The Poker in the Fire
IllustrationAnalogy★★★★IF YOU take a poker and put it in a fireplace with the fire raging, the poker is just in the fire. But if you leave it in the fire, the fire gets in the poker.
If the poker is left in the fire for any length of time, the environment of the fire will rub off on the poker so that it will become red-hot. It won’t be red-hot because it said, “Let me be hot today,” because it is in a hot mood, or because it stresses and strains to make itself red-hot. It becomes red-hot because of where it hangs out. Not only does the poker get hot because the fire is hot, but if it is taken out of the fire and gets near something, it will burn that something—not because of the power of the poker but because of the relationship of the poker to the fire.
Because the poker was in the fire and the fire got in the poker, everything else is going to be set aflame. If Christians are touching stuff and nothing’s burning, nothing’s changing, and there is no victory, it is because they do not understand that red-hot power does not come through effort but through relationship.
God’s goal is Christlikeness, that is, being conformed to the character of Christ. Christlikeness simply means emulating who Christ is, not because you’re stressing and straining, but because Christ is in you.
The point
Just as a poker becomes red-hot through relationship with fire, Christians become Christlike through relationship with Christ, not through effort alone.