Where is the Gospel in Malachi?
We’ve come to a place by looking at the Minor Prophets that we’ve seen the ultimate remedy for our sin and human condition is not our external repentance and obedience, but the Lord’s coming to his temple, as Malachi says.
Our own righteousness, our own efforts, our own remedies cannot stand the day of the Lord.
We need the righteousness of another, if we are going to stand on that day— which is precisely what God gives us in the gospel. The Good News comes into the midst of our bad news, and says look, don’t worry, take the burden off yourself (Duguid).
God’s people in the Old Testament we’ve read of through this series, God’s people today, you and me, us, humans, there is no
realisation of the depth of God’s love for us,
reponse,
honour,
faithfulness,
hope,
obedience,
fear.
What is the remedy for this?
What is the remedy for the human condition that we all have?
All throughout the Minor Prophets we have been looking at how they point to the character, the qualities, the truth of Jesus, and they all build towards Him being the remedy for the human condition.
It all crescendos to Jesus being the remedy that we need.
It might seem too simple…it is, believe and receive.
We need to acknowledge that we need a Saviour, we need to acknowledge that we have a problem before we jump into the finer points of our faith.
It’s no use dealing with the superstructure if the foundation is not right, I read this week, and our foundation has to be that we are sinners in need of remedy that we cannot provide for ourselves.
D.Martin Lloyd-Jones said
“We go astray because we are not truly convicted of our sin.”
Many not yet believers are not yet believers because they don’t see the need for it, they don’t think they need a remedy, they think they can achieve all of this by themselves, many of the Old Testament persuasion and other works-related worldviews would say that righteousness is attained by keeping laws and doing things, but that twists the very purpose of the law – to show us that we need more, we need more than law, the law highlights that we are sinful and we need a remedy to this.
Let us use the law, the Old Testament, the Prophets, the Minor Prophets to see that we are all together in our human condition, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that all are in need of a Divine, Sovereign, Redemptive, Restorative Remedy.
Jesus is that remedy.
He addresses everything that makes us human, and do you know what, He takes that just as it is, He loves you and accepts you just as you are, right now, but then works in and with you to remedy everything that is broken, everything that is lacking, everything that is missing, and slowly, day by day, from the inside out, turns you into the person you were made to be, made in the image of God, being transformed into His likeness until the day you see Him face to face and live in His presence for eternity.
What a remedy.
