Enter His rest
I’m asking you to bear with me please. I will answer the question about how God’s rest comes about. That is what this article is about. But first I have to set the scene and explain the background.
It is an amazing thing that if you ask any one Christian about where the New Testament starts the answer inevitably is “Matthew, isn’t it?”. Now of course that is correct. But what is not so obvious is that Matthew 1 is not the start of the New Testament. In the words of the writer of Hebrews, ‘a testament can only come into effect once the testator (in this case, Jesus) is dead’ (Hebrews 9:16-17).
During His entire earthly ministry, Jesus’s encouragement to the Jews was always to maintain and uphold the Law of Moses (Mark 1:44, Luke 5:12-14), albeit correctly and in faith, and to not simply follow rules because of the traditions that were passed down over the ages. His encouragement, amongst other things, was for the Jews – those who had the privilege of being counted under the Old Covenant – to understand that God’s way always allows not for an ignorant adherence to rules but rather for an understanding of which matters He deems more important over others.
Of those who merely paid lip service to the Word (commands), He quoted Isaiah in saying: These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me (Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8). Indeed, Jesus stressed the importance of the Jews’ hearts being turned being towards God (Matthew 19:7-9). We see that turning your heart towards God through faith and obedience is an immensely important theme throughout the whole Bible.
Thus, for the Jews of the time, to adhere to God’s Law was to pursue God’s ways and not to simply perform “dead works”, which is the following of a Law because of tradition. In one example Jesus was saying, ‘if you hear (if you understand) the way of God and do not ignorantly follow a bunch of rules, you will know that the health of a person is more important to Him than the celebration of a Sabbath day’ (Luke 13:15-17). What He was not saying was that ‘the Law is all a bunch of baloney. You need to just have faith’ as so many church-goers believe today on account of mainly Reformed and Charismatic teaching. In terms hereof the passages below makes Jesus’s teaching more apparent. (Top)
The Old Covenant
Under the covenant which God made with Moses – “the Old Covenant” (essentially the Old Testament) – God gave His Law through Moses so that they (the Israelites), in adhering thereto, may be in right standing with Him. As such, they could count themselves ‘in His camp’ on account of which they could expect His favour as a result. And so, the Law served as a means to honour God through faith as well as to bring Him sacrifices of glory and sacrifices for the atonement of their iniquity, sin and transgressions (collectively called “sins”) which were committed under the Law.
Yet, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (the Jewish Christians at the time) says that these sacrifices could not provide permanent atonement for the sins of the people (Hebrews 9:6-10). That’s why these sacrifices of atonement had to be repeated over and over again. Nor could they, as was ultimately vital to salvation, clear the consciences of the people of God (Hebrews 9:13-15 – a reference to the New Testament’s being “born again”). Instead, he says, only Jesus, who is the Son of God, being the ‘eternal High Priest‘ for those who believe, can do that. And, the good news (“the Gospel”) is that He has done that already by having entered the “heavenly tabernacle” (Hebrews 8:1-2, Hebrews 9:11) on behalf of those who are counted participants of His New Covenant. (Top)
The Law is a shadow
So, it is clear that the Old Testament Law with all its nuances and special rules is but “a copy” or “a foreshadow” (Hebrews 8:3-6) of what is experienced under the New Covenant. Jesus – the Lamb of God – willingly sacrificed His life and died for the Atonement of believers’ sins. Having rested our whole personalities on the appropriation of His atoning Blood through Faith, He has saved New Testament believers from eternal death inasmuch as the Israelites exiting from Egypt were saved from natural death by the appropriation of the blood of a lamb (or a goat) through faith.
Thus, Lamb, Blood, Faith, Atonement, Salvation in the New Testament is foreshadowed by lamb, blood, faith, atonement, salvation in the Old Testament. It is an allegory – the Old Testament represents in the natural realm that which is represented for believers in Christ in the spiritual realm today (Hebrews 2:14). Now becomes clear that the New Testament could not start without the shedding of Jesus’s Blood and His Atoning death on the cross.
While the New Covenant is a “better covenant” it does not in any way contradict the Old Covenant and the Law that was part of it (Matthew 5:17-19). As an example we see that Paul (NT) writes that ‘faith is made unto righteousness and confession is made unto salvation’ (Romans 10:9-10). While Jesus was hanging on the cross along with two sinners (still in the OT because He as the “testator” was still alive), both the criminal on His left and the criminal on His right mocked Him (Matthew 27:44, Mark 15:31) until one of them has a change of heart (he repents), believes, and calls out to Jesus as “Lord”. That remains the pattern for New Testament believers as well. Without repentance there is no faith no-matter how morally upright you have been all your life. That is why Jesus talks about His mission as “calling sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).
It is to this man (the one who repented, believed and confessed his faith, not the other) to whom Jesus says ‘today you will be in Paradise with me’ (Luke 23:39-43). What is true in the New Testament (Romans 10:9-10) was also true in the Old Testament: repentance and faith towards God (Mark 1:14-15) are very much thekey to salvation. (Top)
What is faith?
Apart from faith being confidence and trust in Him, it is also an adherence to His commands. This is an important point: faith equals obedience. The writer of Hebrews makes it plain that, whilst God commanded the Old Testament Israelites through the Law of Moses, He now commands New Testament believers through His Spirit, directly into their hearts (Hebrews 8:10, 1 John 2:27). This is because Jesus, when He rose again and was taken up into heaven, sent the Paraclete – the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Teacher, the Counsellor – to “write the Law of God on our hearts“ as Jeremiah prophesied He would do some 600 years prior. And, what the Spirit does, is He teaches us through His written Word (2 Timothy 3:15-17) and through ‘wispering into our hearts’. For those who have access to Bibles there is no excuse to not know what is written in it.