In the Old Testament, the fire of God’s presence produced fear. Those who came into contact with it died. Yet, in Acts 2, when the believers encounter the fire of God’s presence, they do not die; instead, they come alive! The fire of God’s presence was no longer fatal because Jesus has absorbed the fullness of God’s wrath by dying on a cross in our place. Consider the parallel: When the fire of God came down upon Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, three thousand Israelites died because they broke God’s law. But when the fire of the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2, three thousand people came alive. Jesus
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