The Fire of the Holy Spirit

In the midst of Paul’s closing remarks to the Thessalonians, he likens the Holy Spirit to a fire that dwells within us:

1 Thessalonians 5:19

Do not put out the Spirit’s fire

It’s easy to read this and say, “Oh, I get it. The Spirit is like a fire and we’re supposed to always have the Spirit in us, like not letting a fire go out” (this was my first thought, anyway). But then I remembered something from the Old Testament. God gave the Old Covenant law for very deliberate and specific reasons. Every sacrifice in Leviticus reveals something special about Christ. Every article of the tabernacle in Exodus reveals something about how we are to live, since we are now the temple of God. Recall one of the Lessons from Psalm 1: we should delight in God’s law, but we cannot delight in the law if we do not know the law. When we read that the Spirit is a fire that we must not put out, then we should remember what is written in the law:

Leviticus 6:12-13

The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

There is no longer a physical altar on which sacrifices are made. Neither is there a Levitical priesthood, but there is a High Priest and a priesthood of the order of Melchizedek. Just as the priesthood has changed but the law did not change, so is the law of the altar still in effect: we are the Tabernacle of God, and the altar is within each of us. The fire upon the altar is the Holy Spirit. Christ is our High Priest: every morning He adds firewood, renewing us in the Spirit, keeping our fire burning, if we will allow Him to. But what use are an altar and fire if there is no sacrifice to burn on it?

I have written previously, on many occasions, that Christ has fulfilled every sacrifice in the law. While it is true that every sacrifice represents Christ and that His life was a sacrifice to God in every way possible, there are more sacrifices to be made: those which each of us offers. Otherwise, for what reason would there be fire within us, if not to consume?

Hebrews 13:16

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.

1 Peter 2:5

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

Our sacrifices are our actions. 1 Peter 2:5 says that we are to offer “spiritual sacrifices,” and Paul says in Romans 12:1 that we are to present our bodies in submission to Him as a “living sacrifice," and this is our “spiritual act of worship” – a spiritual sacrifice. Additionally, we offer sacrifices to God in the form of doing good and sharing with others, as Hebrews 13:16 says. Using this guiding principle, we should continue to learn God’s law and delight in the understanding that it brings. 

There is much more understanding to be gained from God’s law in this example. Going back to the scripture in Leviticus, notice that the particular offerings mentioned there were the “burnt offering” and “fellowship offering” - what do they mean for us? Why is the fat of the fellowship offering the relevant part? In view of 1 Peter 2:5, we are to make our spiritual sacrifices “acceptable to God” – what constitutes an "acceptable" sacrifice according to the law, and how does that translate into the sacrifices that we offer in the New Covenant?