The Wayside Pulpit No.82
No Escape from the Fire
"Everyone shall be
salted with fire." Mark
"Verse 49.
For every one shall be salted with fire, &c.] That is, every one of
those that transgress the law of God, offend any that believe in Christ, retain
their sins, and sinful companions; every one of them that are cast into hell,
where the worm of conscience is always gnawing, and the fire of divine wrath is
always burning, with that fire every one of them shall be salted: that fire
shall be to them, what salt is to flesh; as that keeps flesh from putrefaction
and corruption, so the fire of hell, as it will burn, torture, and distress
rebellious sinners, it will preserve them in their beings; they shall not be
consumed by it, but continued in it: so that these words are a reason of the
former, showing and proving, that the soul in torment shall never die, or lose
any of its powers and faculties; and particularly, not its gnawing, torturing
conscience; and that the fire of hell is inextinguishable; for though sinners
will be inexpressibly tormented in it, they will not be consumed by it; but the
smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever and ever; and that they will be
so far from being annihilated by the fire of hell, that they shall be preserved
in their beings in it, as flesh is preserved by salt."[End of quote]
It is
surprising how even the most learned of men "get their teeth into"
such passages as these, seeming to savour the mediaeval-style vision of
everlasting hell fire. If Gill's language is anything to go by, then it
bespeaks a state of mind that is full of revengeful anticipation, licking the
lips with delight at the thought of mortals forever being tormented in a lake
of fire. Others, more lenient, cringe from the language of the A.V. but say,
with sadness, "But it's Scripture, so it must be true." A few are
absolutely scandalised by the Gills of this world, and demand a full
investigation. We are of this last category, and would like to present a few
"home truths" from those same Scriptures.
First of all,
Jesus said that "everyone will be salted with fire", not just
the sinners, as interpreted by Gill. We read that our God is a consuming fire,
(Deut.4:24, 9:3, Heb.12:29) that He is a Refiner's fire, (Mal.3:2) that He is a
devouring fire (Ex.24:17, Isa.33:14 et al.) that His word is as a fire,
(Jer.23:29) and that His ministers are a flame of fire (Psalm 104:4) The
Lord spoke to Moses, and to all Israel, out of the fire on Sinai,
(Deut.5:22, Ex.3:2), He went before them in the wilderness in a pillar of fire
(Ex.13:21), and whenever the Cherubim are mentioned, they are depicted with the
flames of infolding fire. (Gen.3:24, Ezek.1:4,13,27)
Let's get it
straight. There's no escape from the fire. No one, sinners and believers alike,
can escape the fire, because the Bible declares that God is a consuming,
devouring fire. It is His own nature, just as He spoke to Moses out of a bush
on fire. But this is where we need to understand exactly the nature of God's
fire.
Moses was
intrigued by the burning bush, in that it was NOT CONSUMED. The Seraphim took
burning coals from between the Seraphim, and applied them to Isaiah's lips. His
speech was cauterised, not his mouth. (Isa.6) The Lord told Zechariah
that in a future day He would "put one third of the inhabitants of
What is it like
to be "attacked" by divine fire? The Lord defined His own word
as fire, (Jer.23:29) and the laws of Moses were described as "a fiery
law" (Deut.33:2) Jeremiah, in a fit of depression, decided to quit
speaking as a prophet, but found that God's word within him was like a fire
shut up in his bones, and he couldn't help himself but to speak the words God
had given him. (Jer.20:9) Elsewhere we learn that God's word is like a two
edged sword, capable of reaching through to the very marrow within our bones.
Hence the double mention of "Fire and sword" in that passage in
Isaiah 66:16, quoted above.
Pentecostals
and Charismatics have always been excited about "the baptism of the
spirit", and the gifts associated with it, but the full expression used by
John the Baptist was "the baptism of spirit and of fire."
(Matt.3:11, Luke 3:16) When my wife and I first had this experience in 1967, we
were very conscious of the "fire", simply because it was God's
indwelling word that began burning away some of the dross out of our systems.
(We have felt it ever since.) Paul spoke about us building on the foundation
laid by the Lord Himself, (1 Cor.3:13) which would eventually be tested by
fire. Gold would thereby be refined, but straw would be consumed.
Yes, God is a consuming fire, but we must never interpret this in terms of
earthly fire. God's fiery nature devours and consumes all that is not worthy in
His sight. His word is that fire, and it activates our consciences, and causes
us to be revolted by all that is unworthy and defiled, and then burns it out of
our systems.
None of us can
escape the fire. All those who name the name of Christ are purged, refined,
cauterised by God's fire. Without it we would be a mixture. As the Lord said to
Ezekiel concerning His disobedient sons,(22:20-22) "As they gather silver,
brass, iron, lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon
it, to melt it, so will I gather you in my anger and my fury and I will leave
you there [in Jerusalem] and you will be melted in the midst." He is
indeed "the Refiner's fire, and the fuller's sope, and He will purify the
sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver." (Mal.3:3)
Of course there
is destruction, consuming, devouring, in God's fire. But what does it destroy?
Nothing good is devoured (for example the bush that Moses saw), only that which
is offensive to God. Left to ourselves, without this ministry of burning, we
should remain defiled, even though saved by the precious blood of Christ. The
whole of Hebrews 12 speaks of this process in terms of discipline, without
which the Lord says we should be bastards and not sons. At the end of the
chapter we find the words, ". . for our God is a consuming fire."
All this
relates to believers, and shows how God's fire performs a most necessary,
remedial, purgative, and refining process. Shall we not use the lessons learned
by this study when interpreting passages relating to unbelievers? Shall we
assume that God's fire is refining towards us, but destructive towards
the rest? Shall we emulate John Gill, and relish the thought of
countless millions of souls whom God created, spending an eternity in a fiery
torture? Or shall we lay aside all such ghoulish and ungodly thoughts, and
realise that wicked and impenitent people will feel the refining fires more
terribly than those who willingly accept fire into their lives, but it will be
the operation of God's wrath, bringing them to their senses, and preparing them
to receive life by the virtues of God's Son at Calvary?
"The Lord,
whom you seek, shall suddenly come . . . but who shall stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner's fire." Are we allowing this fire to purge
us now, or do we refuse God's discipline? If so, it will be much more painful
later.