Cease, Desist, and Rest

Hebrews 4:9, ” There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.”

The word “remains” can be translated ‘reserved for’. The word remain is in passive voice also.

The word “rest” has its etymological roots in the Hebrew word “shabath.” Shabath means ‘to cease, desist, and rest.’

Here is my paraphrased version of Heb. 4:9,

“According to His promise and purpose in Christ, an inexhaustible power not from man or by man, of ceasing, desisting and resting has been reserved for those elected by grace.”

If this rest has been reserved in eternity for me in Christ by grace, and God doesn’t lie or arbitrarily change His will, then this rest has always been. Hebrews says Christ is our High Priest after the order of Melchisedec and not Aaron, Heb. 5:10.

His rest is. His rest has always been. He was and is the lamb slain before the foundations of the earth.

I am in His rest all the time. Rest from my dead works.

Dead works are works without true purpose. The purpose of something dead is not to live.

Good works are accomplished, performed, and lived by His faith in me! His faith or Him in me, not me. Good works galvanize global redemption and give the Father glory. Good works are not able to manifest in, by, or through me if I am not in His rest by grace.

Naturally speaking (not spiritually), Newton’s first law of motion states, “An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

His rest is more than Newton’s law.

If I am in His rest then I stay in His rest. If His grace compels me into rest then I am compelled into His rest and stay in that rest.

As I grow in His sanctification, I metamorphosize into the pattern of the Last Adam. In this process, I am growing from glory to glory over and over with no end. I am becoming me in Him. Paul says, “to reveal His Son in me.” As I become me, I no longer have to try to be me. I am sanctified spirit, soul, and body. I just am.

My keyboard is being sanctified each time I type the keys for this blog. The keyboard is being set apart to do and be what it was created and designed to do and be. As I type, you could say a good work is manifested. The good work being manifested would not be possible if the keyboard has not power. Its power is manifested when it is in its purpose.

An engine in a car is at rest when it is running. The engine does not try to run because it does not have to try to be an engine because it is an engine.

“Another gospel” not the “Gospel of grace, tells me, “I gotta do this. I gotta do that.” And if I don’t there is something wrong with me even though there is no condemnation in Christ.

In Christ, I only DO because I sincerely want to. Otherwise, it is a unfulfillable, daunting, predictable, merry-go-round, dead work orchestrated by “another gospel.”