DAILY DEVOTIONAL – March 27, 2020
“Be Smoltified“
Prayer: Lord Jesus, it is in You that we live and move and have our being. We have no life apart from You, and it is with You that our hearts long to be. Lord, while You give us breathe in this life, we pray You would empower us by Your grace and Spirit to bring Your light and life to others. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Devotional – “Be Smoltified!”
Salmon are amazing animals of God’s creation. Born a freshwater fish, something begins to change within the salmon as they grow. They become more streamlined in their appearance, their color changes, their endocrine activity increases, and their gills are altered to allow for a greater tolerance to sodium and potassium. Why? Because they are about to leave freshwater and enter the saltwater of the ocean.
This process is called smoltification. According to www.sciencedirect.com, in this process of smoltification young salmonids go through a number of physiological and behavioral changes that facilitate the survival in saltwater. Scientists still aren’t sure of all of the biological intricacies involved, but somehow these freshwater creatures not only learn to survive in saltwater, they actually become saltwater creatures who thrive in their new environment. Yet, they are still salmon. Not another kind of fish.
Reading about this amazing process and testimony to the majesty of God’s creation, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ words from Matthew 5 about being salt and light, and see a parallel to our life and purpose as those who have been made into “a new creation in Christ Jesus” as Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:17. By God’s grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, and through the regenerative waters of baptism (Titus 3:5), the old sinful “Adam” (the sinner who by nature exists in all of us) is put to death and we are raised and made to live as a new spiritual creation in the life of Christ. Yet at the same time, we are still the same human person.
Much like the appearance and behaviors of the salmon change in the process of smoltificaiton, so to by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit living in our hearts, we are called to a new life that no longer practices the sins we once lived in. The physiological changes the salmon goes through necessitates behavioral changes so that they will not only survive, but thrive in their new environment in the ocean; a much more dangerous and violent world in which to live than a fresh water stream. Likewise, it is only as a new creation in Christ, born of the free grace and forgiveness of God in the blood of His Son Jesus, that we are able to not only survive but thrive in this sinful and dangerous world in which we live.
We thrive in this world by being the “salt” of the world as Jesus says. He has given us His love and mercy so that we may carry that into an unforgiving and desperate world. He has given us a new life so that the changes in us would bear witness to God’s powerful and transformational grace, especially to those who knew us before the Lord called us into fellowship with Him. However, it is not our good works that gives us our salt. Though God has declared us to be a new creation and has put to death our old sinful self vicariously in the death of His Son Christ, the old Adam still clings to us and we sin everyday. It is not our own holiness that preserves or adds flavor to life, it is Christ’s holiness, and we share His life and His holiness with the world by sharing His Word that He has put in our hearts.
Like salt, The Word of Christ preserves and gives life. As Jesus says in John 6:63, “ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” When we bring God’s Word into this dead and dying world, we bring life itself. When we live in this world according to God’s Word, we bring flavor.
After a salmon fully matures in the waters of the ocean, they will then return to their origins in freshwater. Why do they return to freshwater? To breed and lay their eggs, and create new life. However, there is a cost to new life. By returning to the freshwater to lay their eggs, the salmon die. Why do they die? Because freshwater is no longer their home.
Here again we have a powerful illustration of salvation. Christ has indeed died for our sins, forgiven us and made us into a new creation, not simply to be the salt of the earth, but so that we would ultimately leave this world behind and be united with Him who is our life. Much like the salmon can no longer live in the freshwater from which it came because it has been transformed, so to you and I who have been made eternally new in Christ are no longer at home in this world. We no longer belong to this world or live for this world. We live for Him and by Him, and one day either in our death or in the Day the Lord returns in final judgement and salvation, this life we know will perish and our new, imperishable life in Christ will endure for eternity.
Thanks for joining me today for another time in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
