Mark 9:49 Commentary and Bible Study

These next two verses are often described as among the most difficult in the Gospels to understand and to interpret. The key to these verses is to grasp that Christ is speaking to his disciples. He is speaking now to them. He has warned them what will become of them if they are unconverted. He has warned them not to behave like unconverted people, looking out for themselves, not mortifying sinful deeds but now he says, ‘For every one’ – he is speaking to saved people – ‘shall be salted with fire.’ The unconverted will know that fire eternally, but the converted must also be salted with fire.This goes back to the Book of Leviticus, where we read the instruction that salt must be in every offering (Leviticus 2:13). Every sacrifice, meat sacrifice, must be salted and this is the illustration. Every one of us, converted people, shall be salted with fire. What does that mean? Some people think it means that every Christian must go through fires of persecution, but that would be rather off the point. The point is this: sin will be punished. For Christians it is punished in Christ. He took the punishment for us. Do we suffer anything? Well yes, in a sense we do. Every true, saved Christian will be salted with fire. It will be a token thing in a way but it must happen, and it will characterise the ongoing Christian life and here is what it means.You come under conviction of sin, you become deeply ashamed of yourself. This happens at conversion. You tremble because you know you are under judgment and you are condemned. You feel deep shame for your sin. You go through the valley of repentance, conviction of sin and repentance. Then you pour out your heart before the Lord and you plead for forgiveness and for life and for heaven, and he saves you and he assures your heart and you know you are his. You have been salted with fire. You have felt your sin. You have been redeemed, but you were not exempted from that valley of repentance and conviction of sin; you have been salted with fire. The real punishment Christ took but you had to come through that valley, and so fire was applied to you, not to destroy you; rather, to purify you. And in every true believer's life, there will be some painful things to do: mortification, getting rid of the offensive thing. So disciples are those who are prepared to put to death the things that hurt, spoil, poison, steel from, and harm, if necessary..