The Perpetual Fire of the Gospel Text: Leviticus 6:8-13
Introduction: The God Who Cares About Details
We live in an age that prides itself on its casual approach to just about everything, and particularly to God. Our worship is often shaped more by our preferences than by His precepts. We think of sincerity as the ultimate virtue, assuming that if our hearts are in the right place, the specifics of how we approach God are of little consequence. We want a God who is big enough to create galaxies but small enough not to care about the details of our lives or our worship. But the book of Leviticus stands as a stark and glorious rebuke to this entire mindset.
Leviticus is the book where our modern sensibilities run aground. We read these intricate laws about sacrifices, garments, and ashes, and our first temptation is to dismiss it as archaic, irrelevant, or just plain strange. But in doing so, we reveal more about our own spiritual sloppiness than we do about the text. The God of Leviticus is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has not changed. And what this book teaches us, in glorious detail, is that our God is a God of meticulous holiness. He cares about everything. The way His priests dressed, the way the fire was maintained, the way the ashes were handled, it all mattered. It all preached.
These statutes are not arbitrary hoops for Israel to jump through. They are living parables, types and shadows, painting a detailed portrait of the coming Messiah and the nature of the gospel He would bring. God was teaching His people the grammar of redemption. To neglect Leviticus is to walk into the New Testament as a theological illiterate. You cannot understand the substance if you have not studied the shadow. Here in these few verses, we are given a profound lesson on the unending nature of Christ's sacrifice, the holiness required to approach God, and the daily duties of the royal priesthood, which is the Church.
This passage is about a fire that must never go out. This is not just a practical instruction for a bronze age religion. This is a foundational principle of reality. The fire of God's holiness, His righteous demand for perfect consecration, never ceases. And because of Christ, the fire of God's gracious acceptance, His burning love for His people, also never ceases. This is the perpetual fire of the gospel.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Command Aaron and his sons, saying, 'This is the law for the burnt offering: the burnt offering itself shall remain on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. And the priest shall put on his linen robe, and he shall put on undergarments next to his flesh; and he shall raise up the ashes to which the fire reduces the burnt offering on the altar and place them beside the altar. Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not go out, but the priest shall burn wood on it every morning; and he shall lay out the burnt offering on it and offer up in smoke the fat portions of the peace offerings on it. Fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar; it shall not go out.'"
(Leviticus 6:8-13 LSB)
The All-Night Offering (vv. 8-9)
The instruction begins with the law for the burnt offering.
"Command Aaron and his sons, saying, 'This is the law for the burnt offering: the burnt offering itself shall remain on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it.'" (Leviticus 6:9)
The burnt offering, or ascension offering, was unique among the sacrifices. In most other offerings, a portion was returned to the priest or the worshiper. But the burnt offering was wholly consumed on the altar. It all went up to God. It was a picture of total consecration, complete surrender. This offering was to remain on the altar all night. While Israel slept, the offering that represented them was still being offered. While they were unconscious and inactive, their substitute was being consumed in the presence of God.
This is a stunningly beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our burnt offering. He consecrated Himself wholly to the Father on our behalf. And His intercession for us never sleeps. "He is able, for all time, to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). While we sleep, while we are weak, while we are forgetful, our great High Priest stands before the Father, and the merit of His perfect sacrifice ascends as a sweet-smelling aroma continually. The fire of His offering is never quenched.
This is the foundation of our security. Our standing with God does not depend on the fluctuating intensity of our devotion. It rests on the perpetual, all-night burning of Christ's perfect devotion. The fire of God's holiness consumes the offering, and because the offering is perfect, the fire of God's holiness becomes a fire of acceptance.
Holy Janitorial Work (vv. 10-11)
Next, we have detailed instructions for what seems like a mundane task: cleaning up the ashes.
"And the priest shall put on his linen robe, and he shall put on undergarments next to his flesh; and he shall raise up the ashes to which the fire reduces the burnt offering on the altar and place them beside the altar. Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place." (Leviticus 6:10-11 LSB)
Notice, this is not a job for a janitor. This is a priestly duty. And it is a holy task that requires specific holy garments. The priest must wear his linen robe and undergarments, the uniform for ministering in God's immediate presence. Why? Because these ashes are holy. They are the remainder of a sacrifice that God has accepted. Handling them is an act of worship.
The ashes are first collected and placed beside the altar. Then, the priest performs a wardrobe change. He takes off the holy linen garments and puts on "other garments," likely more common work clothes, to carry the ashes "outside the camp to a clean place." This is profoundly significant. The linen garments are for ministry in the holy space. The other garments are for work in the common space. The priest mediates between the two.
The ashes, the residue of a completed and accepted sacrifice, are not discarded as worthless trash. They are carefully removed and taken to a clean place. This points to the finished work of Christ. His sacrifice is complete. The debt is paid. The fire has done its work. And the evidence of this finished work, the "ashes," is not to be forgotten. It is to be taken out from the center of worship and into the wider world, rendering it clean. The effects of the cross are not confined to the church sanctuary. The gospel is meant to be carried out into the world, to every square inch of it, making it all a "clean place." The ashes of the red heifer were mixed with water for purification (Numbers 19:9). The ashes of our Lord's sacrifice are the very stuff of our sanctification, cleansing our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:13-14).
Stoking the Perpetual Flame (vv. 12-13)
The central command is repeated and expanded upon.
"And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not go out, but the priest shall burn wood on it every morning; and he shall lay out the burnt offering on it and offer up in smoke the fat portions of the peace offerings on it. Fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar; it shall not go out." (Leviticus 6:12-13 LSB)
The fire must not go out. This is the heart of the passage. The fire on the altar was originally kindled by God Himself (Leviticus 9:24). Man's job was not to create the fire, but to maintain it. This is a picture of the Christian life. The fire of our new life is kindled by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. It is a divine gift. Our responsibility is to keep it burning. We do this, as the priest did, by adding wood to it every morning. This is our daily duty of prayer, of reading God's Word, of mortifying sin. We are to be constantly stoking the fire that God has lit.
And notice the liturgical order. Every morning, the priest first lays out the burnt offering, the offering of total consecration. Only after that does he offer up the fat portions of the peace offerings. The peace, or fellowship, offering was the sacrifice that was shared between God, the priest, and the worshiper. It was a communion meal. The order is crucial. Our fellowship with God is predicated on our total consecration to God. You cannot have the peace offering without the burnt offering. You cannot have communion with God on your own terms. You must first surrender everything to Him. This is what we do when we come to Christ. We offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), our own burnt offering, which is only acceptable because we are in Him, the true Burnt Offering.
The fire must be kept burning continually. Some in the Reformed tradition have built a marvelous fireplace, with sound doctrine and solid confessions, but there is no fire in it. It is clean, it is orderly, but it is cold. Others are lighting fires on the coffee table, full of zeal but with no structure, and are about to burn the house down. God's command is for a perpetual fire in the fireplace. We need both the heat of the Spirit and the hearth of the Word. This perpetual fire is the constant presence of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent to us, the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11).
The Unquenchable Gospel
This law of the perpetual fire finds its ultimate fulfillment in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the priest who perfectly ministers in holiness. He is the sacrifice, the true burnt offering, wholly consumed for us. His work is finished, and the evidence of it, the "ashes," has been carried out to make the whole world clean.
And He is the fire. The fire of His atoning work never goes out. The fire of His intercession never ceases. The fire of His Spirit, given to the church, is never to be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). This is why the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the church. The fire of God is in her.
So what is our duty as the royal priesthood of believers? It is to remember that our acceptance is based on an all-night offering that burns independently of our awareness. It is to handle the message of Christ's finished work as a holy thing, taking it from this place out into the world. And it is to stoke the fire daily. Every morning, we must bring the wood of the Word. Every morning, we must lay ourselves on the altar as a burnt offering of consecration. And every morning, we must then enjoy the peace offering, the sweet fellowship with the Father that our consecration in Christ has purchased for us.
The fire of the gospel is burning. It is burning continually. It is consuming the sin of the world and purifying a people for God's own possession. It will not go out until it has filled the whole earth, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Do not neglect this fire. Do not quench it. Stoke it. And live by its glorious, unceasing warmth.