Malachi 4:5 promises that Elijah will be sent before the great and awesome Day of the LORD. The New Testament explains the relationship between this promise and John the Baptist with unusual clarity. Luke 1:17 says before John's birth that he will go before the Lord "in the spirit and power of Elijah." Jesus later says that, if His hearers are willing to accept it, John is the Elijah who was to come, and in Matthew 17:11-13 He again identifies the already-come Elijah figure with John.

This does not require John to be Elijah literally returned to earth; indeed John denies being Elijah in that personal sense in John 1:21. Rather, he fulfills the prophetic role in Elijah's spirit and power: a bold prophet calling Israel to repentance before the Lord's coming. The fulfillment references in this record therefore accurately reflect an explicit New Testament interpretation of Malachi's promised forerunner.