Malachi 3:2, “…He is like a refiner’s fire…”
John 3:18, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
As I was reading through Malachi 3 this morning it struck me that John the Baptist understood himself to be the messenger figure mentioned in verse 1. He knew that he had come to prepare the way for one whose sandals he was not worthy to carry and who would baptize his people “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt.3:11-12). John anticipated the coming of the Lord’s Christ and that he would bring the refining, purifying, dividing fire talked about in Malachi 3 and 4.
Its understandable, then, that when Jesus came, John started to become confused. Where was the refining that purified God’s people? Where was the fire that divided the righteous from the un-righteous? I think one biblically faithful way to answer these sorts of questions is to say that Jesus Himself is the refining fire (notice Malachi 3:2 says “He is like a refiner’s fire.”). How so?
Well, consider John 3:18. There the person of Jesus Christ, lifted up as the curse bearing serpent and God-revealing servant on the cross is the light who judges and exposes the world (3:19-21). He is—we might say—the fire who, for those opposed to God, consumes and, for those who belong to God, refines (Malachi 4:1-2). And how does He do this? How does a man on a cross act as a refiners fire poured out on the world? Because the event of Christ crucified is the moment at which the identity of the One True God shines into time and space with most vivid clarity, it is in this man and in this death that the God Himself declares I AM……and what we do with THAT moment, how we respond to THAT revelation of God’s identity is the definitive revelation of our own identity. What I mean is this: if we receive this slain one who rises again, if we receive Him as Lord, God and Savior, the fire has refined, the fire has purified—and will continue to do so. But, if we refuse Him, if we do not bow to the crucified One as Lord and God, then the fire has consumed and condemned.
Every time Christ crucified is lifted up through the proclamation of the gospel, this “fire” is being poured out by the Holy Spirit who bears faithful witness to the identity of the Father as manifest in the Son….This Spirit-empowered re-presentation of Christ crucified and risen is the fire that washes over some and purifies, and that washes over others and condemns. However….as long as the gospel is proclaimed, there is time and grace enough for those who were previously left under condemnation to instead receive Christ and move to the camp of those who are refined rather than destroyed. May it be so for all who hear the Word of the Cross!
