Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hebrews 12:28-29

"Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire." — Hebrews 12:28-29 (ASV)

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

The God who gave the law on Sinai has never changed: the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; the God of Moses who overthrew Pharaoh and his armies in the Red Sea, and killed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the multitude of complainers, idolaters, and fornicators in the wilderness—this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

I would again remind you of what I have often said concerning the wickedness of inserting words into this passage that the Holy Spirit never inspired Paul to write. Many people say, "God out of Christ is a consuming fire," but Paul wrote nothing of the sort. It is "our God"—and he is not "our God" except as we view him in Christ—who is "a consuming fire."

How greatly we ought to reverence him, and how earnestly we ought to ask of him that the divine fire may burn up everything in us that should be consumed, so that only that which will first endure the great shaking, and which will afterwards endure the great burning, may remain. May the Lord graciously grant to each one of us that grace which will withstand the fire!