Saved by grace! Yes, we all like that, we all can understand that. The more the believer understands his own heart, the more he recognises that grace is the only possible ground on which He can stand before a Holy God. The foundation of our walking in the light as God is in the light, of walking in fellowship with Him and our fellow-believers, is that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from ALL sin” (1 John 1:7). That precious blood has given us a standing that can never break down, blessed be His name. Romans 5:2 tells us that it is in grace the believer stands, and we can rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Let nothing weaken our sense of the grace of God. The very word, Grace, intimates that there is activity on the part of God, not because of what is found in man in the way of goodness or desert, either before or after conversion, but because of what He is in Himself, and based upon the righteous foundation, which the atoning work of Christ affords Him, whereby He can show His love to poor fallen man.
Saved by grace! Yes, but what means our title, “Saved: yet so as by fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). The answer is found in the fact that God is not only righteous, but holy. God’s righteousness has been divinely satisfied to the full at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. But God is holy. Now holiness has to do with nature. God has a nature that cannot tolerate sin. Sinful flesh cannot stand in His presence. “Yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight” (Job 15:15). That which marks sinful man cannot stand before Him.
In the case of a believer, not only must there be a righteous standing before God, furnished through the atoning work of Christ ALONE, but there must be moral suitability to God, so that he may be happy in His holy presence. Without that moral suitability the believer cannot he happy in the presence of God, nor can God take pleasure in the believer.
The objective in all God’s ways in holy government is that moral suitability may be produced in each believer. The consideration of the context of the title at the head of this article will help us to an understanding of this matter.
We are told in 1 Corinthians 3:11, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” That foundation must be divine, the work of God’s holy Spirit. Thank God for that. We begin with an immutable, eternal foundation. The work in the soul of the believer must be on the basis of the work accomplished at Calvary for God’s glory and our eternal salvation. That foundation can never, thank God, be destroyed.
Then we read of material being built upon that foundation. We are reminded of a young people’s chorus,
“We are building day by day,
As the moments pass away.”
How true this is, and how responsible it makes our lives, for there are two classes of material, which can be built upon the foundation. We read of “gold, silver, precious stones;” material, which can stand the test of the fire; and of “wood, hay, stubble,” material that cannot stand the test of the fire. Of course these materials are symbolic, as also is the fire. The fire symbolises the test of God’s discriminating judgment. “Gold, silver, precious stones,” set forth that which in the believer’s life is the product of the Spirit of God”—actions, deeds, words, thoughts, that emanate from a life controlled by the Spirit of God. “Wood, hay, stubble,” set forth actions, words, thoughts, that are of the flesh, sinful and wrong. All the believer’s actions partake of the character of these two classes. This is intensely solemn! It gives room for deepest exercise.
We read, “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” (v. 13). What will be the result? Work that will stand the test of the fire will have a reward. Work that will not stand the test of the fire will bring loss. Here we have the result of the judgment seat of Christ, when the lives of the believers will be manifested.
Now consider the verse that gives us the title of our article:“If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (v. 15). Now this is one of the most comforting and yet most solemn and searching verses in the Bible, “SAVED: yet so as by FIRE.” That is to say, the fire does not touch the person, but tests the believer’s works—his life, his thoughts and deeds and actions. Why should the fire not touch the person? The answer is, that the atoning work of the Lord Jesus gives to the believer a standing before God that nothing can shake. Our Lord said, “He that hears My word, and believes on Him that sent Me has everlasting life, and shall NOT come into condemnation” (John 5:24). Why then should the fire try the believer’s works? If the work stands the test of the fire a reward will be given—work, the product of the Spirit of God in our lives, for which we can take no credit, yet the grace of God will not forget one thing done for His glory, and it will meet with its reward. Not surely as determining our place in heaven, for that is already determined by the grace of God, on the righteous foundation of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what shall we say of the works burned up? Fire is one of the most useful things in this world. It heats by consuming. It cooks our food by consuming. It clears us of rubbish. If rubbish could not be burned the world would be an insupportable place to live in. Fire destroys pollution, dangerous putrifying matter. Fire is one of the great friends of humanity. Can we not learn a lesson from nature?
Will it not be a wonderful thing to see everything offensive to God removed, and pass out of sight for ever? The believer whose works are burned up suffers loss, but it is a gain in one sense to suffer loss, for thereby we shall have acquired a true and right judgment of all in our lives that was offensive to God. It is truly loss for the time on earth in which we could have been glorifying God was spent on that which was unprofitable, nay, even, in the light of the judgment seat, sinful and vile.
We get in Galatians 5 a good description of “gold, silver, precious stones” in the enumeration of the qualities constituting the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, [how impatient we are apt to be, the impatience of the flesh] gentleness, [how rough we often are], goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [self-restraint], against such there is no law.” But we have the works of the flesh, answering to “wood, hay, stubble”—“adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, [snares of the passions of the human body, which need to be guarded against with earnestness and resolution] idolatry, witchcraft [snares whereby the devil seeks to catch men. It includes the temple worship of the heathen, but it takes in more than that. The covetous man is an idolater. Many have been “kicked to death by the golden calf,”] hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, [in the main, the expression of a self-centred fleshly life], drunkenness, revellings [the gratifications of the appetite], and such like.”
The man is SAVED, yet so as by fire. This we may call moral salvation. The man saved. His works burned, and the burning of them the only way he is brought morally and fully into line with the thoughts of God. Is it worth while indulging a bit of the flesh when this is to be the end of it? Surely not!
Of course these things are not found only in our private lives, so we may well challenge our hearts also as to our behaviour in the house of God, in the assembly. It is there alas! that emulations, wrath, strife, schools of opinions, are apt to be seen. The history of the Church of God upon earth is sufficient to make us realise a thousand times over that it is only grace, grace, grace—grace ALONE—that will bring us into blessing at last.
But now for two more remarks before we close. What is the great gain of all this solemn truth that we have been considering? First and foremost, it ought to have a present effect. If it has not a present effect we fear the wood, hay and stubble will predominate in our lives. It is possible to comfort oneself with the thought that at the coming of the Lord we shall be like Him, and yet have little exercise as to how far we are like Him now. Scripture says distinctly, “Every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). If the present effect of the judgment seat is not felt in our lives, it shows a very feeble apprehension of its reality and meaning.
Second, the manifestation of our whole lives at the judgment seat of Christ will bring the believer into a fuller understanding of what sin is in its heinousness, its deceitfulness, all its ramifications. Much that we think right in our lives may be found to be sin in its deceitful forms, Thank God, at the judgment seat of Christ there will be no evil in the believer. The flesh will be left behind at the summoning shout. On the other hand it will give the believer a far deeper, fuller sense of the grace of God that has met his need, and he will follow with adoring worship all the way grace has dealt with him, either before or after conversion. Is there no gain in this? Indeed, who can measure the gain?
May I conclude with a quotation from an honoured pen:“Surely there is great gain as to light and love in giving an account of ourselves to God; and not a trace of the evil remains in us. We are like Christ. If a person fears to have all out before God, I do not believe he is free in soul as to righteousness being the righteousness of God in Christ, not fully in the light. Everything there will be brought out, and with immense profit and gain to us. We shall know right and wrong then as we are known” (J.N.Darby).
May all this exercise us before God for His glory and our blessing.