Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 5 (Malachi 1.6-14)

Conclusion
But you know, even if the priests offered up the best grain, the best lambs, and best bullocks, they still would not be ultimately good enough.
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10.2-4, ESV).
The most perfect spotless lamb here on earth could not even compare with the perfect spotless Lamb of heaven. God did not require of us what He was not willing to do Himself. He required our best, and He gave us His. Jesus, His only-begotten Son, came down and sacrificed Himself on the cross and rose again three days later. Christ shed His blood to reconcile us to His Father. Only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ can we enter into friendship with the Father. It is not by giving our best that we earn God's favor. In fact, we could never earn God's favor ever! It is all Christ and none of us. It is a trust, a deep abiding faith in Jesus, God's Son that reconciles us to God. "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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Romans 10.9-10, ESV).
Giving and doing your best is not something you do to earn God's favor. It is not something you do to keep God's favor. God cannot love you any less than He does right now. At the same time, God cannot love you any more than He does right now. Giving and doing your best is just simply what those who are madly in love do. It is what those whose love is fresh every morning do. And when you and I and the entire Body of Christ in the world love God afresh every morning the world will take notice and God will be glorified. "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts" (Malachi 1.11, ESV).