Read
Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. (Mal. 3:2)
Reflect
Not many Christmas carols reference soap and fire. Of course, plenty of seasonal tunes celebrate hearth and home, close friends and a fire’s glow, even chestnuts over an open flame. But mention of a smelting furnace and a scouring detergent seems out of place in a holiday hymn—maybe even in an Advent devotional. That’s because we associate Christmas with joy and peace, not judgment and purification.
Yet Malachi offers another perspective. When he predicts the Lord’s coming, he doesn’t give us images of an infant meek and mild. No. He’s like a refiner’s fire. He’s like fullers’ soap. Abrasive. Harsh. Extreme. Hot. And who can abide the day of his coming?
Malachi isn’t the only Old Testament author to ask this question (Nah. 1:6; Ps. 76:7). When the prophets foretell the Lord’s coming—often referred to as “the day of the Lord”—they speak of retribution. It’ll be a great and terrible day. A day of thick darkness. A day of reckoning. The final words of Malachi’s prophecy—the very last words of our Old Testament—predict the day of the Lord will come with “utter destruction” (Mal. 4:6).
This explains John the Baptist’s opening line in the Gospels. The New Testament begins with John preparing the way of the Lord in fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy. When John announces the arrival of the King, he warns of coming devastation. Fruitless branches will meet flames. Useless chaff will burn. The One coming will baptize with fire (Luke 3:1–17). Therefore, John calls the crowds to repent.
Repentance is the only appropriate response to news of the Lord’s coming. Otherwise, as Malachi’s rhetorical question implies, you won’t be able to endure. No one can stand before the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s soap. And when you know you can’t stand, it’s best to get on your knees.
Repentance is the only appropriate response to news of the Lord’s coming.
This may not be a message we typically hear at Christmastime. But it’s a necessary word. Without confession, who can abide the day of the Lord?
During the Advent season, we’re right to celebrate the angels’ message of goodwill toward men and peace on earth. We’re right to worship with songs of joy and mirth. Because, in the mystery of grace, Jesus’s first advent wasn’t marked by condemnation but compassion. He came in mercy rather than wrath.
Yet such mercy is only possible because the baby in the manger would one day bear God’s fiery judgment in our place. The spotless Lamb would willingly lay down his life, making purification for sins. In the words of an old hymn, we’re saved from wrath and made pure—a double cure.
This is the wonder of the gospel: Christ was cursed so we could be clean. We’re washed white in his precious blood. At the cross, soap and fire come together for our salvation.
Respond
Is confession of sin and repentance a regular part of your Advent traditions? Take a moment to acknowledge your guilt before God and thank him for his amazing grace to you in Christ.
The Gospel Coalition