We have just celebrated a very special holiday—July 4th, Independence Day. On that day, we celebrate the unique freedoms we enjoy as American citizens and the Declaration principles that made it all possible. Yet there is a little healthy fear mixed with the celebration. If history has taught us anything, it has taught us that freedom is not easily obtained or easily kept. As the saying attributed to Thomas Jefferson goes, “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.” Some of us may wonder how much longer we can retain our freedoms in America. How can America, now only 245 years young as a nation, avoid the fall that so many other nations have experienced? As Christians, we are a huge part of the answer to that question.
From the Bible, we know that nations need God’s blessing to thrive. As the sovereign King of the Universe, He ultimately allows nations to rise and fall. Even as one of the least religious founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin recognized this truth. At a particularly contentious moment during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Franklin interjected, “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?” He was acknowledging that nations, like people, need God’s favor in order to survive and thrive.
This truth is seen all throughout the Bible. We see that Sodom and Gomorrah fell out of favor with God because of sin and, as a result, those cities were destroyed. In contrast, we see that Nineveh was on the brink of destruction until its people repented and the Lord stayed His judgment. Israel’s story is a cycle of blessing for obedience followed by seasons of judgement for disobedience. In A.D. 70, Jerusalem was completely destroyed, just as Jesus had prophesied (Matthew 24:1-3), and the nation of Israel was fragmented for 2,000 years! Israel’s rise and fall was tied to a specific promise from God to them. In Deuteronomy 11:26-27, God said, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.” We know from other prophecies in God’s Word that Israel will be around in the end times. We do not have such a promise or prophecy about America. However, while no other nation is tied to this promise that God gave to Israel, the principle still applies. Without God’s favor and blessing, no nation can long endure.
So, the question remains, how can a nation obtain that favor or blessing?
As Christians, we may not be able to find a promise about the success or failure of our nation, but we do have an obligation laid out for us in Scripture. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men.” (Matthew 5:13) In Jesus’ day the purpose of salt was to preserve meat from spoiling. It acted as a preservative from corruption. One of the points Jesus was making here was that righteous living acts as a preservative. He stressed that “if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?” In other words, salt that is not salty is not really worthy to be called salt. If salt isn’t preserving or flavoring that which it is put on, then that salt does no one any good. As followers of Christ, we may be salt (righteous), but if we are not salty (living righteously) we are “good for nothing” when it comes to our influence on others.
So, why do nations fall?
Whether it be Sodom and Gomorrah, or Israel, or the Roman Empire, nations always fall from the inside out. They are corrupted like meat without a preservative. They disintegrate when they lose their saltiness. In Sodom and Gomorrah’s case (Genesis 18), God would have spared the city for just ten people who were salt (righteous) and who were actually salty (living righteously), but He could find none. Lot was salt (righteous) but he was not salty (living righteously). As a result, he was about as helpful to his decaying city as saltless salt is to a slab of steak. A similar situation is set in Jeremiah 5, where the Lord tells the prophet, “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgement, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.” God was looking for someone salty enough to preserve Jerusalem from the impending destruction it had brought upon itself. History demonstrates over and again that salty salt preserves a nation, but saltless salt can do nothing to stop a decaying nation from imploding on itself.
As Christian Americans who just celebrated our Independence Day, it is natural for us to ask God to bless America. Yet, the real question is, can God bless you and me as individuals? We can’t ask God to bless America if we can’t ask God to bless us. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” America is not the divinely chosen nation of Israel. However, many Americans have been chosen in Christ because they have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. As Christians, we have been given a command to be the salt of the earth upon which God has put us. Are we complaining about the sad state of America’s families, schools, and churches, or are we doing our part to revive our own families, schools, and churches? Are we complaining about the immorality that is flaunted in American entertainment and institutions, or are we careful to abstain from any appearance of evil ourselves? Perhaps the safeguards we have set up for ourselves are inching toward the world’s philosophy without our even realizing it. We cannot expect God to bless our nation if we cannot expect Him to bless our lives for righteous living.
Rather than conforming as closely as we can to the world’s image, we should strive to conform as closely as we can to Christ’s image so that others may see the contrast. I Peter 1:15-17 admonishes us, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” If God will reward us according to our works, what will that mean for our families, our communities, and our nation? Now more than ever before, we must prioritize holiness because holiness is not just for our benefit. That benefit can extend to our families, our communities, and even our nation! In that same sermon in Matthew 5, Jesus uses another analogy to describe our obligation to righteousness so that other people can see that contrast between our lives and rest of the world. In verse 16, Jesus says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Holiness is not just so the Lord can pat us on the back for doing a good job. Holiness is so that others can see the truth of the gospel and be saved and changed by the gospel! If we Christians in America will do our job as the salt of this nation, we can experience the blessing of God. God can bless America if Christians are being the preserving salt of America. There is hope for America because there is hope for revival among God’s people in America. We don’t need to be overwhelmed at the size of our nation and the scope of the work that needs to be done. We must simply focus on doing our part—personal holiness and living righteously in the public sphere.
While America is not Israel, the principle that righteousness is necessary for her survival and thriving still applies. Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people.” No matter the time, no matter the nation, no matter the people, sin will eat away at the foundation of any nation. The only thing holding back that corruption is salty salt. That is, righteous people who are living righteously. Even our founding fathers, though not all Christians, recognized the importance of righteousness to a nation. Writing to the Massachusetts militia in 1798, John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The freedoms we cherish as Americans are not just the result of genius political strategy. They are the result of a basic belief in our Creator God, in His sovereignty over the affairs of men, and in His moral principles for humankind. As Christians, it is our responsibility to be the saltiness (righteousness) that can exalt our nation.
What if Abraham were here today to ask God to spare our nation for the sake of 10 salty people? Would he find them? Would we be among them?
It’s not good enough to be salt. Lot was salt, but that didn’t mean much when the time ran out for Sodom and Gomorrah. Saltless salt does no one any good! We must be salty salt. Without salty salt, nations fall. We can ask God to bless America if we are being the preserving salt of our nation.