Albert Barnes Commentary Malachi 3:2

"But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner`s fire, and like fuller`s soap:" — Malachi 3:2 (ASV)

And who can abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears? The implied answer is, “No one;” as in the Psalm (Psalms 130:3), If You, Lord, will mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Joel had asked the same, The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? How can the weakness of man endure such might; his blindness, such light; his frailty, such power; his uncleanness, such holiness; the chaff, such a fire? For He is like a refiner’s fire. Who would not fail through stupefaction, fear, horror, shrinking reverence, from such majesty?

Malachi seems to blend, as Joel, the first and second coming of our Lord. The first coming too was a time of sifting and severance, according to whether those to whom He came did or did not receive Him. The severance was not final, because there was still space for repentance; but it was real, a pledge of the final judgment. Our Lord says (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; and again (John 12:31), Now is the judgment of this world; and (John 3:18), He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-Begotten Son of God. And (John 3:36), He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

As, on the other hand, He says (John 6:54), Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; and (John 6:47), he who believes on the Son has everlasting life. “Has,” He says; not, “shall have;” “has it,” in present reality and pledge, though he may forfeit it. So the other class is “condemned already,” although the one may repent and be saved, the other may (Ezekiel 33:18) turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity; and if he perseveres in it, shall die therein.

It is then one ever-present judgment. Every soul of man is in a state of grace or out of it; in God’s favor or under His wrath. The judgment of the Great Day, in which the secrets of men’s hearts will be revealed, will be but an outward manifestation of that now hidden judgment.

But the words, in their fullest sense, imply a passing of that judgment, in which men do or do not stand, as in those of our Lord (Luke 21:35–36), As a snare will that day come on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. And Paul (Ephesians 6:13), Take to yourselves the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. And in the Revelation (Revelation 6:16–17), They said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of Him who sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand? Asaph says of a temporal, yet for this life, final destruction (Psalms 76:6–7), At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep. You are to be feared, and who can stand in Your sight when You are angry?

For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap. Two kinds of materials for cleansing are mentioned: the one severe, where the baser materials are intermixed with the rich ore; the other mild, where the defilement is easily separable. “He shall come like a refining fire (Psalms 50:3–4), A fire will burn before Him, and it will be very tempestuous round about Him. Then He will call the heaven from above, and the earth, that He may judge His people. Streams of fire will sweep before, bearing away all sinners. For the Lord is called a fire, and (Deuteronomy 4:24) a consuming fire, so as to burn our (1 Corinthians 3:12) wood, hay, stubble. And not fire only, but fuller’s soap. To those who sin heavily, He is a refining and consuming fire, but to those who commit light sins, He is like fuller’s soap, to restore cleanness to it, when washed.”

Yet, though light in comparison, this too had its severity, for clothes that were washed (of which the word is used) were trampled on by the feet. “The nitrum and the fuller’s soap is penitence.” Yet the whiteness and purity so restored is, finally, perfected. Inspiration could find no more adequate comparison for us, for the brightness of our Lord’s garments from the glory of the Transfiguration, than (Mark 9:3), exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

Our Lord is, in many ways, like a fire. He says of Himself (Luke 12:49), I have come to send a fire upon earth, and what will I, if it is already kindled? John the Baptist said of Him (Luke 3:16), He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He kindles in the heart “a fire of love,” which softens what is hard, the will.

“Wash whatever of stain is here,
Sprinkle what is dry or sere,
Heal and bind the wounded spirit;
Bend whatever is stubborn still,
Kindle what is cold and chill,
What has wandered guide aright.”

But as God is a consuming fire, Who must burn out the dross, unless we are (Jeremiah 6:29–30) reprobate silver which the founder melts in vain, either He must, by His grace, consume the sin within us, or He must consume us with it, in hell.