Luke 12:49 – I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Hello readers, happy Monday! Just something I’ve been thinking about recently from reading through the book of Luke. Sometimes with these blogs it’s hard not to chase rabbit trails, because there are so many thoughts in here. But hopefully it is a blessing to you. And this blog is about… The fire is already kindled! Did you know that? The fire is already started. What fire is that? Hell, judgment, the wrath of God, it’s already burning against sin, against the law breaking, against the wickedness, against the rebellion and unholiness and ungodliness of man.

Over time, I’ve often heard or seen people say “Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality” or “Jesus didn’t say anything about smoking or drinking” or just statements like that. And people will always say whatever they need to say to justify their sin because that’s ultimately what it’s all about. All your fancy excuses and arguments just boil down to an age old love of self and sin. And such people prove that they don’t fear God and they are willingly ignorant of truth, they’re not truly interested in Jesus Christ and what he said and wills for their lives. They don’t care to honour him at all, it’s all empty lip service, and a traitorous kiss on Christ’s cheek as Judas Iscariot.

It’s amazing to me how much false doctrine is in Christianity, and how many false Christs are out there. This world is full of the lies of the devil. People suppose to speak on behalf of Christ. They have the audacity and nerve to speak on his behalf, to speak for him. They suppose to represent who he was, who is he, what he said, and what he stood for and stands for and requires of us. They think they know him. They say they know him. But they prove they do not know him. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Jesus said that the fire is already kindled, and that’s what we are discussing today. That fire is already burning beneath your feet. That fire of God’s wrath and judgment and anger against our sin is already burning hot. When Jesus Christ came to this earth, bonr of a virgin, he didn’t come to regive the law, because the law had already been given, the law that had furthermore been written in stone, indicating how unchanging and irrevocable and final the righteous demands of God upon us are. God’s law is law. God’s law doesn’t change. What’s right and wrong as set by God is eternal.

Jesus didn’t need to condemn us, because we were already condemned. Did you know that? Let that sink in. The fire is already kindled! But Jesus wasn’t fine with sin. He wasn’t fine with that adultery the woman committed. He didn’t say it was ok. He said go, and sin NO MORE. She was already condemned, he had come with the purpose of saving us from the condemnation that is upon each one of our lives. He saved us to go and sin no more. God takes sin seriously, even if you don’t. Hell and the lake of fire is a testament to how serious sin is, and how high the stakes are. There is unquenchable fire that awaits the Christ rejecting sinner. Instead we quench the Holy Spirit with our hard hearts and world loving and sin loving lives.

Jesus came to save us from the fire, and that is what the next verse deals with in fact. Luke 12:50 – “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” Jesus went through the fire for us. He endured the wrath of God to save us from our sin. He didn’t change the law. Oh no. He satisfied the law. Just think of that when you start justifying your garbage based on a perceived “loophole” in the Bible. There are so many loophole Christians out there, they’ve figured out their way to have religion and justify their sin.

You know, when Jesus said he was straitened, consider that his entire life was looking forward to the cross, imagine having the curse waiting for you hovering over your life. We can’t imagine it, but what we should take from this is that our salvation carried a very high price, it came at great cost, it was no small thing God sending his only begotten Son into this world to bare our own sins in his body on the tree.  The crucifixion and the abandonment of God and the pouring out of God’s wrath was waiting for Jesus, and he knew it. He didn’t have a “God” pass where he got through it all fine, though he was God. But you have to remember he was made in the likeness of men, he was the Son of man.

We have made Jesus and sin and salvation such a game. We just really don’t think sin is a big deal. We redefine sin. We are ok with sin. It’s not that bad. Hey, we can even justify and excuse it. It’s almost like that fire has ceased to exist. Because we changed out the fire when we changed out our God. There’s a lot of strange fire burning at the moment in our churches. Sin is still a big deal to the real God though. And without the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you and I would be going to hell. And deservedly so, and rightfully so.

Jesus Christ is the difference between heaven and hell for each person who has ever existed. He didn’t come to say the law is irrelevant now and we are under grace. He came to save us from the penalty and condemnation of us doing nothing else but constantly breaking the law. The Bible says Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus himself said that. Because the fire was already kindled. It’s not “going to be kindled”, it already is. If you are unsaved, you are condemned already.

Jesus didn’t need to come to give the law again which he had already given by his servant Moses, no the law had already been given. God had already made the law known. And that will never change. Murder, theft, adultery, covetousness, pride, lust… everything that God calls sin, it will always be sin. Jesus didn’t come to redefine our sin, he came to save us from it.

The law of God held a very high and holy and righteous standard of morality. God’s law defined what is right and what is wrong, and God’s position is unchanging. Did you know that? Let that sink in. The unchanging God and his unchanging law. Did you know Jesus Christ is the unchanging God? Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

The unchanging nature of God is one of his most attacked attributes. Everytime a new Bible per-version comes out, it is an attack on that verse in Hebrews 13. God’s word does not change just as God does not change. He doesn’t need our help. He doesn’t need to be changed so he conforms to our degraded, disobedient and deranged minds. WE need to be changed, not his law or him needs to be changed. And he’s not changing even if we do change out truth in every sphere of our lives. And when the Bible says grace came by Jesus Christ, grace is the transforming, changing, life giving power of God to get saved, be saved and live it.

Why was the fire already kindled? Because of a whole human history of breaking the law of God. That fire was kindled because of the sin of man. God is angry with sinners. The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. Jesus did not come to say the law was a pile of rubbish, he came to save us from the condemnation under the law that we all rightly face. God has never and will never compromise his holiness and what is right.

Think about this… where did Moses get that law from? From the mouth of God. Did you know Jesus Christ is called the Word of God? Moses was dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ on Mount Sinai. Moses dealt with Jesus his whole life. That’s why Hebrews talks about him esteeming the reproach of “Christ” greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. The only way man has ever and will ever know God is through the Lord Jesus Christ, so guess who Moses was dealing with? That’s right, Jesus Christ.

So when you say Jesus never spoke about this or that like there is a loophole for your depraved little mind and life, it just shows you are a liar and you know not the truth. Jesus isn’t about to contradict himself. God isn’t contradicted… you are in the contradiction, and you are in contradiction with yourself against God.  Hebrews 12:3 – “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

The Bible says that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Notice, God gave the law before he gave us his Son. Why is that? Because that law that he gave Moses was necessary for us to understand that we need a Saviour. The Bible says that the law was made for sinful man, and that it was given to convince of us of our sin, and that it was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. The law was given, and all we’ve done is break it, and in breaking the law, God’s wrath was kindled.

Look at this verse… Deuteronomy 32:22 – “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” The fire was kindled before Jesus was born as a child in a manger. The fire was kindled long before God became flesh. And that fire has not stopped burning, and will never. The lake of fire is the eternal home for all unbelievers. It’s an eternal testament to the unchanging and uncompromising holy and perfect standard of God. Jesus Christ came to save us from hell. He came to save us from the fire, a fire already going, already kindled in the wrath of God. He didn’t come to say oh it’s ok that you’re living in sin, he didn’t come to say oh I didn’t know what I was saying back then… he came to pull us out the fire. The Bible says the righteous are scarcely saved. That’s how big a trouble we are in with Holy God.

Did you know and do you realize that Jesus Christ didn’t begin to exist at his human incarnation? It’s clear from scripture that he is the Creator, he was right there at the start, and that’s because he is God. He’s always been. There’s never been a time when he hasn’t been. That’s why he said, before Abraham was, I am. “I am” is a name only God can lay claim to, for only God has no beginning and no ending.

Jesus Christ didn’t come to give the law again that he’d already given Moses. He came not to rewrite or revise or update the standard for righteousness and holiness… he didn’t come to say hang on, now homosexuality and adultery is ok now. He didn’t come to save us so that we could go on sinning, but this time without a consequence for our sin. Oh no, he came to save us from hellfire for we are surely heading there with our sinful, wicked and evil lives. He came to give us salvation, and consequence and penalty of sin is only one part of our salvation. The law was a necessary instrument to reveal the character of God and convince us of the need for a Saviour, who when we believed on him, would give us grace to live a holy and God honouring life… a life and a love that fulfills that law every day.

See how twisted our thinking is? See how twisted saying “Jesus never said anything about this or against that” really is? Jesus fulfilled the law, and he extends forgiveness and new life. See, we focus on the “eternal” part, but he came to give us life and life more abundantly he said. We want the eternal part, we don’t mind the idea of heaven, just we aren’t too interested in deliverance from sin this side of eternity. We want to live our way here, enjoy our sin here, and then get to live in glory once we’ve fully gratified and satisfied ourselves here. The thing is, Jesus came to change your life HERE and now. Where’s the grace and truth in your life? Where is the grace not to sin? Where is the truth to know who he is and what he’s said? If you are living in sin, you’re showing how destitute of God’s grace you are.

People who say those kind of statements prove that what they need is the very law they say they are not under, the very law that they think Christ somehow excuses them from. 1 Timothy 9,10 – “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;” If you are living an unholy, ungodly, profane and disobedient life…  the law is for you, you are not under grace. You need law before you get grace. There is no grace before law. See, because you’re lawless, so you need law. You think grace is lawlessness. In your mind your lawlessness is the grace of God. That is how deceived we are. If you were under grace, you wouldn’t be living in and excusing all manner of sin and ungodliness. God’s grace doesn’t teach you to sin or excuse your sin. It rebukes your sin, it delivers you from sin, it enables you not to sin.

God’s grace teaches us something. Guess what it teaches us? Titus 2:11,12 – “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;” If you have not been taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, if you have not been taught to live soberly, righteously and godly… you clearly have not received the grace of God that brings salvation. You have no salvation. You may have religion and ritual and tradition and habit… but you do not have salvation. The grace of God that brings salvation produces unmistakable fruit in a believers life. God’s grace changes you, it doesn’t excuse you.

Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry constantly affirmed and reaffirmed the scripture. He himself said the scripture cannot be broken. Jesus Christ’s life perfectly fulfilled the law. So if his life is in you, if you’re in the vine, how come you’re living a sinful rebellious life? The true vine doesn’t bear those kind of sour, bitter,  poisonous grapes on his branches. The Holy Spirit produces holiness. How can you claim to have the Spirit of God, but everything about your life shows an unclean, evil, blind, deaf, dumb and foul spirit?

Jesus Christ needed to fulfill the law because we all broke it. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the law, oh no. The problem was us. We all have broken the law, we are all guilty, and the penalty for breaking God’s law is death and eternal hell fire. That’s why Jesus said, it’s already kindled. The Bible makes it clear that we are condemned already. It’s not you are going to be condemned, you are condemned already.

If you die lost and unsaved and rebellious to God, you’re just going to your place. You’ve already made your bed in hell. Did you know salvation is referred to as pulling them out of the fire? When someone gets saved, they are literally pulled out of the fire. We have to stop playing games and get serious about what matters, and now more than ever. Paul wrote, it is HIGH time to awake out of our sleep. And yet at a time where we should be earnestly watching and praying, we are instead sleeping. We are playing around, but we don’t realize we are literally playing with fire. And when you play with fire you’re liable to get burned.

When you start justifying your sin, just know that Jesus Christ didn’t come to make you sinning ok, he came to deliver you from sin because he loves you. He didn’t save you from hell so you could sin and not fear going to hell. He came to save you from sinning in your life. He came to save you from the fire. If you’re unsaved, you are condemned already, the fire of God’s wrath is already kindled against you. The only thing that can satisfy the fire of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he bore that fire for you. Why do you think he said “I thirst”. Because he was that burnt sacrifice. Why do you think Jesus said he was straitened till it was accomplished, because he wasn’t looking forward to it, but he went through it because he so loved us. When you start excusing sin and saying sin is ok, just know that it’s a slap in the face and a complete insult to God who takes sin so seriously he gave his only begotten Son to rescue you from the hellfire that your sin loving life surely deserves and demands. You’re not saved TO sin, you’re saved FROM sin.

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