Description
Refining Fire, Fuller’s Soap, and the Holiness of God
This episode meditates on Malachi 3:2, reflecting on God’s holine… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
We can approach the throne of grace with boldness, my friends, but I worry, do we sometimes get too familiar with God? Let’s meditate today on some of his characteristics as we read Malachi chapter three, verse two.
But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers’ soap.
Now I had to look up fullers’ soap because I didn’t know what that meant. And for those of you who are with me, fullers’ soap was something that was used in ancient times for washing and bleaching clothes. It would be used to make clothes cleaner and brighter.
Now looking at this scripture as we meditate on it in our new longer format meditation videos, we’re gonna ask some questions to help us reflect on this verse.
So the first question, what does this passage tell me about God? I mean, it’s kind of clear, isn’t it? We get this sense from Malachi that God is intense. Who can endure the day of his coming?
How can we possibly stand before God? He is going to refine us. He is going to scourge us potentially. He wants to remove all dross all impurities, all sin from us. This is the way he operates. This is our holy God.
What is God like? He is a burning, refining fire. He cannot stand sin. It must be expelled from his presence.
So this tells us, this reminds us of what the holiness of God is all about. It is about eradicating sin. It is about righteousness, it’s about integrity. And he says, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
So then what does the passage tell us about us? We are those who are potentially going to face this intense gaze, this searching, this refinement, from our God.
Do we want to be in that position where we are going to be bleached, where we are gonna be set on fire? It doesn’t sound very comfortable. This passage tells us though, that that’s what we need.
We need to be refined. We are impure. I certainly am.
But the final question. Does this passage give us reason for thanks?
Well, of course it’s set within the context of the entirety of scripture. And we can see because of the cross that this refining fire will not destroy us.
Why? Because the righteousness of Christ, which was perfect is imputed, is given, it’s placed upon us. We look to God as those who have already been refined by that fire, who have already been washed with that fullers’ soap.
Yes, we have reason to be grateful because my friends, we are sinful. No matter how hard we try. In our own strength, we always fall.
But God lifts us up and he says, my son, my daughter, when I look at you, I see Jesus. My refining fire, my fullers’ soap does not need to be used in your case. That definitely is reason for thanks, isn’t it?
God, we praise you. We acknowledge that you are holy. You draw us to you, even though under normal circumstances that should cause us to be destroyed. But you have protected us and saved us by the actions of your Son, Jesus Christ. And we thank you for that. We thank you that we are already legally refined and purified by what Jesus did, and by what we stand in the benefit of, having accepted him as our Saviour, having turned to you and repented.
And we say, God, you are holy and glorious, and we ask you to make us holy as you are holy. Thank you Father. Amen.
