The Grace that Gives us Rest

Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment (Luke 23:53-56).

Life can become very busy. There are too many seasons where it seems there are not enough hours in the day. We sometimes begin each day with a long to-do list and end the day feeling frustrated or defeated because of how much we did not accomplish. There are infrequent seasons of rest that are cut short by catching up activity. During His ministry here on earth, Jesus was not immune to the pressure of busy-ness, as there were times when He and the disciples were so busy they could not even stop to eat. But our Teacher made a point of providing rest for His disciples… “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (Mark 6:31). At the climax of His ministry, the time between the cross and the resurrection, Jesus maintained the proper balance between busy-ness and obedience as He provided a vivid illustration of the grace that gives us rest.

Jesus left this world in the same way that He entered it. The body of Christ was wrapped in cloth just as He had been at His birth… “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). The body of Christ was laid in an unused tomb, just as the body of the Christ child was conceived and nurtured in a womb that had never been occupied… “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matthew 1:22-23). In between, Jesus lived a life of faith and trust in the sovereignty of His Father that is worthy of imitation by all true disciples… “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25). Jesus rested because He trusted God’s sovereign grace that never rests.

We leave this world in the same way that we enter it. We enter the world naked and emptyhanded, and we leave the same way… “As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand” (Ecclesiastes 5:15). God does not want His children consumed with worry and toil that produces no lasting fruit… “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:27). As we rest in God’s grace to work on temporal things, we are freed to invest in eternal, kingdom-centered things, like growing our faith, sharing His gospel, and fulfilling the great commission.

Through it all, we are to rest in the grace of God. Following Christ’s example, we increasingly rest in His grace working in and through us as we stay focused on His kingdom and pursue His righteousness… “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Because we are His children, we are blessed to enter and experience true rest in His grace today as we prepare to enter His eternal rest in the near future… “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. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9-11). We get a taste of eternal rest as we trust His grace to work in and through us each day.

As we grow up into Christ, we live above and beyond whatever we face today when we trust…

The Grace that Gives Us Rest.