In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;… Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed. I Pt. 1:6-7; 4:12-13

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test of what sort each man’s work is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.
I Cor. 3:12-15

Beginning with the concept that “our God is a consuming fire,” the New Testament has much to say about fire pertaining to the church and to the world at large. Most references to fire are non-redemptively destructive. They show how nothing outside God can stand in His holy Presence without turning to ash. To withstand that Presence, one must be made reconcilably “fireproof.” That of course is what redemption in Christ is all about.

But to become fireproofed so as to stand, not just unscathed, but embraceable by God’s unveiled Presence involves encounters with God’s fire ahead of the time we actually stand before Him. These encounters are described in terms of “testing” and “proving” as applied to metals, specifically to gold. Moreover, there are actually two different fires through which we must pass for this purpose before we can ever stand before the Father. This study offers an overview of these fires.

The Fiery Trial of Earthly Tribulation

The first of these fires is the fire through earthly tribulation with which we are primarily familiar. Peter takes the lead to explain this fire to us. The sufferings we endure now for the sake of our obedience convey a fiery working of the Holy Spirit designed to purge out our carnal nature. The real fire is not so much defined by the suffering as it is by the Spirit’s inner burning in us via that suffering.

(Note that not all suffering works to purge our inner man of its dross. Suffering can be the self-inflicted result of our own disobedience, which is not profitable. Peter specifically refers only to suffering due to our faith which brings about this refinement.)

Tribulation then is a conduit for the agency of the Spirit of Fire who actually effects our purifying. He literally burns out sin’s power in us through the suffering. This is the fire to which John the Baptist refers when he says Jesus will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.*”—likewise as when Jesus says “every sacrifice will be salted with fire.”
 

*Much has been made of the “liquid” Baptism of the Holy Spirit which gives us a certain capacity of “spiritual flow,” but little is made of His inner baptism as Fire that actually changes us.

Similarly, this same fire is that to which Jesus exhorts the Laodiceans, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see” Rev. 3:18. (Notice the interweave between gold, white garments and eye salve. It is one complete concept.)      

The upshot here is that suffering due to obedience is indispensable to the fiery work of the Holy Spirit for purging our souls of carnal filth. That purging is what “fireproofs” us to stand in the Father’s holy Presence, making us compatible to receive the fullness of His blazing embrace!*

*While too large a topic to expound here, let us understand that the primary purpose of the now developing Great Tribulation is to effect this very final mass fiery purging of the church with the washing of her robes ahead of the “second fire” we will now discuss.

The Revelatory Trial of Our Deeds

Between our purging here below and our capacity to actually stand before the Father remains one other fire trial for the believer. This is explained by Paul and elsewhere, but is hardly contemplated. It is the test by the Lord’s own anatomic “x-ray” gaze into our souls over the deeds we produced. This is the capstone trial for assaying what the Spirit’s fire baptism accomplished during our mortal time here.

Paul describes this trial as one whereby “the day reveals” our deeds’ final quality, whether of enduring gold, or else of combustibles. The connection between Peter and Paul’s allusions to gold is unmistakable. Peter’s fire speaks to the present proving (purging) of faith’s gold, while Paul’s fire assays (revelatorily certifies) faith’s final state as gold. Two fires, two purposes, both connected.

But Paul’s description is a bit vague. What “day” will “reveal it” and what “fire” is he talking about? The answer is found in fuller context of Paul’s letter as well as Peter’s, but especially in Revelation.

The “day” we already understand to be the day of the Lord. Paul mentions the day of the Lord on either side of this reference. The day of the Lord is indeed a day of revelation—even the revelation of Jesus Christ. Looking at Peter again, we get a stronger picture of this revelatory fire that follows up our present testing:

…so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;… keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed.

The “revelation of His glory” here is the same as the “revealing” by the “day” Paul references. Christ’s glory is the fire conducting the final assay. He is not purging, but evaluating the soul’s state coming out of the Spirit’s fire through mortal tribulation. Christ’s glory will reveal whether the soul has come forth as fire-compatible ore or not. It will assay the combustibility factor of the soul’s works for determining our compatibility with the Father’s raw all-consuming fiery Being.

Notice how Peter identifies the intended outcome of this final assay, “so that the proof…may be found to result in praise, glory and honor….” See the conditionality. “May be” is not a guarantee or certainty. This aligns with Paul’s teaching where one’s “work” may be proved either incombustible, or else burned away indicating serious loss to the soul, though the spirit (“he himself”) will yet be saved. Conversely to Peter’s hope for us then, Christ’s revelation may mean shame for the believer, not praise, glory and honor.

To directly understand Peter and Paul’s description of this concluding assay of the soul, we must go to Revelation itself:

Rev. 1:13 …I saw one like a son of man,…14…and His eyes were like a flame of fire….2:18…The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire… says this: 19 ‘I know your deeds,…23…and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.  

Here we definitively see how our final combustibility test is actually conducted at the day of Christ’s revealing. It is by the fire of the Lord’s own eyes which pierce through the soul’s anatomy, examining every work, every deed within our salvation, for whether it came forth as gold by surrender to the Spirit’s tribulational fire, or whether it was the result of our own carnal life-preserving energy to the glory of our own name.

Conclusion: On Love and Fire

The relationship of these two fires helps us better understand the role of our present fiery trials and why we want to maintain fidelity amidst them. We want to endure the fire now so we can pass the fire then.

Someone recently asked me, “What does any of this have to do with the love of God?” It has everything to do with His love because God’s love cannot be separated from His nature as all-consuming jealous holy fire. As the Song writer put it:

…For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy is as severe as Sheol;
Its flames are flames of fire,
The flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor will rivers flood over it;
SS 8:6-7

The Lord’s love is a jealous fire, being a jealousy for His own holiness. His fiery love can’t be separated from His fiery holiness. The fiery trials therefore by which we are made holy are deeply connected to His love as He labors to fireproof us into compatibility with His future all-consuming embrace. Any attempt therefore to separate the ideas of His love from the burnings of our trials and of His holiness can only result in a false concept of love.

Sadly, almost all teaching on divine love today is nearly completely divorced from any relation to His jealous holiness, denying any relation between love’s fire and the fires of sanctificational pain designed to conform us to His flaming Essence. On the other side, however, when the Lord’s blazing gaze tests us for compatibility to the All-Consuming One, the folly and shame of this life’s humanistic beliefs about God’s love will be infamous in heaven and stand as a byword throughout the Kingdom.

This article together with our recent article on white clothing is written so we may not have to incur that shame, but that we indeed may, as Peter encouraged, be found to stand in the place of His praise, glory and honor.

Chris Anderson