One of the many names Jesus is given is the Refiner’s Fire. John Piper makes the point that Jesus is not called a forest fire, or a bonfire, which completely incinerate. He is a refiner’s fire, which melts us down piece by piece, exposing all the unwanted sin until we shine in the likeness of Christ. Or as Pastor Bert said: until he can see his face in us.
The definition of refine is to remove impurities or unwanted elements from a substance. That is why it is such a serious thing to forget about God and reject our faith. It would be like if we took our sins, that Christ took away with his death on the cross, and embraced them and put them back on.
The other day I received a message on my computer; evidently I had done something that fouled the computer and it could do some irreparable harm if not corrected immediately. I called my daughter Nancy, our computer person, and she came and rescued me.
We receive messages all the time. Most are non-threatening but occasionally you get one like the one about my computer.
Misperceptions about judgment day swirl around freely these days. In sixth grade a friend told me he hoped his name would be in the Book of Life and I barely slept for weeks, fearful of whether my own name was in God’s eternal ledger. Meanwhile, many contemporary Christians wish to do away with judgment and Hell in light of our culture. Some regard these realities as harsh myths that could never be reconciled with their vision of a loving God.
Both viewpoints hide a kernel of truth, but taken on their face have done gross injustice to the truth about final judgment. No one will be able to stand when he appears, no one will be able to endure the day of his coming.
Who is this ‘he’? We know from Scripture (Matthew 25, II Timothy 4 are but several examples) that Christ is the one who returns to judge as the one who has already been judged. God said the final ‘yes’ to humanity in Christ, yet still says no sin. Though we will never be rid of sin in this life, we cannot keep up the act of deciding for both God and sin.