Christ, the Sun of Righteousness

In their suffering the Israelites cried out to God, yet once life grew comfortable they returned to empty ritual and offered blemished sacrifices. Such worship could never win forgiveness of sin, and so God sent Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement.

Malachi pointed to John the Baptist as the last prophet, the one who would announce Jesus at his first coming, and John rebuked a merely outward religion and called the people to repentance. Anyone who hears that gospel and still wavers between God and the world is like the Israelites who would not make up their minds when Elijah stood before them. Faith must be like the animals that part the hoof and chew the cud: drawing a clear line between good and evil, and continually searching the Word.

For God’s people who fear Christ, the sun of righteousness rises with healing in its rays, and they know true freedom, like calves let loose from the stall. Because Jesus’ coming into the world is itself the fulfillment of judgment and salvation, those who do not believe in Christ now will have no further opportunity. The faithful who hold fast to the end will share in the marriage supper of the Lamb, while the unbelieving world will face judgment in the fire of wrath.