Gospel

The Fire that Burns Fire

by Terry Barlow
03/17/18
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Our God is a consuming fire we are told in Hebrews 12 v. 29 of the New Testament. For this reason we are to worship Him in reverence and awe. Part of what God consumes in His consuming fire is the hellfire itself that would have been our deserved fate and eternal destination had we not trusted in Christ’s saving work at the cross on our behalf. So there is a fire that is God that actually has the fires of hell as part of its fuel and no trace of that hellfire is left in the destinies of those who have believed.

The greatest stumbling stone for humankind that ever was is the idea that we cannot find our purpose in life, or reach God or attain heaven, or deliver ourselves from hellfire by our own efforts and through our own form of righteousness and good deeds. The natural mind finds that idea counterintuitive. The notion that we have to arrive in heaven by faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us, that salvation has to be received as a gift, is for many too much to swallow, even offensive. There are many who stumble over the very Stone that is intended to serve as the Cornerstone of the temple of living stones that is being raised up this very hour, the Temple in which God will dwell forever. Either we are to be built as lively stones into that living temple together upon that foundation stone or we will stumble over it. (1 Peter 2 v4&5)  If we stumble over it (Him) we in turn cause others to stumble.  And if we cause others to stumble, it leads to our and their entrapment.  It is more than merely stubbing a toe.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,…. ” (Jude 24)
To be part of a people who are “zealous for good works” but not for the work that will save them, that was reserved for Jesus and has already been accomplished. Rather they are zealous with an enlightened zeal for the good works that will best express their gratitude for all that a loving God has already done for them in consuming fire with Fire.