Fire that Burns, Fire Giving Light

‘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 shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and [ye] shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.’ Malachi 4:1,2.

Here we are told that when the Lord comes in judgment it will be experienced in two different ways. To those who fear the Lord it will be like the refreshing Sun after a long winter. To those who scoff at the Lord’s concern for justice, it will be an oven that will consume them. It is, I think, significant that roughly the same imagery is used for both experiences: fire. To one it is the heat of judgment, to the other the light of righteousness. This is true of any encounter with the holy Lord. He is awful in justice. He is terrifying in his goodness. Here is One that probes the depths of my heart that I cannot even know (Jer. 17:9,10), that does not give any quarter to iniquity (Exo. 34:6,7), that demands a holiness equal to his own (Lev. 19:2; 1 Pet. 1:13-16). This view of God cannot be but a threat to one not righteous, and none of us are.

But there is a righteousness available by faith: the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When we forsake any dependency on our own worth, and cast ourselves completely on the mercy of Jesus Christ,we may then stand before the judgment of God, because it is not we, but Christ who stands in our stead. But the gospel, too, causes a division in reception. Like the fire of the day of judgment, the gospel reveals a distinction among men:

For we [the preachers of the gospel] are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life: and who is sufficient for these things? 2 Cor. 2:15,16.

To those who have been born anew by the work of the Holy Spirit and have received the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith, the gospel is life. It is life because it changes the nature of the encounter with God. The gospel changes the day of judgment into the day of salvation. But to those who still rely upon themselves it is the savour of death. Because the gospel requires that those who receive it abandon any reliance upon themselves, it can only be received by the humbled heart. Those who will not be humbled before the Lord have no part in the righteousness he procured for believers. For them, the gospel confirms the sentence of death at the day of judgment.

Our Lord is a consuming fire. Whether he is a fire to consume all iniquity, or a light revealing the mercy of his salvation, depends on your relation to the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel.