Personal Matters
There are distinct periods in my life when I sense in an outstandingly clear way the sheer goodness of God and enter into a space of deep stillness. This can be in prayer, at the kitchen sink, after a time of ministry or almost anywhere. At such times my awareness of God’s rest is indescribable. At other times however I am a very restless person – through disturbed sleep, by news about sin in the Church, over the seeming inability of our society to respond to the presence of God and so on. I am sure many of us find it hard to truly rest in the Lord.
When I receive emails from folk proudly telling me they are, to quote, “VERY busy”, and when I observe the confident busyness of churches I know that we are in deep spiritual trouble. The issue of entering into the pure and pleasing rest of God concerns our spiritual maturity, and the contradictions that plague my own life speak of a ‘ME’ that is deeply divided. Today the Lord is seeking to impart to his people his own rested state of mind.
Rest from the Beginning
When God finished creating all things he declared them to be “very good”. The seventh day of creation became one that was a blessed, holy time of resting from all the work he had done (Gen1:31- 2:3) The deep satisfaction that the LORD enjoyed on the Sabbath day was a confident contentment in his own labours for was supremely assured that his purposes for creation would be accomplished. Reassuming his throne in heaven on the seventh day God knew he would lead creation to its appointed goal of sharing in his own restful life. The common human experience however is not rest but restlessness; such is the fate of the wicked.
Restless
“But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”” (Isaiah 57:20-21 ESV). Nothing can satisfy a restless conscience, no amount of hard work, no volume of wealth, no intensity of sensual experience etc. can lead to the perfect peace for which we were all designed. Stripped of the holy and blessed presence of God, the fallen conscience cannot rest in any of its own works. Only a sharing in the absolute goodness of God can set our consciences free from their inner agitation. Such restlessness is even the case amongst God’s people when pleasing ‘ME’ rather than Jesus is at the centre of life.
The Church of today is full of those spiritual strivings which preachers of earlier days would call “works righteousness”. Many leaders are obsessed with numerical and financial growth, and show little insight into their own troubled inner lives. Very few amongst us can speak with authority about a life at rest with God. The warnings of Hebrews are true of us, “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:18-19 ESV) The “obedience of faith” that alone can bring rest to our hearts is to believe in the power of the gospel (Rom 1:5,16) This means to have faith exclusively in the work of Christ and to cease from all self effort. Such a spiritual shift is a state of revival.
The Rest of God and of Christ
The Jesus of the Gospels is never reactive, never striving and offers those who “labour and are heavy laden” his rest (Matt 11:28). The authority that accompanies Christ’s words and the infallible power in his miracles reveals that he constantly inhabits the holy and blessed Sabbath realm of his Father. All Jesus does radiates a quality of complete goodness. The unique exception to Jesus’ own experience of the sheer goodness of God is the cross.
When Christ cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), he is quoting from the first verse of Psalm 22, which goes on to say, “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” In paying for our sin Jesus has entered into the torment of the lost who “have no rest, day or night” (Rev 14:11). Immersed in the evil of hell the pure conscience of Christ is totally disturbed until the wrath of God he bears has totally destroyed all the power of evil. Then the great cry of triumph, “It is finished” (John 19:30) assures us that God’s own conscience has once for all been satisfied in his dealing with the rebellion of man. Raised and glorified, Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God dwelling in perfect peace for us (Heb 1:3).
Sharing the throne of heaven Christ has reached the assured place of intercession where he knows that all of his requests will be answered by the Father. The kingdom will come, God’s will shall be done on earth as in heaven. Over the throne of God and the Lamb is the covenant rainbow of grace and before it is a sea as still as glass for every opposition to God’s rule has been overcome forever (Rev 4:3; 15:2 etc.). The unlimited Sabbath rest has been reached for us by our Saviour in whom the work of Father, Son and Spirit has reached that goal of supreme goodness planned from the beginning (Rev 20:6). God is wholly self-satisfied and filled with joy at his finished work of redemption.
Enter the Rest
In this “new creation in Christ” there is no possible wrath and no cause for restlessness (2 Cor 5:17). Nothing needs to be done to enter into this still place, and only unbelief in the goodness of the work of salvation cuts us off from the experience of the rest of grace (Heb 3:12-13). It is solely God’s good work to impart to us an awareness of his own sheer goodness and the sense of restfulness that this surely brings. Such creative power belongs to God alone; ““For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). Please allow the power of the cross to bring you into rest from all your own labours through putting the wretched restless ‘ME’ to death. God‘s place of rest awaits those all who “humble and contrite in spirit, and tremble at his word” (Isa 66:1-2 cf. Matt 11:29).
Conclusion
There is nothing greater than to sense the Father resting in the absolute goodness of the work of the Son in the Spirit. Only such a revelation can overcome the divided restless ‘ME’ and the hyperactive Church culture which surrounds us. I have a tremendous awareness that it is God’s pleasure to have his “Spirit of glory…rest on us” (1 Pet 4:14); in this blessed and holy state is found the spiritual shift we are all seeking. To embrace such a transformation requires nothing less than a death to pleasing ‘ME’ with all my moral and religious works. Faith alone in Christ alone is the sole way forward, something that only the one seated in heaven can impart.