The book of Malachi consists of a satiric conversation where God says, “You’re doing this wrong thing,” the Israelites reply, “What are you talking about? We’re not doing that,” and God says, “YES, YOU ARE, LOOK AT THIS EXAMPLE, NOW STOP IT.”

In the middle of the book, we have this exchange:

You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
– Malachi 2:17-3:4

They wanted the God of justice, but that’s one of those, “Be careful what you wish for,” situations. The God of justice was coming, and it would not be a pretty picture. He would remove their impurities, putting them through fire and scrubbing them clean, because their righteousness was no match for his, and it needed to be.

Who can stand when he appears?

No one.

With its echoes of Isaiah 40, as quoted in Mark 1 (Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”), this sounds like a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. But we find similar ideas about the coming of the God of justice throughout the New Testament (such as in Romans 1:18-2:11, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, and 2 Peter 3:1-13), so I think it’s fair to say that at least the concept applies both to Jesus’ first coming and his second.

The first coming is in the past. The second is the one we still have to worry about, and what are we supposed to do if no one can endure it when the God of justice comes?

After some more discussion of Israel’s sinfulness, the book of Malachi goes on to more fully answer the question about who can endure that day:

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.”
– Malachi 3:16-4:3

Who can stand when he appears?

The righteous who serve and fear him.

But being righteous is hard. Fallible humans fail over and over and over. And so Jesus came to do what we don’t and can’t, to be righteous, to let us be baptized into his life and death and resurrection and have his righteousness for our own if we so choose.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
– 1 John 4:13-19

Who can stand when he appears?

Me.

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