January 4, 2010 A Sabbath Rest
We have just celebrated the end not only of the year 2009, but of a decade. There’s a sense of excitement in the voices of commentators as they speculate what the New Year will bring. 2010—it even sounds significant.
According to the Jewish calendar, however, which follows lunar changes rather than the civil calendar we’re more familiar with, the New Year began September 18 with the feast of Rosh Hashanah, not just a few days ago on January 1. And reckoning the generations from creation, the year is not 2010, but 5770.
Whether or not it all began exactly 5770 years ago is not the point, at least not for our purpose at the moment. After the work of creation, God rested (Genesis 2:3). He had finished doing what he wanted to do—there were lights, waters, animals, plants, a couple to reign over it all and to walk with God. Things took, instead, a tragic turn that we’re still experiencing. Whatever else is going on all around us, the one thing that is often lacking is…rest.
The Bible speaks in several places of God’s will that we, his children, enter into his rest, but what does it mean? The writer of Hebrews tells us that “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from us. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:10-11).
It’s a paradox, isn’t it? We are to “make every effort” (which sounds a lot like work) to enter into spiritual rest (i.e. the end of work). The key is in seeing the difference between God’s work and our “own.” God’s work encompasses all the things he tells us to do and points especially to the work of the cross—Jesus said “It is finished” (John 19:30). We are made righteous not through anything we could ever do, but through faith in what Jesus did on our behalf.
Our work refers to the things we think are good ideas, or the things people have told us are good ideas. The world is full of “good” people doing “good” things who live completely apart from faith in God, either ignorant of or opposed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. A moral life can be achieved through adhering to qualities such as honesty and decency, but it will not make a person worthy of eternal life. Good intentions and noble deeds, while beneficial and benevolent, are powerless against the sin nature with which all of us are born.
We can look abstractly at the concepts of God-ordained vs. man-made and be tempted to think it’s a no-brainer, but Christians aren’t immune to the subtle siren call of works. There is safety in following rules, in adopting rigid codes of behavior. It goes against “our” logic to think that good things may become actually counterproductive to our walks with God.
We know, for instance, that reading God’s word is a good idea. How much better to institute a system of reading the Bible. Ten minutes a day. A chapter. The Bible through in a year. None of those ideas are, in and of themselves, a bad thought, certainly not sinful…yet when we make even a potentially godly practice one of our “own works” we fail to rest in what God intended.
The same can be said of all the things we do because they draw us closer to God—church, study, volunteering, witnessing, disciplines, missions, fasting. When activities such as these flow out of our conversations with God, when they are extensions of our love and commitment, we are relaxed in the Spirit, aware of spiritual growth, free from any vestiges of pride. When we have confidence in such activities, or even worse—when we require them either directly or subconsciously of others—we tense up spiritually. The Holy Spirit cannot flow in or through us. We have failed to enter into God’s rest.
James speaks to the balance that is always, always needed. Those he wrote to were taking freedom to an extreme, becoming lazy and unmotivated, using their freedom as an opportunity to indulge their sinful natures (Galatians 5:13). “Show me your faith apart from works,” he challenged (James 2:18). You can have works without faith, but you cannot have truth faith without it being lived out through godly outward expressions.
Just as Christmas may be the only time of year some people even think about Jesus, New Year’s may be the only time many consider making changes. New Year’s resolutions may even do some good, if they motivate people to get healthier, more generous, or pursue God.
But I get the feeling that instead of looking at promising programs to initiate or thinking of the Top Ten Ways to Reach the Lost in 2010, God may well be saying to the Church…rest. Rest in me. I’ve done the work. Let’s see what happens together.
Happy New Year!
Permission to use with acknowledgement of source.
Ellenofgillette1@aol.com
We have just celebrated the end not only of the year 2009, but of a decade. There’s a sense of excitement in the voices of commentators as they speculate what the New Year will bring. 2010—it even sounds significant.
According to the Jewish calendar, however, which follows lunar changes rather than the civil calendar we’re more familiar with, the New Year began September 18 with the feast of Rosh Hashanah, not just a few days ago on January 1. And reckoning the generations from creation, the year is not 2010, but 5770.
Whether or not it all began exactly 5770 years ago is not the point, at least not for our purpose at the moment. After the work of creation, God rested (Genesis 2:3). He had finished doing what he wanted to do—there were lights, waters, animals, plants, a couple to reign over it all and to walk with God. Things took, instead, a tragic turn that we’re still experiencing. Whatever else is going on all around us, the one thing that is often lacking is…rest.
The Bible speaks in several places of God’s will that we, his children, enter into his rest, but what does it mean? The writer of Hebrews tells us that “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from us. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:10-11).
It’s a paradox, isn’t it? We are to “make every effort” (which sounds a lot like work) to enter into spiritual rest (i.e. the end of work). The key is in seeing the difference between God’s work and our “own.” God’s work encompasses all the things he tells us to do and points especially to the work of the cross—Jesus said “It is finished” (John 19:30). We are made righteous not through anything we could ever do, but through faith in what Jesus did on our behalf.
Our work refers to the things we think are good ideas, or the things people have told us are good ideas. The world is full of “good” people doing “good” things who live completely apart from faith in God, either ignorant of or opposed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. A moral life can be achieved through adhering to qualities such as honesty and decency, but it will not make a person worthy of eternal life. Good intentions and noble deeds, while beneficial and benevolent, are powerless against the sin nature with which all of us are born.
We can look abstractly at the concepts of God-ordained vs. man-made and be tempted to think it’s a no-brainer, but Christians aren’t immune to the subtle siren call of works. There is safety in following rules, in adopting rigid codes of behavior. It goes against “our” logic to think that good things may become actually counterproductive to our walks with God.
We know, for instance, that reading God’s word is a good idea. How much better to institute a system of reading the Bible. Ten minutes a day. A chapter. The Bible through in a year. None of those ideas are, in and of themselves, a bad thought, certainly not sinful…yet when we make even a potentially godly practice one of our “own works” we fail to rest in what God intended.
The same can be said of all the things we do because they draw us closer to God—church, study, volunteering, witnessing, disciplines, missions, fasting. When activities such as these flow out of our conversations with God, when they are extensions of our love and commitment, we are relaxed in the Spirit, aware of spiritual growth, free from any vestiges of pride. When we have confidence in such activities, or even worse—when we require them either directly or subconsciously of others—we tense up spiritually. The Holy Spirit cannot flow in or through us. We have failed to enter into God’s rest.
James speaks to the balance that is always, always needed. Those he wrote to were taking freedom to an extreme, becoming lazy and unmotivated, using their freedom as an opportunity to indulge their sinful natures (Galatians 5:13). “Show me your faith apart from works,” he challenged (James 2:18). You can have works without faith, but you cannot have truth faith without it being lived out through godly outward expressions.
Just as Christmas may be the only time of year some people even think about Jesus, New Year’s may be the only time many consider making changes. New Year’s resolutions may even do some good, if they motivate people to get healthier, more generous, or pursue God.
But I get the feeling that instead of looking at promising programs to initiate or thinking of the Top Ten Ways to Reach the Lost in 2010, God may well be saying to the Church…rest. Rest in me. I’ve done the work. Let’s see what happens together.
Happy New Year!
Permission to use with acknowledgement of source.
Ellenofgillette1@aol.com
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