DEATH TO RELIGION AND RESURRECTION TO A NEW LIFE
When God says he is a consuming fire and a refining fire, he is referring to the power of his spoken voice to tear down religious things created by man and build up spiritual things that only he can create.

STUDY TIP: See this link for more understanding of God’s fire.

The things that he consumes are these:

What God refines is the hearts of people who have come out of religion. He takes hearts that are evil and impure and recreates/transforms them into clean, pure hearts. This is what it means to be created in God’s image: The invisible nature of God (i.e. God’s name) is established in the clean, pure heart of a New Covenant disciple.

STUDY TIP: See THE MIRACLE OF CREATION: BORN AGAIN for understanding of new life.

The concept of refining also referring to the spiritual work he accomplishes in people through religious conflict that he uses to refine (i.e. test) and reshape them to conform them into his image (i.e. write his laws on their hearts through the teaching of his spirit).

STUDY TIP: See Religion is the Enemy, Gods at War, Model Warriors, and Sibling Conflict for more about religious conflict.

From the fact that God only looks  at the heart, we know that his purpose in testing is to prove what is in the heart of people (i.e. are they Old/First Covenant religionists who follow religious laws, or are they New Covenant disciples who live by God’s spiritual laws written on their hearts.) We know this because “new heart” is a Biblical code word for the New Covenant.

This testing/proving will always be difficult (i.e. a slow death) in the short run, but will be good for God’s people in the long run, and even leads to faith and salvation which are code words indicating the establishment of the New Covenant in the heart of a believer. God calls his kind of testing discipline. Religious people do not become righteous unless they experience this kind of testing.

In Biblical language, the disciplinary process is symbolized as death that leads to resurrection and new life.

STUDY TIP: See Two Deaths for more about death.

Religious people who interpret the Bible literally always think about death and resurrection in strictly natural terms. Sadly, this religious perspective causes them to totally miss what God is trying to teach them about the inner life of the heart. When they interpret the Bible literally and think in natural terms, they fail to understand that death to religion and resurrection from that death means a change of heart from evil and impure to good and pure. This change is the miracle that God performs in the hearts of New Covenant disciples who were previously Old/First Covenant religionists.

The truth is that Biblical references to death and resurrection are not about physical death and resurrection but about spiritual death and resurrection which are terms that are, admittedly, very difficult to understand.

STUDY TIPS: See THE MIRACLE OF CREATION: BORN AGAIN and HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE BORN AGAIN.

To understand spiritual life and spiritual death, we must be mindful of the fact that God, being spirit, does all of his creative, restorative work in the spiritual realm of the heart which cannot be observed to natural man. That means that neither the death nor the resurrection can be observed with natural abilities like eyes or ears. Instead, the death and resurrection with which God is concerned and is active is in the realm of the hidden life of our heart that only he can see.

In the simplest possible terms, spiritual death has two meanings

In summary, for New Covenant disciples, the first death means the end of the strong affections they had in their hearts for their religious leaders (i.e. idols). It also includes death to the practice of religion taught by those idols. Both are types of spiritual death because they happen in the heart. They are the condition of an evil, impure heart.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is Idolatry for more about idolatry.

Spiritual death is the exact opposite of spiritual life (i.e. resurrection, rebirth, eternal life) which is the inner life of the heart that New Covenant disciples enjoy when their heart comes alive to the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his spiritual laws written on their hearts.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of spiritual life.

These are not easy concepts to comprehend for Old/First Covenant religionists because they have not gone through the death and resurrection process. The following statements summarize their condition:

This will be the condition of religious  people until they individually learn how to listen to God’s voice. Only then will they be spiritually alive.