The Healing Christ is the Messenger of God and the Angel of the Covenant

In the book of Malachi we see that Christ is the Healing One, and as such a One He is the Messenger of God, the living message from God, the Angel of the covenant, the Desire of the nations, and the Sun of righteousness.

The healing Christ is the messenger of God and also the living message from God (Mal. 3:1-3)! In His first coming Christ was the Messenger of God to bring God’s message to God’s people and to all the world. Also, Christ was the living message that He brought from God to people.

The healing Christ is the Angel of the covenant, coming to execute upon His people the covenant which He enacted through His death (Mal. 3:1; Matt. 26:28). Hallelujah for such a Christ!

The Healing Christ is the Messenger of God

In His first coming, Christ is the Messenger of God, and the message He brought from God was Himself as the living message.

If we read Mal. 3:1-4 and all the four Gospels we will see that Christ as God’s messenger came and lived out the living message from God to His people (and John the Baptist was His forerunner).

As the Lord Jesus traveled around Israel and as He spoke to the people, He ministered Himself into their being and He Himself was the living message from God. He also refined, adjusted, and purified the priests – this is why He frequently rebuked them in the Gospels.

In His second coming, Christ will also be the Messenger of God with Elijah as His forerunner (Isa. 40:3-5, 9-11; Matt. 17:11; Rev. 11:3-4).

The living message from God brought by Christ is what heals us, purifies us, refines us, and adjusts us! We need to receive Christ as the living message from God and be healed! Don’t reject the Healer and His healing!

Lord, keep speaking to us. Speak Yourself into our being, and be the living message from God to us. Lord Jesus, You are God’s Messenger and You are the living message from God! We love You. We love Your human living, Your speaking, and all the processes You went through!

The Healing Christ is the Angel of the Covenant

In Malachi 3:1 we also see that the healing Christ is the Angel of the covenant coming suddenly to execute upon Israel the covenant which He enacted through His death (Matt. 26:28).

In the night when He was betrayed and judged, the Lord Jesus established a new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20), and through His death on the cross, He enacted this covenant.

Now in His resurrection, Christ is the Guarantor and the Executor of the new covenant on His people.

Even though the new covenant was promised to God’s people in the Old Testament, they rejected the Lord Jesus and so we, God’s New Testament people, are the benefactors of God’s new covenant. We today can boldly pray,

Lord, be my life! Spread the laws of God and the law of life into my mind, emotion, and will! Lord, be my inward content! I claim You, Lord, to be my content so that I may live You!

We as believers in Christ enjoy all the bequests of the new covenant not based on our merit or because of us, but because Christ established the covenant in His blood.

Christ wrote the covenant, He enacted it, He comes along to guarantee and apply the covenant, and He Himself is the covenant! The New Testament was made by God to us that we may enjoy God!

We should not suffer spiritual poverty but enjoy all the riches of God as our bequests! Christ as the Angel of the covenant comes to make it real by assuring us that our sins have been forgiven and by dispensing the riches of the covenanted Triune God into us!

According to the new covenant, God is obligated to forgive us our sins (when we confess them) and to dispense Himself into our being to be our life, our law of life, and our everything as our inward content, so that we may be enabled to live Christ (see Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12).

Christ will come as the Angel of the Covenant

In His second coming, Christ will come as the Angel of the covenant to purify and refine the priests in Israel so that they may offer to God the proper sacrifice (see Mal. 3:2-4).

On the one hand, we enjoy Christ as the Angel of the covenant today purifying us, refining us, and making us His priests who enjoy the new covenant and minister the new covenant riches to others.

On the other hand, Christ will return to be the Angel of the covenant to the people of Israel, the repenting Jews left alive at His coming, and to make them His priests over the nations in the millennium age.

Christ will be like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap to His people to purify them, refine them, and prepare them to be priests to take care of all the nations.

How wonderful that we can enjoy this today, so that we may be prepared to reign with Him as kings in the millennium and in eternity!

Thank You Lord for the new covenant. We can now enjoy all that You are being dispensed into us. Lord, forgive us of our sins. Lord, dispense Yourself into us as our life and our everything. Apply all God’s riches to our being, and be our inward content. Lord, according to Your new covenant, be everything to us that we may live You today!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from portions in, Life-study of Malachi (msg. 1) and brother Minoru Chen’s speaking in this message, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 11 (entitled, Experiencing the Healing Christ in Malachi for the Lord’s Second Coming and the Consummation of the Age).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # It is by this blood of worth / The new testament was made; / For this better covenant, / ’Tis a sure foundation laid.
  # Your ministry, O Lord, / How excellent it is; / A better covenant, / And better promises; / Enacted on a better law. / Of such You are Executor.
  # A better covenant was made / With Thy dear blood in heaven; / By Thee this sure new testament / To Thy redeemed was given.
• Pictures credit: Mal. 3:1 (via online), and a friend’s picture on Facebook (for the blog).