When the inspired writer of the letter to the Hebrews wants to impress, in the most serious way, the point of what his twelfth chapter is all about, He says “God is a consuming fire.” Fire – that state of combustion which has the most devastating effects when the countryside is very dry. Fire – the word we don’t like to hear, for when it strikes not only are homes decimated, but lives become devastated – they can even be destroyed!

Fire is a universal symbol of terrifying destruction. Down through history the word “fire” brings us tales of great disaster. The LORD couldn’t have used a more vivid imagery.

Yet, it’s especially interesting how He uses this imagery, for God uses “fire” to picture none other than who He is Himself! Moses, in Deuteronomy 4 verse 4, says, “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” And later on Moses describes what this aspect to God’s character especially does. As the people of Israel are about to enter into the Promised Land, he declares to God’s people, in Deuteronomy 9 verse 3, “the LORD your God is the one who goes ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you.”

The prophets refer back to this same quality in the LORD. Isaiah chapter 33 verse 14 tells of when, “The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless.” They who for so long rejected the way of God are now being called to account. And this is how they express their deepest fear: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” (v14)

It is the same fear expressed earlier in chapter 12. The LORD God was described as a mountain burning with fire; as darkness, gloom and storm; as a trumpet blast or to a voice like that speaking words, so hard and loud that those listening begged for it to stop, because they just couldn’t bear any of it. God’s command about His holiness was such that even if an animal touched the mountain where He had His presence then before His people, it had to be stoned. The sight was so frightening that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

If the Jews reading this letter thought that a sight too awesome to comprehend, however, the author of Hebrews has much more! In verse 22 he says,

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

Here is the source of the heat itself! This is where God has His place!

Now, we need to remember that the original readers are those Hebrews brought up under the Old Testament. They were from a background of not being allowed into the foreground in their worship of the LORD. That special meeting could only be through the Holy of Holies, and that through the High Priest. Here, though, they are being told that they are not only able to worship the LORD direct, through His own Son, Jesus Christ­ they are actually in the celestial city of God itself! They are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So this place is immovable, absolutely firm, eternally stable, always enduring – that certainly can’t be anything that mankind has made on this earth!

Where God has His Place!⤒🔗

At the end of this present time, when God judges the world in His perfect righteousness, this kingdom alone will remain. Indeed, nothing else can stand, for this alone is purely the work of His hand!

Those earthly kingdoms were always just that – earthly and sinful and so inadequate. The Psalmist in Psalm 2 makes this very clear. In verses 10 to 12 he declares,

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

But we are those blessed – His people. In the words of an old hymn, “When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be your supply; The flame shall not hurt you; I only design Your dross to consume, and your gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes, That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!” (Ps/H 411:1, 4, 5)

For this Jesus – this One – is God’s Son, and this kingdom is His Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. And there Christ sits seated upon its throne; He is the Lamb, the Saviour of the world; but now even more than that – He is coming as the Judge of all men.

So knowing that God’s great plan for mankind is about to be fulfilled in His Son, what kind of people do we have to be? Or let me put it another way – when Jesus comes, what would you want Him to see? Do you think you would be happy if He found you as you are? When He comes in all the intensity of the white flame of the purest heat, is there any dross on you that would be burned away? As gold which is melted so that any scum on it becomes thrown off, so the Lord will burn off all impurities mixed in with His people.

There is one thing that doesn’t receive much coverage from pulpits and magazines and broadcasts of the churches today. That thing is the judgment of believers. It is the judgment of believers which is happening in the text.

For instance, one cannot help but notice that the whole thrust of the verses 14 till 29 is a warning against refusing God. “So,” you may say, “isn’t that about those who don’t believe at all?” But see to whom these words are addressed. It is a letter to Hebrew Christians. It is to those who are part of the Church already.

“So,” we could say, “this is a purifying fire.” In the same way that God uses our sufferings as believers to further our growing in holiness, so His fire makes us more like what we are already meant to be. We are, after all, citizens of His Heavenly Kingdom already!

Yet, there’s still more. For the nature of the language means that the actions of being thankful to, and worshipping, God, need a definite response on our part. The original Greek doesn’t take it for granted, but puts it in a way where we have the responsibility to respond. There has to be a fire within us, the fire of God’s grace!

Believers must express His grace!←⤒🔗

Notice – His grace. What we have been given isn’t our own, but it has to become our own through what we do. That’s why chapter 13 follows with a series of concluding exhortations – commands for God’s people to follow.

This is also what the apostle Paul says to another congregation, the Corinthians. In his first letter to them, he states,

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor.3:11

Yes, that’s true for believer and unbeliever. Then, however, Paul says, “If any man build on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has build survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” (vv 12-15)

That’s us! For not only does God the Son come in His holiness and destroy all those who are not His; Jesus will also fulfil His holy love by burning off all that sin which continues to hang and lay on us!

But why wait until then? How is it that we are not stirred to our very souls now to totally do away with that evil? Why is the gold of faith hidden under the dirty rags of sin, when it should shine its purifying light all around? Then we would be sending the clearest signal about the power of Christ’s fire when He comes on the clouds of heaven, because you are on fire!

In the same way that the apostle can speak of believers being the aroma of Christ among those being saved and those who are perishing, so we should be the Lord’s fire burning through the tinder of this earth. This fire is the fear of the Lord.

Not the fear of being afraid, because this fear is when you worship and serve God with the reverence and awe in the text.

Now that could never be anything like the consuming fire of God Himself. As Isaiah prophesied, “The light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and briars.” (10:17)

Terrifying! There’s an anger that’s from out of this world! This is the anger expressed as our confessions reflect scripture; the anger from the just judge, the one who cannot stand sin, the One who has to punish the sin of all mankind, and yet the One who pays the price for the sin of His chosen people.

An Illustration←⤒🔗

Many years ago a judge in America was called upon to try a prisoner, a man who had been his dear friend in his teenage years. It was a crime for which the penalty was a fine, and a severe fine at that. The judge didn’t diminish the fine; there was obviously a clear case against that man, and he fined the prisoner the maximum amount.

Someone who knew that they used to be friends thought he was being quite harsh, while others admired his impartiality. But all were totally surprised when that judge himself straight-away went down and paid every cent of the penalty. He had both shown his respect for the law, and his love to the man who had broken it; he passed the sentence, but he paid it himself.

That is exactly what God has done in His own dear Son. He hasn’t remitted the punishment – He didn’t excuse it as though no wrong were done at all – but He has borne it. His own Son – no-one less than God Himself – has paid the debt which we owe because of our sin.

The fire on Sinai is a thing of the past, but the blazing fire of God’s holy, jealous and righteous love will never be extinguished. You know that before His light all your sins are exposed, and you know what you have to do about them – even now, and especially now!

But how much don’t we rejoice that mercifully, in God’s refining flames, our sins are completely consumed! What a difference this puts into our worship to the LORD here now and in all the parts of our lives. For that attitude of thankfulness is the alpha and omega – it’s the beginning and the end, and everything else that matters in between.

In the words of Cicero,

'A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, it is the parent of all other virtues.' As Asaph in Psalm 50 verse 23 sang in these words of the LORD, 'He who sacrifices thank offerings honours me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.'

It is thankfulness which knows its place. It realises it shouldn’t have ever have been possible for us to stand before God’s Face. We feel like the seraphim – those angelic beings who covered their faces and their feet with their wings before the LORD. On our own we are most definitely out of place, but in His grace we not only know that awe, but we have reverence.

We are showing, too, the effect of God’s fire as it becomes even clearer in the things that we think and say and do.

In the West Australian bush, it often needs a bush fire to make the wildflowers bloom the best. When everything seems so very dead, the most beautiful colours are produced. Don’t be afraid of this fire: though it will totally destroy this world, it is actually making you more purely the plan He has for You to be. That new creation is the beautiful object. Can you begin to see it? You’re starting to look like Jesus!