Labor to Rest

“Let us therefore strive (labor) to enter that rest…” Hebrews 4:11

Sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it?  If you’re laboring you’re not at rest, right? Well, the kind of laboring I’m talking about here certainly isn’t childbirth!  This kind of labor involves renewing your mind to the truth of the gospel.   It involves taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and what He accomplished at the cross for all who believe.  This is the labor of entering into God’s rest.

What is God’s rest?  Hebrews 10:10 states, “whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” (emphasis mine)  Do you realize that God actually wants us to rest from our works.  Our dead works, that is.  In fact, God wants us to move on from the baby things such as repenting from dead works.  Hebrews 6:1, “therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works…”  Dead works are the things we do in our flesh to try to please God.  Christ has acutally become the sacrifice, once and for all time, to cleanse our conscience in this area (see Heb. 9:14).  So we see that we are supposed to move on from dead works and enter into God’s rest.  How do we do that?

By God’s grace, of course!  By God’s grace through faith, we can have relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  When that happens, we’re “in Christ”, and God sees and relates to us just as He does with Jesus.  Therefore, we don’t have to do anything to please God because He’s already pleased with us.  This frees us up to live a life at rest in our relationship with  God.

Let me put it to you this way:  Maybe you really wanted your mom or dad to be pleased with you when you were a kid, so you did things that you thought would please them.  Maybe you cleaned up your room every day, or did the dishes, or whatever else you can think of.  That’s a normal, human way we relate to each other.  We tend to carry that mentality over into our relationship with God (or lack thereof).  But God is different!  So we end up doing all kind of “things” (dead works) to please God or make ourselves feel righteous.  The truth is, Christ died to make you righteous and nothing you can do will make you more (or less) righteous, except believing (or not believing) on Christ’s finished work at the cross!  Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (emphasis mine)  Knowing and believing this truth produces freedom in your life.  Your conscience is free to believe you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21)  You are free to respond to the Lord and serve out of a pure heart of love, knowing He’s already pleased with you.

So lay down your dead works and labor to enter into God’s rest!  What are you waiting for???

image: Seavit Keawtavee/freedigitalphotos.net