Fire, Water and Blood

Even when people do not admit they are guilty every human has a terrible problem of sin in their soul. Because God is perfect in righteousness our sin has the power to keep us separate from Him. How can we ever follow a command like this? But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NLT) The good news is that the Almighty is always looking for people that sincerely want to change their life and become Holy. We must ask God for His help because we do not have the power needed to live a righteous life. To change a common, sinful person into a godly child of the Almighty is a large and difficult task. One of the things required to become part of His everlasting family is the total purification of our body, soul and spirit. In order to help us God has provided three categories of cleansing that are described by fire, water, and blood. The power of the Holy Spirit is behind all three forms of cleansing. In fact, the flame is even a symbol for the action of the Holy Spirit. All purification has the purpose of turning the unclean or common into something godly.

No one will ever live in Heaven if they are not consecrated completely to God. Jesus said something odd to Peter one day; I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! ... Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! Luke 12:49-51 (NLT) Jesus was talking about the fire of purification. When we follow Jesus as righteous people we will become divided from the sinful people in this world. The trend of churches today is to blend in with the world. This idea is from the Devil for sure. Jesus said that He would even divide families into two parts. No one can serve God and be friends with the world. One or the other must be our choice. Even the Baptist knew this; John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat Luke 3:16-17 (NLT) The Spirit in us and the purifying fire of God will automatically separate us from the sinful world.

Purity in God’s world is normal. We have the idea that this polluted world is normal. It is not. We must change our thinking until the pure and genuine become our idea of a normal life. God cannot allow our faith to remain contaminated. Jesus said; It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’ For everyone will be tested with fire. Mark 9:47-49 (NLT) All Christians will have the rough fire of testing sometime in their life and it is necessary because we are weak. Our trial will leave us smoked up and tear streaked. Then we must use the living water to wash ourselves. We can see this principle in the Old Testament when worldly things were brought into the Israeli camp; The Lord has given Moses this legal requirement: Anything made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead— that is, all metals that do not burn—must be passed through fire in order to be made ceremonially pure. These metal objects must then be further purified with the water of purification. Num 31:21-23 (NLT) After the fire of testing has passed we must continue to ask God to wash us with water daily. We call it confession of sins.

When the fire of testing is upon us we must take the long view to fight off discouragement. The long view is that we can live with God forever. Even the Lords disciples were tested. Peter wrote and said; So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT) Usually it is difficult to be happy when we are in the fire of testing. But testing really does happen to good Christians and somehow our faith must hold on to the goodness of God no matter what is happening. Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.  1 Peter 4:12 (NLT) There are many types of trials in the Christian life but we are to take them all into stride as we trust the Lord to deliver us. The cleansing of fire is the one type of cleansing that we do not usually ask God to give us. Let us remember the joy of our place in God’s family and His love during our time of trial.

Every type of purification is provided by Jesus and worked in us by His Spirit. Paul taught that cleansing was central to a Christian life. He (Jesus) gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. Titus 2:14 (NLT) Doing the good deeds of God requires a clean life. The water of purification is what a Christian seeks on a daily basis. This gentler cleaning takes place when we ask God to remove the impurities of our daily life. What comes to mind is the time that Peter asked Jesus to wash him all over.  “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.” Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!” Jesus replied, A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, John 13:8-10 (NLT) Remember that we are talking about living a Godly life every day until the Lord comes for us. We were completely cleaned all over when we were baptized in water. This symbolized our complete death to a dirty life.

It is very important that we study the Scriptures daily. Everything we need for our complete cleansing is contained in God’s word. Paul said; Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.  He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. Eph 5:25-27 (NLT). Every Christian must do their part to see that the Church becomes wrinkle free. The church today has been told that they don’t need to do anything because everything has been done for them. This is wrong. When Christians wanted to live any way they pleased Paul said this; Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Romans 6:16-17 (NLT) The teachings of the New Testament are there for us to obey and they will keep us clean.

Now we come to the greatest cleansing in the Scriptures. Our spirit and soul become clean when we are “sprinkled with Christ’s blood”. Scripture says; And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Heb 10:21-22 (NLT) It is very clear in this passage that the blood of Jesus makes us totally clean with God. But once again we see that water is needed to wash the daily dirt off of our bodies. The word of God will keep our daily life clean in this world. King David said; Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. Psalms 24:3-4 (NLT) Even here we see that both the heart (inside) and the hands (outside) must be pure in order to please God. This reflects the purification needed from both the blood and the water.

The Lord has always used symbols to teach us about His reality. These three symbols of purification could be seen in front of the temple of God in the old days. The fire was burning on the altar day and night ready for sacrifices. Then at times the priest would sprinkle blood on the altar. After the fire and blood were done the priest was required to wash in a great basin or sea of water. The clean priest could then enter the temple to serve God. The same interesting symbols can be seen in this prophesy about Heaven; I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast Rev 15:2 (NLT) If the glass sea is representing the righteousness of water purification then the fire is the power of the Spirit that overcame the trials for the saints. Of course, the cleansing of Christ blood is being proved by the people in white robes who stand on the water and the fire. The reason for purity is always to make something sacred. Only Holy things can be dedicated to the service of God. People are made up of body, soul and spirit and all three must be purified in order to be an overcomer. We must be pure to be an acceptable sacrifice for God.

These three types of purification (the fire, water and blood) illustrate the complete Christian life here on earth. The blood is about power and justification. The water is for our life here on earth and our sanctification. The fire will cause the purification of our faith. Even Jesus went through testing and came out of it so pure that we rely on his purity for our salvation. Although we depend on Jesus for everything we need the Lord requires us to follow Him as meticulously as we possibly can. God wants us to desire to be exactly like Him. The Bible says; Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Eph 1:4-5 (NLT) We must try our best to live as an ambassador who represents the King. Our walk should match our clean heart. If we are right with God our testing will seem a light thing.