Fire in the Bible: Not what we think it means

“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!”

Luke 12:49-50

“I came to send fire on the earth ...”

Fire is a popular word in a lot of churches today. I’ve seen and been in services where the preacher would scream “fire!” (Not because there was an actual fire.)

A lot of worship songs have “fire” in the title: Fire Fall Down, Set a Fire, Start a Fire, Fresh Fire, Revival Fire Fall, Light the Fire Again, and many more.

These references to fire are all positive. They’re about passion, zeal, revival, the Holy Spirit.

They’re presumably derived from Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell, and “there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

A lot of Christians would read verse 49, Jesus sending fire, as “Yeah, send the Holy Spirit fire of revival!”

Fire = wrath

However, Jesus had just talked about judgment. Verses 42-48 were a parable in which an unfaithful servant was beaten and cut in two. And Jesus went on to finish the passage with judgment, about a man taken to prison.

Most of the time, fire in the Bible is God’s wrath.

Back when John the Baptist was preaching, he said of Jesus, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). That was only partially a prophecy of Pentecost. The baptism with fire – the immersion into fire – was judgment, because the lost will be immersed into a lake of fire. John also said at the same time, “every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (verse 9), and he said Jesus “will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire” (verse 17).

Jesus said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:6).

Isaiah 66:15-16 reads, “For behold, the LORD will come with fire and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword the LORD will judge all flesh; and the slain of the LORD shall be many.”

The LORD (Yahweh) is Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 says, “the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

That’s the fire Jesus is talking about: He’s going to send the fire of judgment on the earth.

How they heard ‘fire’

That’s how the crowd He was speaking to would have heard it. This was before Pentecost, so to those people, the sending of fire meant nothing but judgment. They obviously wouldn’t be thinking of Pentecost like we do today; they would be thinking of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It’s not the only time Jesus said He came to bring judgment; He also said in John 9:39, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

Jesus is the One who will strike the nations and tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God when He returns (Revelation 19:15). He’s the One who will break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces (Psalm 2). He’s the One who will send fire on the earth.

And, He “wishes it were already kindled!”

Chapters 11 and 12 of Luke are filled with warnings and condemnations against those who reject Him. At any time, He could have commanded fire to fall from heaven and consume those who reject Him. He would be perfectly just and righteous to do so. What He said shows that His intention for that was there even then.

It’s not like God sometimes wants mercy and sometimes wants judgment; He always wants both, because He’s always just, and He’s always merciful.

Judgment and love 

But, you may ask, what about the incident in Luke 9 when James and John wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans? Jesus said, “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.” Jesus rebuked His disciples for wanting to call down fire, but now He wants to do it Himself?

Yes. Jesus judges with perfect judgment, perfect justice, perfect motive and perfect timing.

What about when Jesus said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17)? And, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47)?

All of that is true, and none of it is contradictory.

That’s where verse 50 comes in: “But ...”

Several great salvation verses start with or include “but”: “BUT God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

This one is just as big as those: “But I have a baptism to be baptized with.”

John the Baptist called the fire of judgment a baptism, an immersion.

But now, Jesus is saying HE’S the One who will receive that baptism of judgment, of God’s wrath. He’s going to be immersed in it on the cross.

Jesus is making the same point here that He did when He rebuked James and John in chapter 9. Even though He has a righteous and just desire to execute judgment on the lost, even here and now, this is not the time for that. The fact that Jesus says, “I wish it were already kindled” means it hasn’t yet been kindled.

The purpose of this time, this life when Jesus is on the earth, is for Him to receive that wrath, so He could save us from the fire that He Himself will send.

‘It is accomplished’ 

Then Jesus says, “how distressed I am till it is accomplished!”

Jesus, of course, knew what He was heading toward: not just the physical torture of a crucifixion, but the wrath of His Father. And He horribly dreaded it. That dread culminated in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.”

Even at this point in Luke 12, He was feeling that. But He had a mission, and He’s going to finish it. He’s going to accomplish it. The Greek word for “accomplished” is the same word He used when He said on the cross, “It is finished.”

He’s going to satisfy that wrath. He’s going to pay that debt.

This shows that His love is greater than His dread.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”

This is how great that love is!