Little by little the attitudes and actions that yet are subject to the wrath of God, that can be harmed by God's fire, are driven from our personality. It is possible to gain total victory over all such areas of our life as the Holy Spirit gives us the necessary wisdom and power.

When the Spirit of God testifies that the sin has been judged and removed from us, the second death cannot harm us. It no longer possesses authority over us. If we were placed in the Lake of Fire we would emerge unharmed as did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar.

If there is nothing in us that is subject to Divine condemnation, how then can the Divine fire hurt us?

To be saved "as by fire" means God has burned up that part of our personality and behavior that is displeasing to Him. The remainder of us, especially our spirit, is saved in the Day of Christ (I Corinthians 3:15; 5:5).

Lot is our scriptural example of what it means to be saved as by fire.

Lot was wealthy (Genesis 13:5,6). He had a wife, two daughters, and two sons-in-law.

Lot's life and possessions were not consecrated to God. Unlike his uncle, Abraham, Lot was not ruling with God. Lot chose to dwell in Sodom, in the midst of fleshly lust, in the city of material abundance and luxury. He was abiding in death, in the suburbs of Hell.

Then the "eternal fire" of God fell on the works of Satan in Sodom (Jude 7). Lot was pulled to safety by the prayers of Abraham. But Lot's sheep were destroyed; his goats were destroyed; his camels were destroyed; his sons-in-law were destroyed; his wife was destroyed.

Lot was left with his two daughters. Instead of waiting for the opportunity to acquire husbands from the tribes that surrounded them, these two girls (whom the Scripture does not name) coerced their father to drink wine and then committed incest with him. No doubt incest was practiced commonly in Sodom and Gomorrah. The result of the incest was Moab and Ammon.

The Scripture terms Lot a "righteous" man. Yet, the fire left him only two daughters—girls who had learned in Sodom how to make their father drunk and then commit incest with them. The result was the people of Moab and Ammon, who "met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them" (Nehemiah 13:2).

Lot and his daughters were saved as by fire. But God burned up their home, their possessions, their fruitfulness. God demonstrated His displeasure with the children of Lot by rejecting them. The Egyptian and the Edomite could become a part of Israel after the third generation, but not the children of Lot.

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter the congregation of the Lord for ever: (Deuteronomy 23:3)

Ruth, the Moabitess, was a divinely blessed exception.

To be continued.