280. Law, Mediator, and Fire

“What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.” Gal. 3:19.

The history of the Jews shows that the law was in effect until Christ came. From then on Israel was scattered across the earth because they would not receive Him.

If we look at the matter in a spiritual light, we see that God’s Spirit has the effect of a law as long as we are transgressors, since it was because of transgressions that the law came. The Spirit convicts people of sin because they do not believe in Him, of righteousness because Jesus went to His Father, and of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. God’s Spirit contains the characteristics of the law, and much more besides, since Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Therefore, when the Spirit of God is dealing with a transgressor, it has the same effect as the law on a person until he is converted and allows Christ to will and to work. From that point the condemnation falls away. Why so? Because the transgressor’s own works and schemes cease. Instead he now lives according to the promptings of the Spirit, and there is no condemnation for those who live according to the Spirit and are led by it. It is the one who is led by his own flesh and lusts who is condemned.

“And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Rom. 8:10.

Jesus Christ is the Mediator. A mediator does not mediate for one alone, but God is one. Gal. 3:20. Christ mediates between God and man, and no one can come to the Father except through the Son. The way to the Father goes through the Son and through His flesh since He has consecrated a new and living way for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. The way went straight through Jesus’ will according to the flesh because He did not come to do His own will, but His Father’s will. John 6:38 and 5:30. We must believe this Word; it is the Word of faith that we proclaim. Just as the Son could do nothing of Himself, except what He heard from His Father, so we are unable to do anything of ourselves. The leadings of the Spirit must be heard, understood, and carried out. The Father and the Son will not give Their approval to anything else. The leading of the Spirit is in direct opposition to the flesh and the enmity that dwells therein. It is God who then chooses the sacrifices and His fire that consumes them. This is why John the Baptist declared that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Spirit leads us to the truth about ourselves, to the sacrifice, but it is the fire that consumes it. If we receive the Spirit but shun the fire, we are not well-pleasing to God. His fire is sent to consume our self-life, and “if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him, says the Lord.” God is a consuming fire, and the Mediator’s ministry is to guide us to this consuming fire. Jesus is “the Way,” and “the Way” leads to the fire. In the fire all impurity is consumed. We cannot bear this fire all at once, so the Spirit leads us little by little to the fire with the sacrifices that are chosen by God Himself.

When Christ walked on the earth, the Spirit and the fire were bound to His body, for He Himself was the sacrifice. Therefore He says, “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.” Likewise He says, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”

This time has now come, and we can present our bodies as a well-pleasing sacrifice to God, which is our spiritual service. Rom. 12:1. The Spirit and the fire have both been sent to earth, yet many having received the Spirit flee from the fire. Consequently, no spiritual service is performed, and the spiritual man does not come forth. The Spirit and the fire cause us to lose our life. Together they are called the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, for with fire the Lord will judge. Isa. 66:16. The Lord will wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purge the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning (fire). Isa. 4:4.

Knowledge alone about the fire’s purging power is not enough to cleanse us. We only become cleansed when we judge ourselves and allow God’s fire to consume our stubbornness.

The one who draws back from the fire will preserve his worm for the fire, and this worm will never die, nor will the fire ever be quenched. This is the second death. Anyone whose name is not found written in the Book of the Lamb, the Book of Life, will be cast into the lake of fire. These are people who have drawn back from the fire that was intended to consume the sacrifice; by doing so they have kept their life in this world instead of losing it.

See how important it is for us to love the Lord and keep His commandments! The commandments that we keep lead us into the fire. They lead us to the Father, who is a consuming fire. All those who have been cleansed in the fire will later be able to endure the fire and walk in the fire. For them it will not be a lake of fire. But for those who run away from the fire, eventually they will experience it as a lake of fire, because everything God does follows natural laws.

Let us therefore, as priests of God, continually minister at the altar with our own sacrifices, the ones we find in ourselves. Then God will answer with the fire Jesus Christ came to send upon the earth.

This is truly godly fear. It was hidden from the beginning of time, but now it has been revealed to those who love God and do not draw back.