feel they’ve labored in vain. They know there should be fruit every season, and there isn’t. Others can’t see it. Only they know. They cry out, “You know how barren I am! How empty and stale!” And nothing changes.

Salt at the Source (2 Kings 2:20-22)

He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it. Then he went out to the source of the water, threw in the salt and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.'”

He went to the source of the water, the heart of the problem.
And he threw in salt.

What does salt picture here? The risen life of Jesus Christ.

The tree healed the bitter waters.
The salt healed the barren waters.

We’re justified by trusting His death on the cross, and we’re changed by trusting the risen life of Jesus.

The only way to serve, know and please God after being saved is by the risen life of Jesus living in you. Every other way of living the Christian life leads to fruitless disappointment and fake Christian smiles.

Salt Throughout Scripture

Every grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant of your God be missing from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt (Leviticus 2:13).

There should never be a time when we try to serve God without the salt, without His risen life flowing through us.
An offering without salt was not acceptable, no matter how sincere or costly.

“Everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt” (Mark 9:49).

Jesus says it isn’t optional.
We can’t assume we know how best to serve God by our degrees, philosophies, strategies, best efforts, denominations or favorite teachers.
There has to be salt: His risen life at work in your heart.

The priests shall throw salt on them, and offer them as a burnt offering to the Lord (Ezekiel 43:24).

Salt made the offering acceptable.
Got a sin problem in your heart? Apply the salt! Apply the risen life of Jesus daily.
Then the offering is consumed by God’s fire. That’s what we want: not burned out in our own strength, but burned up, consumed by His life burning in us.

“Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. Salt is good; but if salt loses its flavor, how will it be seasoned? It’s fit neither for the soil nor the manure pile; people throw it out” (Luke 14:33-35).

The only way to be a disciple is to forsake all our own ability and resources, to be totally dependent on the Son of God, totally bankrupt of self-reliance.
And here’s a warning: there are substitutes for salt. They taste fine for a moment, but they don’t preserve. Meat “preserved” with a substitute rots within hours.
Self-effort is the salt substitute. It looks good at first. No one can tell the difference. But it doesn’t last, doesn’t produce life and doesn’t surrender all to Jesus.
Only when we renounce dependence on our flesh do we taste the real salt.

The Work of God Is to Believe

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).

The work of God is to stubbornly believe and depend on the Son of God, who gave His life for you and lives in you. He is the real salt, and He will make you the salt of the earth.
We set aside our own ideas, abilities and efforts so He can be what He was sent to be: our life, our ability, our wisdom, our sufficiency, our healing.
We must be stubborn about total dependence on Jesus. Don’t let the flesh convince you that success depends on you.

“But I grew up hearing that God will help you out, but at some point you have to pick yourself up and add your best effort to His grace.”

That’s the world’s wisdom, not the gospel. We must learn to depend on grace.

God is good for it. We can seek Him and ask Him for the risen life of Jesus, and He will give it. Think of a child jumping off the side of the pool into a parent’s arms, just knowing they’ll be caught.

Salt Without Limit (Ezra 7)

Ezra was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses… The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him (Ezra 7:6).

Imagine knowing beyond doubt that God would give what you asked for.
To have every need met and everything you need to minister to the people in your life, no matter how difficult they are.
To know the life and power of God are available to you at any time.

King Artaxerxes decreed that the treasurers should give Ezra whatever he required, up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred measures of wheat, a hundred of wine, a hundred of oil, and salt without limit (Ezra 7:21-22).

Ezra’s heart was to restore pure worship among God’s people.
A hundred of this, a hundred of that. But salt without limit!
Why? Because no matter how sincere I am or how much I give, nothing is acceptable without salt.
We need an endless supply of God’s resources to serve the people God puts in our lives. And it just so happens that God gives exactly that.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).

God doesn’t limit the grace available for what He’s called you to do.
It all comes through the risen life of Jesus. We can’t do anything in our own strength.
We’re like an empty glove. We can’t do anything until the hand fills and moves us.
This isn’t a city that just looks good on the outside. It’s a city that bears fruit, with the resources to serve God in truth and power, that doesn’t burn out or live with the secret shame of barrenness.

Humility and Faith

That’s our part: humility and faith.

“I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness” (2 Kings 2:21).

Humility: “I need help. My city doesn’t have the fruit it should. My waters are barren. I need You, God!”
Faith: “I stand on Your promises. I trust Your Word. I receive Your risen life into my heart by faith. I believe You’ll come to me when I call, and You won’t reject Your humble child.”

Develop these two relational realities, and you’ll find He has already healed the waters. There’s no failure in our God. When He works, it’s done. He said so: “It is finished.”

Season Your Speech with Salt

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one (Colossians 4:6).

Tell this truth to everyone you know. Let Jesus’ life and kingdom be the topic of your conversations.

When His life is in you, you’ll know how to answer people.
You’ll know how to love, forgive, teach, listen and serve them.
But if we trust the arm of flesh and don’t see our need for Jesus to be our all in all, we’ll be nothing more than a pretty-looking bunch of people.

Grace Takeaway

The tree at Marah gave you a new beginning. The salt at Jericho gives you a fruitful life. Both are Jesus: His death for you and His risen life in you. Go to the source of your barrenness, admit your need, and let Him throw in the salt. He has salt without limit, and He’s already said, “I have healed this water.”

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A Salty Sermon: The Tree and the Salt