Jesus is Rest

There is concerted effort to explain the restorative power of Christ in churches, but there are very few who preach about God's rest. More importantly, Jesus is rest. He said, "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28). Jesus describes this rest as a spiritual one as well physical one. The Pharisees, the experts in religious law, impended rest for people and Jesus says of them, "Yes," said Jesus, "what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden," (Luke 11:46, NLT). Certainly Christ brings rest to us in other ways than the spiritual, but there is a key importance to Jesus' words that we must not overlooked. Jesus Christ is the Sabbath and Lord thereof, "For the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!" (Matthew 12:8). Jesus said this to Pharisees who were angry that he had healed a man on the Sabbath day. Our Lord then says the words many preachers and pastors like the Pharisees would whince over, "Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27). Another translation reads, "Then Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath." (NLT). What needs was that? The answer was rest!


When we trace the setting up of the Sabbath we discover it is simply a day of rest, "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." (Genesis 2:2-3). The Seventh Day, known to us as the Sabbath, Saturday for Jews and Sunday for us Christians was simply a day God rested and that the Lord required man to observe, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." (Exodus 20:8). Keeping it holy was to actually rest from labor, but religious leaders have made it a day of work. Ironically, God is made to work on the Sabbath, the day He declared rest for Himself, because believers feel compelled to go to church service, worship, get the Lord to manifest His Spirit, and to bless the teaching. Seems the meaning of the Sabbath has slowly been lost, its suppose to be a day of rest!

We discover in the Book of Hebrews what the true Sabbath really is, "¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:12-19)

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ² For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.³ For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵ And again in this passage he said,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. ⁹ So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." (Hebrews 4:1-10). Here we see a direct order to rest as God did, but the writer of Hebrews explains this rest can only be found for those "For we who have believed enter that rest," (verse 3). The writer is harkening to "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28). This rest is one called salvation! The Jewish people and all gentiles suffer from restlessness that inside they know they cannot approach God and cannot be saved from their sins through sacrifices. Rest for their souls can only come through Jesus Christ and His atonement, propitiation and ultimate sacrifice for sin. Jesus is the Sabbath, the rest that God spoke of in the Old Testament is His own Son who came and brought eternal rest to those who believe in Him as God and Savior. The apostle Paul understood this, that is why he says, "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." (Colossians 2:16-17). The apostle has discovered that Jesus is the Sabbath, the ultimate rest for every man and those who believe and trust in Him may rest.


One of major problems in the church is that many are not entering into the rest of Christ, even though they profess Him. They are content to keep doing acts of penance or works to prove themselves, never entering into God's rest because they "Since therefore it remains for some to enter it (rest), and those who formerly received the good news (Gospel) failed to enter because of disobedience (unbelief)." (Hebrews 4:6, italics mine). Many are not observing the Sabbath which is simply to find rest in and abide in Jesus Christ who is as Paul said is "the reality," verses the shadows which were the observances of the Sabbath Day. Many fail to enter Christ's rest because they will not rest from their religious toil, and like Pharisees or those under them, they are content to lay heavy burdens on others and on themselves out of obligation. They live under the heavy yokes, when Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30). In contrast to Christ's soothing words of rest and light burden, teachers of law and religion place strictures on people, making rest into restless, "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations.  “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used) according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:20-23).

There are some alarming words for those who do not place their whole trust in Christ and His Sacrifice and enter into the rest of His salvation. The Apostle Paul says of those who believe they must do things to please God and merit favor, "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all." (Galatians 5:2). The Apostle calsl those who add to Christ and His Cross, enemies, "For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:18-20). That second line about, "their god is their belly and glory is shame" cross references to those in Colossians 2:21-23, who make food laws and pennace (harsh practices to make amends with God) their focus rather than resting in the fact that Jesus, "so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him," (Hebrews 9:28), and "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11).

If you want to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy, you need to rest in Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28). This was what was always intended! God wanted us to physically rest from labor and to rest in Him on the Seventh Day, to carry the easy yoke in our hearts. But instead religious men, bent on making people come to them and laying heavy loads on others have ensnared people and defiled the Sabbath, making it no longer about Christ, but about carrying heavy yokes and burdens of religious law keeping. These men who lay heavy burdens on people have failed to enter God's rest through Jesus Christ, ""Since therefore it remains for some to enter it (rest), and those who formerly received the good news (Gospel) failed to enter because of disobedience (unbelief)." (Hebrews 4:6, italics mine).  They are like Pharisees of whom Jesus said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." (Matthew 23:13). That kingdom is rest and trusting in Jesus Christ for everything. Do not be beguiled by those men who are "wolves in sheep's clothing," (Matthew 7:15) and who preach rest and trust in regulations, food laws, observing Sabbath by attending service, Sacraments, or anything else. They are like those the Apostle Paul mentions in Colossians 2:20-23, captive to elemental spirits that seek to turn people from Christ and not let them "enter in" to His Rest.