I spent many years looking for the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5 & 6:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” KJV

I used to think this meant, at some point there would be a turning of flesh and blood fathers toward flesh and blood children that this would be a flesh and blood redemption outside of or in addition to the blood of Christ.

One day I finally came to realize that this promise/threat, is fulfilled in Christ: “And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.'” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” Hebrews 2:13.  Here The writer of Hebrews is quoting Isaiah 8:18: “Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.”

This not only speaks of Christ, and the children God has given Him, but also to us, who have seen and believe in the relational Lordship of Christ in His Body.

The Apostle Paul had children too – spiritual children. A careful rereading of the New Testament letters reveals that this spiritual parenthood was, and ought to be normal for the Church!  The Church is a new creation. Like the old creation, families are normal to creation, and parents and children are normal to families, no matter which creation we are talking about.

There ain’t no plan “B”!

Love!

Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.~   Mark 10:29-30 & Matthew 19:29

By Jay Ferris, originally posted May 25, 2011