Baptism by fire
“Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” (Ps. 50:5).
Jesus had two baptisms—one by water and the other by fire. The first by birth, the baptism of life, a life filled with blessings, the comfort of the Holy Spirit without measure.
“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant.” “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Is. 53:2;9:6).
The second baptism was by crucifixion to self, the weight of the government of God on His shoulders, filled to the brim with the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the burden of speaking the unvarnished truth, the baptism of suffering and death, a full separation from God and all His fullness. “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matt. 20:22).
“I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (LK. 50:49,50).
He set the example for those who would choose to follow Him in the baptism of water, the baptism of life. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (Jn. 1:4). “They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For Thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor.” (Is. 9:3,4). “He that hath the Son hath life.” (1Jn. 5:12).
Christ thrilled from the abundance given Him from His Father. And He taught His followers to enjoy it all with thanksgiving, as well. “Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the Bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” (Mk. 2:19,20).
But He also led the way into the baptism of fire, the baptism of death to self.
“Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And He saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.” (Matt. 20:22,23).
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.” (Lk. 9:23,24).
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.” (1Pet. 2:21).
The life of Christ overflowed of doing with and doing without. His was a life of joying in all that His Father abundantly gave for the happiness of the human race, acknowledging His great love; and it also was a daily rejoicing in every trial and deprivation, knowing that God still loved His beloved Son, despite the present situation and appearances.
Both abundance and privation were necessary for continued growth in His spirituality and ours. A tree is strong because of the many rings that make up its trunk. But those rings are caused by periods of rapid, unhampered outward and upward growth during the wonderful wet and warm summers, and then by periods no outward growth (yet inward strengthening) during the severe cold, dry winters when the tree is forced to close itself off to the outside world in order to survive the harshness of the elements.
The two baptisms can be summed up in the following verse. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:… And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” (Rom. 5:1,3). Notice, first the reconciliation and restoration, then the exercise of that faith and love that He restored to us. First, He babies and nurtures us and strengthens our attachment to Him; then He puts that attachment to the test through hardships, binding us even closer to Himself. It’s His grace that makes His yoke easy and His burden light. Without knowing His goodness we could never endure the battles of life. With His grace the warfare is doable and even easy, yet it remains difficult and burdensome.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body….
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2Cor. 4:8-10,17).
Those who surrender to both baptisms will constantly relive the words, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). They will be students in the school of Christ. They will learn to stay open and vulnerable to all that their wise Father gives them in their life experiences, good and bad, easy and hard, comfortable and stressful. They will gladly trust in Him.
The Son of God was surrendered to the Father’s will, and dependent upon His power. So utterly was Christ emptied of self that He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God’s plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will. Desire of Ages. p. 208.
This life of sacrifice influences our daily life in this world. We are stewards only; we own nothing—not even ourselves. God owns it all, and we are His caretakers. Even our children are on loan. Crucified with Christ, we will be always surrendering our most beloveds, never possessing our loved ones—giving them perfect freedom, yet serving and protecting them.
“But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.” (1Cor. 7:29-31).
The true Christian joy is in receiving, to joy in life as God bathes us in His goodness. But it is also in the joy of giving back; the joy of death. Joy in obedience; joy in laying down ourselves in service. It consists in reveling in the gifts of God, as a tender son dandled upon God’s knee, and then reveling in the giving back of those gifts to God, as a young adult, trained by our heavenly Father and our Elder Brother. The second is the more mature joy; the first the precious essential foundation.
Thus imbued with grace, we will be always on the verge of receiving and giving, gaining and losing. We will joy in hardship and pain; never hoarding, but taking only what we need, for fear that if we take more than that God will let it turn to corruption and stink. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We must to do the hard thing, the thing that doesn’t feel good to our human nature.
Sacrificing is when our personal religion is put to the test. Adam had to choose between keeping Eve and giving up His Lord, or giving her up and keeping His Lord. But how could he give up the one with whom he had such close earthly ties, whose life had been woven so intimately into his, who had brought so much happiness and fulfillment to him? Yet it was serving self to dodge his responsibility, to not suffer the heart break—to elude the pain of sacrifice, avoiding the pain of sorrow that comes with judging by principle. To stand representing God requires to know His burdens. To renege on right judgment, painful though it be, is to depart the service of the King. God must give us a small taste of the burden sin has caused Him. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (Ps. 51:17).
We all have loved ones, gifts from God. But the only way to avoid making idols of them and teaching them idolatry is to love them and to enjoy their love, but to be ever ready to sacrifice their love if they turn from righteousness; it is to add caution to our love for them, as agonizing as this is to do. We are perched on the fulcrum of loving them as if we were about to lose them, holding our loyalty to the God of love always above loyalty to any of His creatures. But, this is pure love; this is righteous love, the best love, the most trustworthy love. And the prospect of losing our special beloved ones makes us all the more protect them and love them and hallow the precious time spent with them. We must ever be of the mindset: “as they that receive, yet possessing nothing.”
Love has changed to lust when we refuse to put all of this world’s most prized loved ones second place to our Creator and Father. It means worshipping the creature instead of the Creator, the gift not the Gift-giver. This is the condition of all who don’t seek Jesus or fellowship with Him. The reason the church of Rome has been so cruel throughout the centuries is that she lost sight of God’s grace, but refused to go to God in repentance. So she held tenaciously to her status as “God’s people.” Her determined outward beauty came without the sacrifice of self; thus it turned to corruption. “How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” (Rev. 18:7). She refuses the covenant by sacrifice. All who follow her disallow the Lord’s merciful baptism by fire, and therefore heap up to themselves a terrible judgment of fire unmixed with mercy.
To deny the baptism by fire is to become the scapegoat (which escaped being sacrificed), every day suffering a worse fate in the separation from God. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn. 3:36). And ultimately that lack of sacrificial covenant will result in damnation at the Day of Judgment. It will produce the sentence given to the greatest scapegoat of the ages. “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41).
All who turn away from God’s requirement of the crucifixion of self become soft and effeminate, and unprepared for difficulties and the simple life. “The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter.” (Deut. 28:56).
Let us endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, submerged in the roiling fire of heavenly sanctification, and patiently wait for His next baptism by water which He faithfully promises to give in due season. Let us stay in the purifying heat until all our dross is consumed, according to His determination.
“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1Cor. 3:13-15).
By the life and the death of Christ, the thoughts of men also are brought to view. From the manger to the cross, the life of Jesus was a call to self-surrender, and to fellowship in suffering. It unveiled the purposes of men. Jesus came with the truth of heaven, and all who were listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit were drawn to Him. The worshipers of self belonged to Satan’s kingdom. In their attitude toward Christ, all would show on which side they stood. And thus everyone passes judgment on himself. Desire of Ages. p. 57.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus, the great burnt offering of the ages, has led the way into the death of self, leading us to lay self in the dust, “buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4).
“Whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.” (Matt. 16:25). The gifts and calling of God are without repentance, but they beckon repentance, and evoke the sacrifice of self, which brings heaven closer to earth.
Jesus had two baptisms—one by water and the other by fire. The first by birth, the baptism of life, a life filled with blessings, the comfort of the Holy Spirit without measure.
“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant.” “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Is. 53:2;9:6).
The second baptism was by crucifixion to self, the weight of the government of God on His shoulders, filled to the brim with the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the burden of speaking the unvarnished truth, the baptism of suffering and death, a full separation from God and all His fullness. “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matt. 20:22).
“I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (LK. 50:49,50).
He set the example for those who would choose to follow Him in the baptism of water, the baptism of life. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (Jn. 1:4). “They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For Thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor.” (Is. 9:3,4). “He that hath the Son hath life.” (1Jn. 5:12).
Christ thrilled from the abundance given Him from His Father. And He taught His followers to enjoy it all with thanksgiving, as well. “Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the Bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” (Mk. 2:19,20).
But He also led the way into the baptism of fire, the baptism of death to self.
“Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And He saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.” (Matt. 20:22,23).
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.” (Lk. 9:23,24).
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.” (1Pet. 2:21).
The life of Christ overflowed of doing with and doing without. His was a life of joying in all that His Father abundantly gave for the happiness of the human race, acknowledging His great love; and it also was a daily rejoicing in every trial and deprivation, knowing that God still loved His beloved Son, despite the present situation and appearances.
Both abundance and privation were necessary for continued growth in His spirituality and ours. A tree is strong because of the many rings that make up its trunk. But those rings are caused by periods of rapid, unhampered outward and upward growth during the wonderful wet and warm summers, and then by periods no outward growth (yet inward strengthening) during the severe cold, dry winters when the tree is forced to close itself off to the outside world in order to survive the harshness of the elements.
The two baptisms can be summed up in the following verse. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:… And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” (Rom. 5:1,3). Notice, first the reconciliation and restoration, then the exercise of that faith and love that He restored to us. First, He babies and nurtures us and strengthens our attachment to Him; then He puts that attachment to the test through hardships, binding us even closer to Himself. It’s His grace that makes His yoke easy and His burden light. Without knowing His goodness we could never endure the battles of life. With His grace the warfare is doable and even easy, yet it remains difficult and burdensome.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body….
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2Cor. 4:8-10,17).
Those who surrender to both baptisms will constantly relive the words, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). They will be students in the school of Christ. They will learn to stay open and vulnerable to all that their wise Father gives them in their life experiences, good and bad, easy and hard, comfortable and stressful. They will gladly trust in Him.
The Son of God was surrendered to the Father’s will, and dependent upon His power. So utterly was Christ emptied of self that He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God’s plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will. Desire of Ages. p. 208.
This life of sacrifice influences our daily life in this world. We are stewards only; we own nothing—not even ourselves. God owns it all, and we are His caretakers. Even our children are on loan. Crucified with Christ, we will be always surrendering our most beloveds, never possessing our loved ones—giving them perfect freedom, yet serving and protecting them.
“But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.” (1Cor. 7:29-31).
The true Christian joy is in receiving, to joy in life as God bathes us in His goodness. But it is also in the joy of giving back; the joy of death. Joy in obedience; joy in laying down ourselves in service. It consists in reveling in the gifts of God, as a tender son dandled upon God’s knee, and then reveling in the giving back of those gifts to God, as a young adult, trained by our heavenly Father and our Elder Brother. The second is the more mature joy; the first the precious essential foundation.
Thus imbued with grace, we will be always on the verge of receiving and giving, gaining and losing. We will joy in hardship and pain; never hoarding, but taking only what we need, for fear that if we take more than that God will let it turn to corruption and stink. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We must to do the hard thing, the thing that doesn’t feel good to our human nature.
Sacrificing is when our personal religion is put to the test. Adam had to choose between keeping Eve and giving up His Lord, or giving her up and keeping His Lord. But how could he give up the one with whom he had such close earthly ties, whose life had been woven so intimately into his, who had brought so much happiness and fulfillment to him? Yet it was serving self to dodge his responsibility, to not suffer the heart break—to elude the pain of sacrifice, avoiding the pain of sorrow that comes with judging by principle. To stand representing God requires to know His burdens. To renege on right judgment, painful though it be, is to depart the service of the King. God must give us a small taste of the burden sin has caused Him. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (Ps. 51:17).
We all have loved ones, gifts from God. But the only way to avoid making idols of them and teaching them idolatry is to love them and to enjoy their love, but to be ever ready to sacrifice their love if they turn from righteousness; it is to add caution to our love for them, as agonizing as this is to do. We are perched on the fulcrum of loving them as if we were about to lose them, holding our loyalty to the God of love always above loyalty to any of His creatures. But, this is pure love; this is righteous love, the best love, the most trustworthy love. And the prospect of losing our special beloved ones makes us all the more protect them and love them and hallow the precious time spent with them. We must ever be of the mindset: “as they that receive, yet possessing nothing.”
Love has changed to lust when we refuse to put all of this world’s most prized loved ones second place to our Creator and Father. It means worshipping the creature instead of the Creator, the gift not the Gift-giver. This is the condition of all who don’t seek Jesus or fellowship with Him. The reason the church of Rome has been so cruel throughout the centuries is that she lost sight of God’s grace, but refused to go to God in repentance. So she held tenaciously to her status as “God’s people.” Her determined outward beauty came without the sacrifice of self; thus it turned to corruption. “How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” (Rev. 18:7). She refuses the covenant by sacrifice. All who follow her disallow the Lord’s merciful baptism by fire, and therefore heap up to themselves a terrible judgment of fire unmixed with mercy.
To deny the baptism by fire is to become the scapegoat (which escaped being sacrificed), every day suffering a worse fate in the separation from God. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn. 3:36). And ultimately that lack of sacrificial covenant will result in damnation at the Day of Judgment. It will produce the sentence given to the greatest scapegoat of the ages. “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41).
All who turn away from God’s requirement of the crucifixion of self become soft and effeminate, and unprepared for difficulties and the simple life. “The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter.” (Deut. 28:56).
Let us endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, submerged in the roiling fire of heavenly sanctification, and patiently wait for His next baptism by water which He faithfully promises to give in due season. Let us stay in the purifying heat until all our dross is consumed, according to His determination.
“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1Cor. 3:13-15).
By the life and the death of Christ, the thoughts of men also are brought to view. From the manger to the cross, the life of Jesus was a call to self-surrender, and to fellowship in suffering. It unveiled the purposes of men. Jesus came with the truth of heaven, and all who were listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit were drawn to Him. The worshipers of self belonged to Satan’s kingdom. In their attitude toward Christ, all would show on which side they stood. And thus everyone passes judgment on himself. Desire of Ages. p. 57.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus, the great burnt offering of the ages, has led the way into the death of self, leading us to lay self in the dust, “buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4).
“Whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.” (Matt. 16:25). The gifts and calling of God are without repentance, but they beckon repentance, and evoke the sacrifice of self, which brings heaven closer to earth.
posted by David | 7:21 PM
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