The Sign of Rest

THURSDAY

May 21

The Sign of Rest

As Sabbath keepers we often are accused of trying to work our way to heaven by keeping the Sabbath. We hear that all the time. How should we respond?

Read again the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20. What does it tell us to do? It tells us to rest-our sons, our daughters, our servants, our animals, and even the strangers among us. It's all about rest.

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Now, a simple question: How is it that the one commandment devoted to rest, the one commandment that specifically expresses rest, the one commandment that gives us a special opportunity to rest-how has this been turned into the universal "New Covenant" symbol of works? The only commandment that, by its nature, is all about rest has become, for many, the metaphor for salvation by works.

What's wrong with this picture?

Indeed, far from being a symbol of works, the Sabbath is the Bible's eternal symbol of the rest that God's people have always had in Him.

Read Hebrews 4:9-11. What is the message to us here about the Sabbath?

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From the pre-Fall world of Adam's and Eve's Eden to the New Covenant rest that God's followers have in Christ's work of redemption for them, the Sabbath is a real-time manifestation of the rest that Christ offers to all. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus calls us to rest in Him. He will give us rest, and that rest finds one expression in His universal Sabbath day. Anyone can say that they are resting in Christ: anyone can say that they are saved by grace. But the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath is a visible expression of that rest, a living parable of what it means to be covered by His grace. Our weekly rest from our secular, worldly works stands as a symbol of our rest in the completed work of Jesus for us.

Our obedience to this commandment is a way of saying: "We're so sure of our salvation in Jesus, we're so firm and secure in what Christ has done for us, that we can—iin a special way—rest from any of our works because we know what Christ has accomplished for humanity through His death and resurrection."

Sabbath is a very real, very expressive, very visible expression and manifestation of the rest that we have in Jesus and what He has done for us. We don't have to say it; we can express it in a real way, a way that those who don't keep the Sabbath can't.