The Rest

2007-12-15 21:35

Rest means finishing all the work and being at rest. The rest in the old covenant that was given through Moses is not true one. The old covenant says about the rest, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates." (Exodus 20:9-10).

The rest in the old covenant is not true one, and so there is no comfortable rest in the old covenant. The seventh day Sabbath is not the end of six days. If the seventh day Sabbath passes by, the six days for work come again. Therefore, the rest in the old covenant is a copy of the true one; it's not true rest.

The Bible says about it, "do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, 'They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" (Psalms 95:8-11).

Therefore, the word of truth says, "As has just been said: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.' Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief." (Hebrews 3:15-19).

By his apostle says Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, 'So I declared on oath in my anger, They shall never enter my rest.' And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: 'And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.' And again in the passage above he says, 'They shall never enter my rest.' It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.' For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience." (Hebrews 4:1-11).

So God's rest is not in the old covenant but in the new covenant. It is written, "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17).

The eternal rest is not in the deeds of the law that was given through Moses but in the faith in grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ.

The Bible says about the true rest, "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.'" (Romans 4:4-8).

The true rest does not come through the righteousness of man but through the righteousness of God. Therefore, for anyone who puts off his self and puts on Christ, all his works are finished and the eternal rest comes to him.

It is written, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2). And also, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Man's rest seems like a rest, but he works again. God's rest is the eternal rest in which no one works. The Bible says about the true rest, "for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his." (Hebrews 4:10).

Therefore, the Bible says about the children who enter God's rest, "But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 'This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.' Then he adds: 'Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.' And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." (Hebrews 10:12-18).

Therefore, where God does not remember our sins and lawless acts any more and there is no any sacrifice for sin, there will be eternal rest with Christ. Amen. Thank you, Lord.