An Ancient Insight
Centuries ago, some Christians came up with this insightful illustration to explain the mystery of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. I find this analogy very powerful.
The Local Blacksmith
In earlier times, people cooked all their food in the fireplace. They lit their homes with oil lamps and either traveled by foot or used a horse.
Every town or city had at least one blacksmith who created metal objects of all kinds; everything from nails, pans and door latches to shovels, horseshoes, plows, axes and musket balls.
The blacksmith would first put the iron in his fire, using bellows to increase the heat. When the metal glowed orange, he’d move it onto his anvil and hammer or bend it into whatever shape he needed.
Fire and Iron
Here’s the spiritual analogy:
The iron is in the fire, but the fire has also entered into the iron. The metal is glowing red-hot. Both the iron and the fire remain unique, yet one enters into the other.
What does this analogy mean?
Clearly, God is the fire and we are the iron. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, but we don’t blend together. Instead the divine and the human remain distinct from one another.
Scripture says our Savior lives within us too.
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 NIV)
A Final Insight from the Old Testament.
One day, King David decide to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. It should have been carried on the priests’ shoulders, suspended between two poles. Instead, David transported God’s Ark in a new ox cart. But during the journey, the oxen stumbled and a man named Uzzah touched the Ark to steady it.
He immediately died.
10 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God. (1 Chronicles 13:10 NIV)
A pastor explained that when Uzzah’s sinfulness came into contact with God’s holiness, it killed him.
Here’s the mystery.
If touching a physical chest which God Himself has made holy kills a sinful person, why didn’t I die years ago?
I still sin—don’t you? But the New Testament clearly teaches the same holy God now dwells inside each of us.
Yet I’m alive and well.
My Spiritual Point
Maybe asking Christ to forgive my sins and come into my heart wasn’t just about me saying a sincere, simple prayer.. Perhaps something truly miraculous occurred at the moment of my salvation. Because that day, I was transformed into a worthy container for the fiery Holy One
and He moved right in.
All images came from Pixabay.com.
