OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE

Heb.12:29 – For our God is a consuming fire.

Being consumed by God is quite different for the saved and the lost. For someone who is born again it is the ultimate experience of joy unspeakable, it is an intimacy with God that involves our whole being beginning in this life and continuing in increasing power and intimacy into eternity. For the lost it is quite a different story, experiencing the fire of God outside of Christ is the ultimate tragedy. This is the whole point of redemption, Christ became a man in order to be our substitute, He took the wrath of God against sin for all mankind, the way we benefit from His substitutionary offering of Himself is simple; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. For those in Christ His fire brings revelation, purity and passion. For all of those outside of Christ it is a disaster that words cannot describe. Here is how Jonathan Edwards describes this consuming fire of God.

“He’ll be such a sweet light to you, that it will be a joyful and glorious entertainment to you to behold it; you never will be weary of it. He’ll be ten thousand times as glorious a light to you as the sun and his beams, immensely more pleasant and refreshing. That there will be such a difference, the prophet Malachi teaches us in Mal.4:1,2 – …. he tells us what God will be to the wicked: “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” In the second verse, he tells us what he will be to the godly: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” As a fire to devour one, but as the sun to enlighten and refresh the other; his beams won’t hurt them, but heal them. It is said, “with healing in his wings,” by which is meant his beams; the bright rays going out from the body of the sun, it seems, the Hebrews in their language used to call the wings of the sun. [So the] difference in the influence of the pillar of cloud and fire towards Israel and Egyptians.”

Malachi tells us in no uncertain terms the contrast between the lost and the saved when it comes to the consuming fire of God. Malachi is describing the day of judgement described in the book of Revelation that will bring judgement on the whole world. The tragedy is that this judgement for the lost doesn’t end at the return of Christ, it is only the beginning of the eternal tragedy of the unsaved. For the Christian, the fire of God is a healing fire that will also continue throughout eternity. The difference between the two is simple, it all depends on your response to Christ’s death on the cross.