To the disciples, much about Jesus’ coming Kingdom would be learned through these secretive parables (Matthew 11:34-35). They understood that for a period of time, imposters would exist alongside the true followers of Christ, like a field of wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-31). But, by the end, the Kingdom of Christ would tower over all the kingdoms of the earth, like a Mustard tree in the master’s garden (Matthew 13:31-32). And, at the end of the age (As Malachi predicted), all who are in Christ would be separated from the wicked, like good and bad fish caught in a dragnet (Matthew 13:47-52). 

From Malachi’s Eden to Matthew’s Jerusalem
As we begin, I want to reinforce two tremendous truths that have revolutionized my study of eschatology. 1) Most of the “end-time” events have already occurred in the past. They truly were future events to the men who described them and wrote them down. But, for us, most of these events have already occurred. 2) Jesus came to earth twice in the first century. The first coming was physical and incarnational. This is where He rescued His people and delivered them from their sins. The second coming was spiritual and covenantal. This is where He rained down judgment upon apostate Judah for her crimes and rebellion.
We know this because Malachi prophecies there will be two specific first-century “comings” of the Lord. His first coming will be a physical coming, where He rescues those who feared the Lord and esteemed His holy name (Malachi 3:16). This includes all those who repented and followed Jesus under the guidance of John, those who repented under the ministry of Jesus, or those that believed in His name in the earliest days of the Church. God saves those men and women by allowing His one and only Son to undergo the punishment they deserve (alluded to in Malachi 3:17) so that He can declare them righteous, and distinguish them from the wicked (Malachi 3:18). This certainly has already occurred and is the very Gospel of our salvation today.
The second first-century “coming” of Christ, described by Malachi, is a spiritual act of judgment against the covenant rebels in Judah. While Jesus’ physical body remained in heaven, seated upon His throne, Malachi tells us that He would bring a fiery judgment that none of that generation could endure. Of that “coming”, Malachi tells us several things:

“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? – Malachi 3:2
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment – Malachi 3:5a
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts. – Malachi 4:1-3

These final verses from chapter 4 bring the entire theological point together. Jesus is coming in two different ways to deal with two very different kinds of people. For the repentant, He will rise from the dead bringing healing to the broken, and He will endow the joyless with never-ending delight. He will welcome His people into the garden of His presence. He will graft them into His covenantal and life-giving vine, even while cutting off the apostate Jews so that neither root or branch remains. Unto that wicked and adulterous generation, the Lord would not come in peace, but with a flaming sword. He will turn them back into the dust from which He made them and put them, like the serpent, under His people’s feet (c.f. Romans 16:20). That is the picture Malachi is painting.
This is also the eschatological picture the whole Bible is painting. Adam was created to live with God, have a legacy and dominion, feast upon the life-giving tree, and put the enemies of God under his feet. Instead, Adam chose to sin, which meant he lost his relationship with God, he was chased out of the garden with a fiery sword, he was banned from the tree of life, his progeny was put under the curse, and his dominion was turned into slavery, and his body was subjected to sweat, blood, and toil until it returned again to the dust.
This is the subtle Edenic picture Malachi is painting for Jerusalem. Like Adam, the Jews were going to lose their favored status as God’s firstborn son (Exodus 4:22-23). The nation would be removed from the garden land of Judah, set ablaze by the sword of His wrath, incapable of consuming the life-giving vine, their legacy finished, their national sovereignty turned to full-on slavery, and their bodies turned to ash so that God’s true people would tread them underfoot.
What Malachi is alluding to is that fallen Jerusalem will fare no better than fallen Adam. But, redeemed Jerusalem, the Israel of God (Galatians 3), who is the church that Jesus would save unto Himself, would be brought back into relationship with their creator by the working of the true and better Adam (1 Corinthians 15). Because of Jesus, the Church will have a lasting legacy that will bless all the families of this world (Genesis 12:1-3) and she will have a never-ending dominion that extends His Kingdom to the ends of the earth (Daniel 2:44-45). Because of Jesus, the Church will be a tree planted beside the fount of living water (Psalm 1; John 7), she will be grafted into the life-giving vine of His love (John 15), to produce all kinds of fruit for His glory (Galatians 5; Revelation 22:1-2), that will also provide healing to the nations. And, instead of returning to the dust in curse, eventually, these people will be given new heavenly bodies (1 Corinthians 15) to live with their true Adam King, forever in a garden city (Revelation 22).
When Malachi speaks of two very specific outcomes, happening to two very different kinds of people, that are brought about by two very different kinds of “comings”, he does two very important things. First, he is simply picking up on the massive Biblical themes that were woven throughout God’s amazing story. The children of the serpent (everyone who rejects God’s messenger), will receive the curses of the covenant (Matthew 23:33; 1 John 3:8-10). The children of God, made alive by the rising Son, will receive every single one of the covenant blessings (Ephesians 1:3). Second, he is rooting the fulfillment and inauguration of all the Old Testament’s eschatology to the two first-century comings of Christ.
Knowing these truths, mentioned above, will help us as we transition from the last book of the Old Testament to the first book of the New Testament. There, we will examine what Jesus, Himself, says about the topic of eschatology, and how that applies to Jerusalem, which will take us several weeks to cover. Today, we will begin with some introductory observations.
From Eschatological Malachi to Jesus as True Israel
The first portion of Matthew’s Gospel details how the coming Christ will bring healing to His people, as Malachi predicted. What Matthew uniquely contributes to this story is that Christ would do that work by replacing Israel. For instance, in Matthew 1, Jesus will come from the prototypical line of David and Abraham, which makes Him not only a candidate for the Jewish throne but the one who will bring the Abrahamic blessing to the nations (Galatians 3:16). This makes Him true Israel, but let us keep going.
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God enriched my life not only with friends like Dorie Howell, but with friends of so many different nationalities and diverse races.  My life has been etched time and again with such diversity.  But the most important etching in my life and on my heart is that of my most beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I must have seen it a thousand times over, my name, Helen Louise, etched in glass on a flower vase.  Above my name is etched a small songbird with flapped wing sitting on a small branch.  It sits holding pale artificial flowers on the sink in my bathroom.  Every time I wash my hands, wash my face, put on makeup, comb my hair or push it into its waves after shampooing, I see it. And yet this morning, it was more than seen.  It was a reminder of a very dear friend who gave it to me as a gift.
That dear friend was Dorie Howell, a graduate student I met in college my freshman year as an undergraduate student at our Christian college founded by an Irish Presbyterian minister in Columbia, South Carolina.  Dorie was one of those delightful people who was always cheerful—one might even call her the “life of the party.”  She was quite tall, while I was so short.  We only knew each other there for a year and a half, as she returned to California to begin teaching kindergarten.  Through correspondence, our friendship grew and became punctuated with visits to California, to her family’s cabin in Colorado, and her visits to her sister and family in St. Louis.  Dorie was also a twin whose sister was named Lorie.  Dorie and Lorie.  Another interesting fact about Dorie was she and her sister, as toddlers, were babysat by Marilyn Monroe when she was still Norma Jean before becoming a star.
Our friendship continuously grew and endured many years until God took her home following a long bout with ovarian cancer.  I had visited her in California less than a year before she died sensing what the outcome of her medical battle would be.  One day while at work, I telephoned her in the hospital from my office when one could charge calls to one’s home telephone.  I felt compelled to call her and to attempt to encourage her.  That very day a few hours later when I returned home, her twin sister telephoned me to let me know Dorie passed and was with the Lord.  I was so struck that I called her only a few hours before her departure.  God has a way of letting us know what we must do and when.
This morning seeing that etched vase reminded me that not only was my name etched on a vase; my friend remains etched on my heart.  So many years later, I recall so many conversations and experiences with this dear friend and sister-in-Christ—conversations and experiences that not only formed a deep and rich friendship but edified us both in the Lord.  We both shared a deep and rich love for our mutual Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We both sought to serve Christ by making Him known to others.  Dorie, remaining single, loved children and gave them her all teaching kindergarten in a Christian school.  She served Christ in many other ways as well through her church and in community service to many.  She was completely spontaneous in talking about God.
A short while after her death, I was informed she made travel arrangements for me and others to go to California to attend her memorial service.  So a plane ticket was made available to me to go, and I was able to spend time with her twin sister, Lorie, and her family with whom I remained in contact all these many years after Dorie’s death.  A healthy friendship is not exclusive; it invites many others into it.
As I am reminded of this very dear friend who remains etched in my heart, along with so many more of diverse nationalities and races, my thoughts take me to our relationship with Jesus Christ and our Triune God.  Just as my name is etched on a vase and a dear friend is etched on my heart, what about Jesus Christ?  Is He etched on our hearts? Biblically, the word “etched” does not appear.  But there are not a few references to Christ being written on our hearts:
“You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3: 2-3).
As a Christian woman, I have many very dear friends etched on my heart.  In fact, the plaque to be placed on my grave reads “Devoted daughter and friend.”  I want to leave behind the legacy that my parents and my friends were most important to me.  God enriched my life not only with friends like Dorie Howell, but with friends of so many different nationalities and diverse races.  My life has been etched time and again with such diversity.  But the most important etching in my life and on my heart is that of my most beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The etched vase that caught my attention this morning reminded me, yes, of a very dear friend; but it also reminded me of an eternal relationship that matters the most in life and for eternity.  Is He and His sacrificial death on the cross for you and His resurrection etched upon your heart?
Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.
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The FV position can be summarized this way: The certain kind of faith that God gives in the justification of a sinner is a living, active, and personally loyal faith. Since faith itself includes the necessary virtues for justification, faithfulness to the gospel message does not require upholding the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s active obedience. The basis for the sinner’s final justification is perseverance in the covenantal responsibility to maintain an obedient faith—those who do not, will be cut off.

Between the years 2001 and 2004 a group of writers within the Reformed community banded together forming a theological system and movement known as the Federal Vision or Auburn Avenue Theology.[1] Under the rubric of covenant theology, this movement has posited a false dichotomy between Biblical and Systematic theology, redefining many confessional Reformed categories and terms. For our purposes, we will briefly explore and evaluate the teachings of the Federal Vision on the nature of justifying faith and the place of good works in the believer’s salvation.
In A Joint Federal Vision Statement, signed by the central proponents of the FV, a series of affirmations and denials are presented. The statement on “Justification by Faith Alone” reads,
We affirm we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. Faith alone is the hand which is given to us by God so that we may receive the offered grace of God. Justification is God’s forensic declaration that we are counted as righteous, with our sins forgiven, for the sake of Jesus Christ alone.
We deny that the faith which is the sole instrument of justification can be understood as anything other than the only kind of faith which God gives, which is to say, a living, active and personally loyal faith. Justifying faith encompasses the elements of assent, knowledge, and living trust in accordance with the age and maturity of the believer. We deny that faith is ever alone, even at the moment of the effectual call.[2]
In the affirmation section, standard Reformed language is employed. Justification is described as a forensic declaration, received by faith alone which is described as the hand gifted by God by which we are accounted righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ alone. In the denial, however, we find a clear presentation of the FV’s understanding of the nature of this justifying faith.
There are two important points to observe. First, the FV statement correctly denies that faith in God’s act of justifying the sinner can be understood as anything other than that which has been given by God. But when prompted as to what kind of faith justifies, and what is the kind of faith that God gives, the statement is unequivocal: justifying faith is “a living, active, and personally loyal faith.” For the FV, faith justifies not because only apprehends Christ but also because it obeys or because it contains Spirit-wrought sanctity and the virtues of love and hope. Faith is not merely apprehending and resting in Christ; but it also must be active, living, and loyal.
Here we notice that certain virtues are inculcated into the nature of the faith that God gifts into the sinner for his justification.[3] This certain kind of faith by which God justifies a sinner includes virtuous qualities. For instance, Doug Wilson writes,
So when we use phrases like “obedient faith,” others should just hear “new heart faith,” or “living faith,” or non-disobedient faith.” It should not be seen as a faith that has to perform a requisite number of good deeds so that it can earn its way unto heaven. Rather, obedient faith is the only kind of saving faith God gives.[4]
Because the FV generally denies the existence of merit, many fail to understand whether there is any real concern with the FV’s formulation. But the formulation is elusive. Wilson writes, “Obedient faith is the only kind that God ever gives, and when He gives it, this justifying faith obeys the gospel, obeys the truth, obeys His salvation. Faith that does not obey the gospel is not justifying faith.”[5] Wilson is able to deny that a sinner earns anything before God because he affirms that justifying faith is a gift from God, but the kind of saving, justifying faith that God gives to the sinner includes certain virtues.[6] Steve Schlissel writes, “Nothing in the Bible teaches a kind of faith that does not obey. Obedience and faith are the same thing, biblically speaking…To believe is to obey.”[7] Peter Leithart criticizes the Protestant doctrine of justification as being “too rigid in separating justification and sanctification.” Instead, Leithart proposes that justification and definitive sanctification should be viewed as the “same act” in God’s declaration of the sinner as righteous.[8]
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