Striving…to rest

I’ve been reading these chapters over and over, and as I do, I wonder, how much do we rest in Jesus?

The writer of Hebrews says,

Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.

Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9-11)

So many people still act as if they somehow have to prove themselves to God. For many, they think that God is pleased with that attitude.

But actually, God calls it sin. He calls it disobedience.

Why?

Because God’s work of salvation is already done.

Just as God rested after creating the heavens and the earth, when Jesus finished his work on the cross, ushering in the path towards a new creation for us all, he sat down on the Father’s side…and rested.

There are no more sacrifices he needs to make, unlike the priests of the Old Testament who had to continually make sacrifices year after year. When Jesus died on the cross, he cried out, “It is finished.”

And it is that rest that we are called to enter into. A rest instituted by Jesus because of what he did on the cross.

For us to say, “But I still don’t feel right before God. I need to do something more to prove myself,” does not please God, it insults him. And it spits on the cross of Christ and all he did for us.

We’re saying, “Jesus, I know you said the work of salvation is finished. But I don’t believe you. I have to do something more to earn the Father’s favor.”

It’s that kind of distrust in what God said that led to a whole generation of Israelites perishing in the wilderness. They never did enter the rest God had planned for them.

And so the Holy Spirit tells us,

Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. (Hebrews 3:7-8)

And again,

Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:11)

So let us not insult Jesus by telling him, “What you did is not enough.”

Because of what Jesus did, he is now the source of our salvation. (5:9)

What he did is enough.

So let us trust. And let us rest.

To do anything else is nothing short of disobedience.