Resting in What Christ Has Accomplished
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. — Hebrews 4:9–10
God worked six days and rested on the seventh, not because He was tired but because the work was done. Hebrews takes that picture and applies it to the believer: there is a rest for the people of God, and to enter it is to rest from your works as God did from His. The works in question are not chores. They are the labours of self-salvation.
Rest is a posture, not a pause
This rest is not the weekend. It is the standing of a person who has stopped trying to earn what Christ finished. You can be at rest in the middle of a hard week and restless on a beach. The question is not whether your body is still but whether your soul has put down the burden of being its own saviour.
Why it is commanded
"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." Israel failed to enter the land through unbelief; the warning is that believers can fail to enter rest the same way - not by wickedness but by refusing to trust that the work is finished. Rest is obedience. Striving to earn is the disobedience.
Come to Me
Jesus put it more tenderly. "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." His yoke is easy because He carries it with you; His burden is light because He has already carried the heavy one.
Practising rest
- Begin work from acceptance, not toward it. Say so before you start.
- Keep a real Sabbath. Stopping is a weekly confession that God, not you, holds the world.
- When guilt rises, go to the cross, not to the to-do list.
- Sleep. It is the most honest admission that you are not God.
Resting in what Christ accomplished does not make a believer idle. It makes him free, and free people work better than slaves.