God is a consuming fire

Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. If you have received God’s unshakable kingdom in Christ, what has been your response? In today’s verse, we are encouraged to show our gratitude to God. What does that gratitude look like? What are we to show the world? The answer to these questions will be given in detail in chapter 13. For now, we get a general answer. Because we are so grateful for the new unshakable kingdom of love that we have received through Jesus Christ, we offer our lives to God for His service with reverence, that’s piety, do you remember that word in 5:7? And we offer it in awe because just like the Israelites saw God’s consuming fire descend on Mt. Sinai, we see His fire consume us for His glory.  Let’s unpack this a little more. The only thing that is acceptable to God is the work of His Son. That’s why Jesus told His disciples that apart from Him, they could do nothing fruitful for the Father (John 15:7-8). In chapter 11, we learned what pleases God, namely the faith that He produces in and through His Son. If we offer anything in our lives with and through Jesus Christ, God consumes it for His glory. For God to consume something, such as the sacrifices on the altar, was to demonstrate His acceptance. Do you remember, Elijah offering the sacrifices on Mt. Carmel when the fire of God came down and consumed everything? That’s the picture here.  The way we show our gratitude to God for the unshakable kingdom we have received by grace is to offer ourselves for His service. We are to first, do it with reverence, piety, dedication, and commitment to doing His will. I suggest for your consideration that living to love with Jesus is the way we show our gratitude to God for His love and grace. We do it by receiving well, that’s reverence, whatever He gives us in this world. He’s going to show us that this world is empty and full of suffering. We are going to be foreigners here and kicked out by this world because our living to love as the purpose of our lives shakes their world. It makes them look and feel bad, and they don’t like having their world shaken. In contrast, we consider it a joy to express our gratitude to God and love as a pleasing sacrifice to God. We know our living to love with Jesus will be an acceptable service to God. Paul put it this way to the Ephesians in 5:1-2. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Second, we are also to offer our service of love in awe. We should be in awe that God would accept our failing and weak offerings of love simply because it is with Jesus. It is awesome and awe-inspiring to experience God’s pleasure and see God use our meager offerings of love to His people in this world. Just as Israel was in awe upon seeing God’s fire fall upon Mt. Sinai, and again seeing God consume Elijah’s offering, we should offer ourselves in awe that God is pleased with what we offer Him to the degree that He consumes it for His joy and glory. Because we are abiding in Christ the Father is delighted with the offering. We live to love with Jesus because that’s how we show God that we are grateful to be in His unshakable kingdom.