God has not placed you under arrest only to be released on parole based upon rehabilitation and good behavior. Through Christ, He has placed you under a rest. He is the One who sets captives free. This is the reality and truth for you right now, even if you don't always feel as though you are experiencing such perfect peace and rest at all times. While the religious world loves to strike a "balance" ... and will try to regulate your rest based on regulations and law-like lifelessness planted in decrees and ordinances, we have been given something much better in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. It's God's grace—and it will bring internal and eternal peace when we embrace it. He died so we could live in it.


Fighting the good fight, running the race, and endurance seems to pushback at the Christian life being a rest but I know it is a rest. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThose things, and much more, are things we do "from" a place of rest, not to earn anything from God. As Paul said, "I labored more abundantly than all of them (the other apostles)... and yet not I but the grace of God which was with me."
DeleteFrom this, we can understand that we have entered into God's rest, and the things that we do are a matter of His grace at work in us.