WE WHICH HAVE BELIEVED DO ENTER INTO REST

"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."  (Hebrews 4:9) 

It is very rewarding, after spending hours mowing and trimming the grass, edging around the walkways, and mulching the flower beds, to sit down with a cold drink in hand and rest from one's labors.  It is good also, after feeling the stress and activity of one's job all year long, to just get away on vacation and relax for a time.  Such times of rest are all the sweeter to us because we feel that we have earned them by our labors.  God has a different rest that He has promised to His people, though.

In the Old Testament (under the old covenant), God commanded the Israelites to cease from all their work and rest every seventh day of the week.  "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."  (Exodus 20:10, 11)  God asked man to honor Him and cease from his own labors for just one day out of seven, spending his time in worship of, and meditation on, his Creator.  Unfortunately, this came to be too much of a "burden" to Israel, and they found ways to do as they pleased on the Sabbath.  But, yes, God has a different rest that He has promised to His people.

In Paul's letter to the Ephesian church, the apostle outlines the victory that God has secured for us in Christ.  The writer emphasizes the finality and totality of that victory when he reveals that God has set His Son Jesus Christ at His own right hand, and has put all things under Christ's feet.  He is above all power, might, dominion, principality, and every name that is or can be named.  He has finished the work that His Father sent Him to do, and has now entered into eternal rest with the Father.  Sitting down with the Father suggests the finality of His labor - nothing more needs to be added.  The really astounding thing, however, is that God has placed us in Christ, and has set us down together with Him in His throne.  "But God...hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."  (Ephesians 2:4, 6) 

God identifies us with His Son.  Having been born again, we are now considered to be "in Christ," and He in us.  This means that as Christians, all that Christ did, we did as well.  Did Christ overcome sin?  Then we have overcome sin in Christ.  Was Christ crucified?  Then we are crucified with Christ.  Did Christ rise from the dead?  Then we, too, are risen to new life in Christ.  Did Christ defeat Satan, ascend up to the throne of God, and receive power and authority over all the forces of the enemy?  Then so, my friend, have we.  In fact, Christ is now a tree of life from which we draw all the fruits of righteousness.  This is the ultimate rest that God has promised to His people.  It is only when we have entered into this rest with Christ that we can live for Him.  In the natural, we work, and then we rest.  In Christ, we sit first, and then find the power to walk.  When God created the heavens and the earth, He worked six days, and then rested the seventh.  Man was created on the sixth day, so his first day was God's sabbath rest.

Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28-30)  It is exhausting trying to live the Christian life by one's own will and strength.  It is a yoke that we are not engineered to be able to bear.  We need a Savior every moment of every day.  It isn't just about honoring God one day a week.  It is a matter of devoting ourselves to God every day of the week.  It is learning to cease from doing things by our own strength, and letting God work through us.  "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."  (Ephesians 2:10)  There is nothing that we can add to the finished work of Christ.  It is merely a matter of standing on the ground that He has won for us, and not allowing the enemy to deceive us into thinking that it is not ours to occupy.  Faith is the victory!  It is no longer a question of overcoming sin and temptation in our life, it is a question of resting in the victory that is already ours in the Lord, and not giving it up.  It is we who have believed who enter into God's rest.  (Hebrews 4:3) 

It must be remembered that this Christian life is a progressive walk.  God speaks to us through His Word and reveals His nature to us.  As we behold the Lord more clearly, we also see where we are not like Him.  This brings up a decision on our part.  Either we will become offended at what we see, and refuse to receive the Lord's evaluation of us, continuing on as we were, but with a rift between our soul and the Father; or, we will humbly accept what our loving Father has shown us, and receive grace and mercy from Him to change a little more into His likeness.  We always find that the formula is the same, though.  We must learn to sit before we can walk or even stand.  All to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Hebrews chapter 3 echoes the 95th Psalm when it says, "To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."  (Hebrews 95:7b, 8a)  The comparison then is made to the children of Israel as they were wandering through the wilderness under Moses.  So many times when God spoke to them, they hardened their hearts and provoked God with their unbelief.  God says, "I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.  So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest."  (Hebrews 95:10, 11)  When we go to the mirror, we must be willing to correct whatever it is that we see needs done: whether it is to brush our hair, wash our face, or shave.  If we are not willing to make the changes, then it is futile to even look in the mirror in the first place.  And the Word of God is a powerful mirror that reflects the condition of our own soul.  It is when we see these things that we can then come boldly before the throne of grace, and find mercy and grace to help in time of need.  It is God Who is perfecting His will in us.  It is God Who is working in us to affect both a willingness to do His will, and the ability to do it.  The less we have to bring to God naturally, the greater the potential for what He can do in us.  We want to make serving God so difficult, but He has always intended it to be very simple.  "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."  (2 Corinthians 11:3)  It is we who have believed who will enter into His rest.

"For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not."  (Isaiah 30:15)