As we come to the end of another year our minds often turn to starting fresh in the upcoming new year. We like the idea of a fresh start. We like the idea of being able to start over. We want a new start and there is something about a new year that offers that kind of hope to us. This year will be different last year. This time I am not going to fail where I failed before this. So I wanted to take a few lessons that will carry us through the end of year that can help start with a fresh faith and a new start with God as we look with hope for the new year.
Now you might find it strange where I am going to take our series of lessons from in God’s word. But I want us to find fresh faith from the book of Malachi. The reason this book is going to help us is because we are going to read about a people who belong to God, but a number of things in their lives have gone wrong. Because of what they are going through, the people are questioning God. In fact, the framework of the book of Malachi is different from other books in God’s word. In the book of Malachi you are going to read God making a statement to his people. Then the people are going to challenge or question what God just said. They are not going to believe what God told them. So then God is going to answer their questions. So this is a great series if you have been questioning God. This is a great series if your faith has been shaken. This is a great series if you have been needing a fresh start of faith.
Foundation of Fresh Faith (Malachi 1:1-2)
I want you to hear how the Lord starts this discussion. Look at what he says in verse 2. “I have loved you.” The Lord says that he loves you. We do not really have a good way to speak in the perfect tense like this sentence does. The point the Lord is making is that he has loved them in the past and still continues to love them now and going forward. What a start! You need to know this. God loves you and has always loved you. This is what God says about himself in many places in the scriptures. He is abounding in steadfast love.
Notice what the response of the people is in verse 2. “How have you loved us?” Don’t we do this? God says that he loves us and our response is, “Really?” We are not real sure about this. Are we skeptical of God’s love? Now I want to clarify what the people are saying. The point is not that there is complete disbelief that God has ever loved his people. The point is they are saying that they just don’t see it. You say you love us but I don’t see how you do. Now I want us to think about why they would say this because their reason is often the same as our reason. The people are going through some difficult times. We will see some of those difficulties as we read further into this book. But because life is not what they want, they are skeptical of God’s love. Where is your love? Or to say this another way: If you love us, then why is life going the way that it is?
God’s Proof: Love (Malachi 1:2-3)
Now God’s answer is complex but important. Now when we read verses 2-3 we can be confused by the point that the Lord loved Jacob but hated Esau even though they are brothers. But this is a summary of what we read in Genesis 25:23. God is saying that he chose them. Now I say “them” because you can see that Jacob represents the descendants of Jacob (which is Israel) and Esau represents the descendants of Esau (which is Edom) because of what we read in verse 3. Verse 3 shows that Esau stands for Edom because God had laid waste to his land and people. His heritage and inheritance are left to the desert jackals. So God’s answer is, “I chose you.”
God chose Jacob (Israel) when he was not supposed to be chosen. Esau was the older son. Esau should have been the one to receive the blessing and the birthright. But he received neither because God chose Jacob. Further, God chose Jacob before Jacob or Esau had done anything. This is the point the apostle Paul makes in Romans 9:11-13.
For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand — not from works but from the one who calls—she was told, The older will serve the younger. As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau. (Romans 9:11-13 CSB)
I do not have the time to get into a full explanation of this text. But I simply want us to see that the point God is making, which Paul confirms, is that God chose Israel. Now I want us to think about how God answered the people’s objection. They are saying, “We don’t see your love. How have you loved us?” God’s answer is simple. “I chose you.” “I chose you when you did not deserve to be chosen.” God does not point out all the blessings the people had received that day. God does not show them all that he did for them last week or last month. God goes to the very beginning. God goes to their covenant election and his faithfulness to them.
I think an appropriate illustration of what God is saying is found in the concept of adoption. By a couple parents choosing to adopt a child, this permanently shows the parents’ love for the child. If the adopted child said, “How have you loved me?”, the parent could easily say, “Because I chose you. I didn’t not choose others. I chose you.” This is what God is saying to Israel. Because God chose Jacob, he chose all that would come from him. So you can know God’s love because he chose you and not another. You were specifically chosen because of my love for you. What I want us to see is that God says the same thing to us when we are in doubt or are looking for God’s love. Listen to what the apostle Paul says.
For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. (Ephesians 1:4-6 CSB)
Did you see that God has given the same answer to you? You know that God loves you because before the foundation of the world, before you were born, and before you did anything good or evil, God predetermined to have a people that he would adopt to be his children according to his grace and because of his love and good pleasure. What a way to start a letter! You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. How have you blessed us? How have you loved us? You know you are blessed and loved by God because determined beforehand to have a people and you are those people. You have been adopted by God. Just as an adopted child can always know the love of the parent because of the choosing that happened in the adoption process, so we can always know the love of God because of the choosing that happened in our adoption process.
Here is why this is an important display of God’s love so that we know his love for us. God’s faithful love to us does not change by our circumstances. If life is hard, we still know we are chosen. When life does not make sense, we know that we have been adopted to be his children. No matter what happens we know we belong to him.
God’s Proof: Judgment (Malachi 1:4-5)
God finishes his answer in verses 4-5. God says you will know my love because I made a promise to judge the wicked. Those who do not belong to God will be judged. Now notice what God observes. People think that they will be able to overcome God’s will. They think they can succeed against God’s will. But God says that will not happen. They think they can rebuild and be strong but God will never allow it. God always judges the wicked. God always judges those who do not belong to him. God always judges those who are not his children. God always judges those who he has not adopted. God judges those who are not his sheep.
Three Steps For Fresh Faith
So I want us to see three things that we need to have fresh faith for the new year. First, God has loved you and you can see it. You can see God’s love for you in the past, in the present, and in the future. Understand that your election and your adoption was accomplished at the cross. If we ever question God’s love, God always points us to the cross as the display of his overwhelming love for you. If you never see anything else in your life (though I know you can see God’s hand of love and blessings in your life), see God dying for you to adopt you as the proof of God’s love.
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 CSB)
Your sins cannot be too great for the love of God and the blood of the cross because God determined to do this for you before the creation of the world and carried it out before you were even born.
Second, God wants us to see and understand the depths of this love that he has for his people. This is a constant point that God makes all throughout the scriptures. Listen to what Paul wants for the Christians in Ephesus.
…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV)
Why does God want you to know the depths of his love for you, which surpasses knowledge? Paul says having this comprehension is what is going to transform your life to be more like him. The need to know God’s love in your life is crucial. This is what God is reminding the people through Malachi. You must see my love for you that has been constant toward you so that you will look to me and be changed.
Finally, do not lose your awe of God’s election and adoption. God does not start by telling the people what to do. God does not start with all of their failures. God starts by proclaiming his faithful love. God starts by proclaiming that he chose us and adopted us to be his children. Listen to how John extols this truth.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1 ESV)
Do you see the kind of love God has shown to you? You are called children of God. Children of God is what we are. Never lose your awe that you are a child of God. If we do not know who we are, then we are going to have a destructive, broken life. Everyone wants to be chosen. No one wants to not be picked. God picked us to be his children. Will you respond to his love?