"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXI

REST FROM WORKS.
Hebrews 4: 9-10 There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

Continuing with THE SECOND WARNING
Hebrews 3:7- 4:13.
Not to come short of the promised Rest.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God: taken in connection with what precedes about the seventh day or Sabbath, the rest is here called a sabbatism or sabbath rest. It is spoken of as remaining, with reference to the rest in Canaan. That was but a shadow and symbol: the real sabbath rest remained, waiting its time, till Christ the true Joshua should come, and open it to us by Himself entering it.

In verse 10 we have here another proof that the rest does not refer to Heaven. How needless it would be in that case to say of those who have died, For he that has entered into His rest, has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. The remark would have no point. But what force it has in connection with the rest of faith in this life, pointing us to what is the great secret of this entrance into rest--- the ceasing from works, as God did from His.

In God we see, as it were, two distinct stages in His relation to His work. The first was that of creation--- until He had finished all His work which He created and made. The second, His rest when creation was finished, and He rejoiced in what He had made, now to begin the higher work of watching the development of the life He had intrusted the creature with, and securing its sanctification and perfection. It is a rest from work which is now finished, for a Higher work now to be carried on. Even so there are the two stages in the Christian life. The one in which, after conversion, a believer seeks to work what God would have him do. The second, in which, after many a painful failure, he ceases from his own works, and enters the rest of God, there to find the power for work in allowing God to work in him.

It is this resting from their own work which many Christians cannot understand. They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation which leads to the neglect of the duties of life, and unfit for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls. What an entire misunderstanding of God's call to rest. As the Almighty, God is the only source of power and authority. In nature He works all. In Grace He waits to work all too, "if" man will but consent and allow this is done, by or through our being open to Him or being receptive of Him. Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work, because He works in us to will and to do. As Paul said of himself, "I labor, striving according to His working who works in me with might" ( literally "agonizing according to His energy who energizes in me with might" ). Entering the Rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort, and the yielding up one self in the full surrender of faith to God's Will and working.( This is what pleases God or faith )

How many Christians are there who need nothing so much as rightly to apprehend this word. Their life is one of earnest effort and ceaseless struggling. They do long to do God's Will, and to live to His Glory. Continued failure and bitter disappointment is their too frequent experience. Very often as the result they give themselves up to a feeling of hopelessness and dispare: it never will be otherwise. Theirs is truly the wilderness life--- they have not entered into God's Rest. Would that God might open their eyes, and show them Jesus as our Joshua, who has entered into God's presence, who sits upon the Throne as High Priest, bringing us in Living union with Himself into that place of Rest and of Love, and, by His Spirit within us, making the Life of Heaven a reality and an experience within us.

He that is entered into rest, has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. And how does one rest and cease from his works? It is by ceasing from self. It is the old self life that always insists upon proving its goodness and its strength, and presses forward to do the works of God and those that Jesus did during His ministry to Israel, in Israel. It is only in death that we rest from our works. Jesus entered His rest through death; each one whom He leads into it must pass through death. "Reckon yourself to be indeed dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."(Romans 6:11) Believe that the death of Christ, as an accomplished fact, with all that it means and has effected, is working in you in all its power. You are dead with Him and in Him. Consent to this, and cease from dead works. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, for they do rest from their labors." That is as true of spiritual dying with Christ as of the death in the body. To sinful nature there is no rest from work but through death.

He that is entered into rest has rested from his works. The ceasing from our works and the entering the rest of God go together. Read the first chapter of Joshua, and hear God's words of strength and encouragement to everyone who would enter. Exchange the wilderness life with your own works for the rest-life in which God works. Fear not to believe that Jesus came to give it, and that it is for you. ( This is what pleases God your faith.)

1. Not I, but Christ. This is the rest of faith in which a man rests from his works. With the unconverted man it is, Not Christ, but I. With the feeble and slothful Christian, I and Christ: I first, and Christ to fill up what is wanting. With increasing earnestness it becomes, Christ and I: Christ first, but still I second. With the man who dies with Christ it is, Not I, but Christ: Christ alone and Christ all in all. He has ceased from his work: Christ Lives in him. This is the rest of faith.
2. God said of His dwelling among His people, "This is My rest; here will I dwell." Fear not to say this too. It is the rest of God in His delight and pleasure In the work of His Son, In His Love to Jesus and all who belong to Him. It is the rest of Jesus In His finished work, sitting on the throne, resting in the Father's Love. It is the rest of our faith and love in Jesus, in God, In His Love.