A Promised Rest
“So we conclude that there is still a full an complete “rest” waiting for believer to experience. As we enter into God’s faith-rest life we cease from our own works, just as God celebrates his finished works and rests in them.”
Of all the rooms in my house, my bedroom is my favorite. The walls are painted dark blue and all three walls have windows which let in a lot of sunlight. Sitting in there provides me a sense of calm. I am not a neat person by nature, but I work hard to keep it clean so I always have a space where there is some sense of order. We don’t have a TV in the room and where it is situated, it is removed from all the distractions of the house. When I am feeling overwhelmed or stress, I often go sit on my bed, close my eyes, and take a deep breath. There are no distractions here, no work to be done, and in this space my weary heart gets some rest.
I think it is important to have places we can go where we have a sense of peace and rest. Another place where I feel at rest is at the beach. The sound of the crashing ocean, the smell of the salty ocean, and the warmth of the sun washes over me and I physically feel all the tension leave my body. My favorite vacations are at the beach because I come back the most refreshed. And when I get out of work for the summer, the first place I go is the beach—setting the tone for a summer of rest.
Where do you go when you are looking for a place of rest? Between the busyness of life day to day or the weariness that comes with seasons of unrest, our souls long for rest. Our bodies, minds, and souls need rest. They were designed to be at rest, to be at ease, to be at peace. And I find it interesting that a place, a space, can provide a sense of rest to my soul. But the beach, or my bedroom, only provides me with a temporary, shallow form of rest. To be fully at rest, my soul needs some place greater.
God always planned for us to have a place where we could go to rest. He placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, which was a perfect paradise. But the garden itself is not what provided the peace and the rest. The garden was the place where Adam and Eve could be at rest in His presence. They walked with God daily. They were at peace with God. They knew no shame, no fear, no doubt, no worry. They knew God would provide everything for them and could enjoy the fullness of His presence.
Their disobedience cast them out of Eden. Eden, or this place of rest, was not longer theirs. They were separated from His presence and sin created enmity between us and God. We inherited a life of unrest, as man came to know separation from God and our peace with God was broken, therefore being at peace in our spirit was no longer possible.
But God, in His infinite mercy and compassion, still wants us to come back to Him. He wants to restore us to Him and God still very much wants us to enter into His rest. God’s promise of rest is still available to us today through the blood of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews points out that Scripture would not use the word today if it were not presently available to us.
So what does it take to enter into this rest that God promises? What does He require of us? Hebrews 4:3 says “For we who have believed enter the rest...” Simply believing. Faith.
John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life and Romans 10:9 says “if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe with your heart that God raised Him front the dead, you will be saved.”
The writer of Hebrews is reminding the Hebrew people that God has always had a plan for His people to enter into His rest and it has always been based on faith. The Israelites were offered this same gift, and they did not enter the rest God offered them because of their unbelief. They doubted God and turned to other gods while wandering in the wilderness. And God, in His anger, swore that they would not enter His rest. But God is a merciful, loving, and gracious God and He renewed this promised. “He again specifies a certain day—today” (Hebrews 4:7) and offers His rest to those who believe in Him and that His son Jesus is Christ our Savior. John 3:17-18 reiterates this point: “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
This is why the writer of Hebrews urges us to believe and not to harden our hearts. The Israelites missed out on God’s rest because of their unbelief. Hebrews 4:11 says “let us be diligent to enter that rest.”
Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:3) where we will be in His presence: at peace and at rest. The goal, the end of the journey, is to be at rest in Him. This is where we are meant to be. We have an eternal inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and invading, kept in heaven for [us]” (1 Peter 1:4). We will forever be at peace with God, resting in His presence if we accept Jesus in our hearts and acknowledge Him as Lord. When we die, we will enter that eternal rest. Hebrews 3:14 says “For we are mingled with the Messiah, if we will continue unshaken in this confident assurance from the beginning until the end.”
While the writer of Hebrews is speaking to our eternity, I also believe He is talking about rest that we experience during our time here on earth. We have peace with God, and His Spirit comes into our hearts. Our spirit is in His presence and we can know rest from our weariness. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
I think as believers we sometimes miss out on this rest because we still are striving. I believe the opposite of rest is striving. So often here on this side of eternity, we are striving to do good, to be good, to be successful, to earn God’s favor, or even to earn God’s love. And even as believers, many of us are caught up in our own sanctification, as if it is our job to sanctify ourselves. We believe and know that God has saved us from our sins, and that we would not get into heaven on our own accord, but we take on the burden of transforming ourselves. We strive to change our works forgetting that it Jesus who transforms our hearts. While the Bible says “work out your salvation” it also acknowledges that God is the one doing the work. And in striving, we end up, unwittingly, trying to be our own saviors. Jesus removed the yoke of the law, but somehow we find a way to put it back on. And legalism is wearisome burden to carry.
It is human nature to fall back into sinful patterns and unbelief. This is why the writer of Hebrews says “encourage one another daily so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.” Yes, it is a call to not harden your heart and miss out on eternity. But I also think he says this because we so easily put back on the burden of sin and/or the law. Paul warns New Testament believers many times not to fall into legalism, which is a form of unbelief. Hebrews 4:11 says “let us make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience” thinking that we, or something else, can do for us what only God can do. The Passion Translation of this same verse says “we must give our all and be eager to experience this faith-rest life, so that no one falls short by following the same pattern [of the Israelites] of doubt and unbelief.”
Are we at rest in Him, knowing that He, and He alone, will sanctify us? When we believe that His righteousness has been transferred to us, that we cannot earn a place in heaven, or earn God’s favor, when we realize that we have been declared righteous by the blood of the Lamb, when that grips us, when we get that revelation, we cease to strive. Hebrews 4:10 says “As we enter into God’s faith-rest life we cease from our own works, just as God celebrates His finished works and rests in them.” We rest in the finished work of the cross.
In Him, I am at rest; I am not striving. I am at peace with where I am at, knowing that He is transforming me. And I trust Him to refine me as only He knows how to do.
