I have refined you, but not like silver. I have tested you in the furnace of suffering. (Isaiah 48:10 GW)
The furnace of affliction is for those who by faith are in
Christ. What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is it
that is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that are
refined in the fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am I
refined in the furnace of affliction? I say, No! emphatically
NO!! If we say, "Yes!" well, let us look at the furnace of
affliction, the fire with the metal in the crucible. What are you
doing with that metal? Well, you say, you heat the fire intensely
and all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to the surface;
this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carried
through to its end, there is left pure gold! Then if you say that
is you or that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine of
total depravity, and you will have to come back to the place
where you say there is good in us, after all! You will have to
say there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of affliction is
to get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that true
doctrine? No!
The furnace of affliction is not for the removal of
the bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, and
secure it! Then what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ in
us? We need not discuss that! Christ needs no refining! What is
it for? It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, and
what is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give full
place to the other! The furnace of affliction is the application
of the Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leave
the whole place for Christ. It is the measure of Christ that God
is after, not to cut in between the good and bad in us, but to
cut in between what is Christ, and what is ourselves. That is
what the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and in
order to do that He has to displace self, the old creation. It is
all the measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is not
going to be refined self, reformed self, or any kind of patching
up of self. It is going to be none of self,
and all of Christ.