Today we see what the Jews of Malachi's day could not see. With the benefit of looking back 2,400 years, we can see how God was getting ready to make His name great among the Gentiles (Mal. 1:11). From a New Testament perspective, we can see how God would use Israel's rejection of His love as an occasion to offer Himself to the whole world. Through Israel's failure to appreciate His love, God would show it to people of all nations.
A New Understanding. The New Testament has given us a new way to hear God when He says, "I have loved you." When we are inclined to answer back, "How have You loved us?" we have different information to deal with.
What the Old Testament Jews could not see was how far God would go to show His love for us. What they could not see is how emotionally, spiritually, and physically involved God would become to deal with the heartbreaking problem of our sin.
Today we can read several different New Testament accounts of the sufferings of One known as the Son of God. We can reflect on a Messiah who allowed Himself to be misunderstood, shamed, whipped, and scorned in a public execution outside the walls of Jerusalem. Today we can read about the anger of His Jewish countrymen, the flight of His friends, and the inhumanity of His Roman executioners.
The cross helps us realize that our most serious problems are not disease or bad environment. According to the New Testament, Christ died for our sins. It was on the cross that God showed He loved us enough to pay the price for the worst of our problems. It was there that He willingly suffered for our pride, our greed, our impulsiveness, our hatred, our sexual immorality, and our irreverence. On the cross, God offered a payment for our sins. In the words of the One who cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mk. 15:34), we hear the echo of our own eternal despair, as the eternal God tasted and swallowed death in our place.
How much does God love us? So much that the New Testament can say, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Through His suffering, we see the terribleness of our own rebellion. Through His pain, we see the extent of God's love for us.
But if we now have a new way to understand how God has loved us, we are also ready for a new understanding of how to accept His love.
A New Opportunity. While Old Testament Jews had many reasons to believe in the love of God, the cross of Christ went far beyond anything they had ever seen. When interpreted by the New Testament, the substitutionary death of Christ makes it clear that no one has to earn God's love. No one has to jump through moral hoops to earn His acceptance. No one has to solve difficult riddles to win His favor. No one has to live up to the legal requirements of the law of God. No one has to crawl on his knees to compensate for past sins. No one has to do such things, because God already loves us. He has already loved us enough to sacrifice His own Son on our behalf.
All that remains is for us to trust what He has done on our behalf. All we must do is believe that He has done for us what we could not do for ourselves (Rom. 4:5). The answer is found not by trying harder to please God but by trusting what Christ has done for us. God's love is offered to us in the form of a gift, not a reward (Eph. 2:8-10).
This is the salvation which while coming through a Jewish Messiah, and while being described by the mouths and pens of Hebrew prophets, is now offered freely to the whole world. It is the salvation described by a former rabbi who declared to Jew and Gentile alike, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.' For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved'" (Rom. 10:9-13 NIV). This is how much God loves us.
A New Identity. The New Testament tells us that those who accept God's love in Christ become new people in the eyes of God. All who admit their sin and believe in Christ as their "sin bearer" are given a whole new way of thinking about themselves. They become children of God.
Having met the condition of accepting Christ as Savior, these people are in a position to enter fully into the love and acceptance of God. This doesn't mean God will never be displeased, angry, or unaccepting of self-destructive and disobedient behavior. It does mean that these behaviors will be handled on the basis of perfect family love rather than the legal judgment and condemning rejection that awaits those outside of Christ.
There is much more in this good news that is often seen or felt by those who have been raised in Christian homes or in Western culture. Full, undeserved acceptance in the love of Christ is the most profound and reassuring truth ever written.
A New Example. As Christ surrendered to the pain of His cross in order to do the will of God, so we now are to surrender to the pain of whatever it takes to show our appreciation to God for all He has done for us.
The apostle Peter wrote, "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 'Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth'; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Pet. 2:21-25).
By being obedient to death, and thereby fulfilling the love of God for others, Christ showed us how to walk in the love that is now ours. He gave us His example at Gethsemane, which shows us that when it comes to living in and expressing the love of God, we need to be ready to say:
* "Not my will but Your will."
* "Not my thoughts but Your thoughts."
* "Not my ways but Your ways."
* "Not my feelings but Your feelings."
* "Not my power but Your power."
This doesn't mean that we discount or deny our own thoughts or emotions in the process of pursuing God. It just means that we can't trust our own thoughts or emotions to give us an accurate view of reality. Our own thoughts and emotions only give us a picture of what is happening in us. They help us to see why we must continually measure ourselves, not by ourselves but by the Word of God and the Spirit of His grace. We can trust our own heart only as it helps us to see our need of Christ, our need of His undeserved help, and our need of His undeserved love.
A New Enablement. The New Testament tells us that once we have been accepted into the love of God by putting ourselves totally at the mercy of Christ, we have a new life and source of strength. God's Spirit now lives within us to make it possible for us to walk in the love of God.
While we cannot feel the Spirit, we can see the evidence of His presence in us as we begin to yield to His control. As we surrender to the teachings of Christ, we begin to discover what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote, "He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).
When we're controlled by Christ rather than ourselves, the result is a growing evidence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). This Spirit-filled (Spirit-controlled) life is the alternative to the anger and avoidance that marks those who have not found their security in the love of God.
A New Sense of Balance. Those in Christ have a new balance between "who they are in Christ" and "how they are doing as His child." On a scale of 1 to 10, every child of God is a perfect 10 when it comes to his legal position in Christ.
Because the Bible says that the believer in Christ stands accepted by God in Christ, there is nothing that will ever separate this child from the love of God. The most important eternal issues are settled once and for all (Rom. 8:28-39).
Practically speaking, the story may be somewhat different. We may be only a meager "1" or "3" when it comes to our love, or joy, or peace. Yet we can still please God in all of our incompleteness and immaturity if we are growing in the attitudes Jesus described as "blessed" in Matthew 5:1-10. Having found legal and family acceptance through faith in Christ, we grow in that family relationship by letting Christ form a heart in us that is:
* poor in spirit, not arrogant
* sorry for sin, not proud
* meek before God, not stubborn
* hungering for righteousness, not for evil
* merciful, not critical and demanding
* pure in heart, not double-minded
* peacemakers, not dividers
A New Vision. Once we begin to see how much God has already done for us in Christ, we can begin to get a sense of what is yet ahead. Once we begin to see how much God has sacrificed and suffered for us, we have reason to say with the apostle Paul, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). If God's Son died for us, He will also live for us. Even now, Jesus assures us that while being present with us through His Spirit, He is in heaven preparing a place for us, interceding for us, and acting as our Advocate.
If God has used time to bring us to the end of ourselves, to bring us to Himself, to test our faith, and to show that His ability to forgive is greater than our ability to sin, then He will use eternity to surprise us continually with the immeasurable and inexpressible extent of His love for us!
For now, we must conclude that it is His love that causes Him to tell us to believe in His Son and to prepare expectantly for His any-moment return. It is because He loves us that He reminds us to love one another, to encourage one another, and to help one another walk a path that leaves no regrets.
It is God's love that encourages us to give up trying to trust Him in our own strength, and instead to believe that when we consciously surrender our bodies and minds to Him, He can live His life through us (Gal. 2:20; 3:2-5).
It is God's love that teaches us to believe that He calls us righteous, not when we successfully learn and obey all of His laws but rather when we believe in His Son (Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8-10; Ti. 3:5). He is our Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), Advocate (1 Jn. 2:1), and Savior (1 Jn. 4:14).
It is God's love that teaches us to feel our own weakness and helplessness. It is God's love that leads us to despair of helping ourselves. It is God's love that teaches us to have no confidence in our own flesh before discovering the liberating difference that Christ can be in us (2 Cor. 3:5; 4:7).
It is God's love that calls us to a higher way of living while also assuring us that He Himself can provide the spiritual enablement for us to grow into this new way of life (1 Th. 5:24).
