Bible Study on Malachi - Part 9, Summary/Two Key Ideas

This lesson focuses on two key ideas from the closing verses of Malachi - the ”Book of Remembrance” and the coming “Sun of Righteousness."

First, people sent me some questions about the “book” spoken of in Malachi 3:16, which seems to be a list of believers, those who fear God and esteem Him and His name. Is it a literal book? What more do we know about it? Most important of all, how do we know that our names are written in this book, sometimes also called the “Book of Life”?

The second key idea we will look at, the coming of the Sun of Righteousness, helps us with that last question, as it points us, not to ourselves and our feeble efforts, but to Jesus and His righteousness, given to us as a gift, by which we are counted as righteous in God’s eyes.

In an earlier lesson, I gave a list of Scriptures that point to this book or record kept by God. I have found still more of these Scriptures, so I will list all of them again. I will refer only to a few, but you can look at all of them for more detail, if you choose. They are: Exodus 32:32, Psalm 9:5, Psalm 56:8, Psalm 69:28, Psalm 87:6, Psalm 139:16, Isaiah 4:3, Ezekiel 13:19, Daniel 7:10, Daniel 10:21, Daniel 12:1, Malachi 3:16, Luke 10:20, Philippians 4:3, Hebrews 12:23, Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:13,15, and 21:27.

God is God. He knows all things. He does not need a literal book to remember who His believing people are. God could create such a book in an instant if He would choose to; and maybe there is such a book. If you could link all computers on earth into one great super computer, God would still know infinitely more, though. Many think that the references to a book is a picture-image way of assuring us, as humans, that God never forgets us. He knows each of us by name and will take care of us, in this life and in the eternal life to come, as He has brought us to faith and keeps us in that faith in Him.

We can be sure that God keeps His promises to us. God had a plan to rescue us from the consequences of sin even before the world was created, and He has kept that promise, in the coming of John the Baptist and then His only Son, Jesus, as Malachi predicted. It is hard to understand and imagine, but Revelation 13:8 speaks of our names being written in the book of life of the Lamb, Jesus, before the foundation of the world. This image of being “in the book” is intended to give us comfort and strength, as we follow our Lord. In Luke 10:20, the disciples were excited about what they were able to do on a missionary trip; but Jesus tells them, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” That most important gift of God gives us joy and will help us through the greatest times of trouble that we face in this life (as Daniel 12:1 says), and opens heaven to us when we die. (See Revelation 21:27, for example.)

Psalm 87 gives us a description of God’s personal care for us and his calling us to be in Zion, the city of God - one of the names for heaven. God speaks of five different nations, all of which were enemies of God’s people, representing all the people of earth. Even out of such nations (or any nation) God will bring people to a new birth and trust in Him. God “records” and “registers” them as His people. That is what has happened for us, too, as we have been brought to faith.

But, how do we know our names are really in the book of life? Here is where we must simply trust the Scriptures and our Lord Jesus and what He says and has done for us. In Acts 16:31, Paul and others tells a jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” We hear the same message in John 3:16-18 and other places. God also gives us assurance in our baptism. The jailer not only believed; but he and his whole household were baptized. Jesus said that we all need to be “born again” to a new life. That happens through the “living and abiding Word of God” which tells us of Jesus and brings us to faith in Him (1 Peter 1:18-21), but also through that Word, connected with water in Baptism, as the Holy Spirit works faith in us (John 3:3-6). “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” says Mark 16:15-16.

See what John says in 1 John 5:11-13. “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life... I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” What wonderful words! That means that if you are reading this today, trusting in Jesus and His gifts to you, your name is written in the book of life. There is no question about it.

Some of the passages about the book of life do indicate that it is possible to fall away and be “blotted out” of the book. However, the Scriptures also promise us that God will not easily let us go; and he will not throw us away. Listen to Jesus in John 10:27-30: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” In theory, we could climb out of God’s hand and drift away from and reject Jesus and keep on rejecting Him, in unbelief, and be lost eternally; but again, God loves us. In the parable of the lost sheep, He is pictured as going out after us and seeking to bring us back. Every single one of us is important to Him (Luke 15:1-7).

God also gives us His channels of grace, His means of grace, by which to bring us to faith, but also to keep us in faith and close to Jesus our Savior. As we need to keep eating to live, so we need to keep receiving God’s nourishment for our life in Him, too. There is the Word of God, which we are using right now, and all that He keeps saying to us. (See John 8:31-32.) We are baptized only once, but there is the ongoing strength of our baptism, as we remember who we are as God’s people. (See Romans 6:3-11.) There is the ongoing blessing of the Lord’s Supper, which we can receive again and again, as Jesus Himself comes personally to us, and we receive Him and His forgiveness and strength. (See 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.) There is confession and absolution, as we recognize our sins and repent of them and hear and receive God's forgiveness. (See 1 John 1:7-10.)

Along with all of this, we remember the other great message of the closing words of the Book of Malachi. Our hope is not in our own efforts, in our attempts to be better and better until we are good enough for God. Our hope is in God’s coming to us and rescuing and purifying us and turning our hearts, so that we are counted as acceptable to God by faith.

In the very first mention of the “book” of life in Exodus 32, many of God’s people had rebelled against God and built a golden calf to worship, instead of God. Moses pleads for forgiveness for the people, and even suggests that maybe his name could be blotted out of the book in order to help rescue some of the people (Exodus 32:32-33). That will not work. Here and in other places, it is clear that none of us can do enough to rescue even one other person, spiritually, by what we do. (See Psalm 49:7-9.) Paul has the same idea as Moses in Romans 9:1-3, but knows that will not work. Only the Lord Himself can do the “washing” and “cleansing” of His people, so that they are “recorded for life” (Isaiah 4:2-4).

That is exactly what Malachi predicts will happen, as we have heard. A messenger, John the Baptist, would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and would come to prepare the way. Then the Lord Himself, our Lord Jesus, would come and do His saving work for us. John the Baptist sees Jesus and announces, “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). It is “the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27), because only Jesus, God who became man for us, could be perfectly righteous in our place and pay the price for all of our sins on the cross to ransom and rescue us. Only God could do that, as Malachi calls Him, “the Sun of Righteousness," comes with “healing” for us (Malachi 4:2). See also promises like Jeremiah 9:23-24 and Jeremiah 23:5-6. We are not righteous, but “The Lord is our righteousness.”  

Our names are in the book of life, not by our own work and goodness, but through the work of Jesus, the Sun of Righteous, for us. See the “righteousness of God," by which we are saved by faith, by God’s grace as a gift, in Romans 3:21-28. Remember that even faith itself is a gift of God, not our own doing, as Ephesians 2:8-9 says. The only boasting we can do is in God and the wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption of Jesus for our benefit (1 Corinthians 1:27-31).

See Romans 10:1-4, where Paul says that many of his fellow Jews are ignorant of the righteousness of God, from God, that comes only through Jesus, and are “seeking to establish their own” by their own efforts and deeds. That will not work. The righteousness from God simply comes “to everyone who believes.” For, as Romans 10:8-9 says, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the Word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Or as Romans 4:3-8 says, such “faith," as a gift of God, “is counted as righteousness” for us.

Look at one last passage, from Philippians 4:2-3. Paul is encouraging two women in the church to agree with each other in the Lord; and he asks others to help them settle their dispute, whatever it was. They were obviously not perfect people, as none of us are; and yet Paul says that their “names are in the book of life.” How comforting it is for us, too, not to have to trust ourselves and our efforts, which always fall far short of perfection. We simply live by faith in Jesus, trusting His perfect work already done for us.

If you ever have doubts or questions, as many do at times, listen to these and similar Scriptures of hope for us. If others are struggling, these Scriptures can help them, too. Our names are written in the book in heaven and our future is secure, not because of our greatness or our great faith, but because of Jesus and what He has done perfectly for us. Our faith is not in ourselves but in Jesus. He is our solid Rock and Foundation for our future, now and forever.