Enter Into God's Sabbath Rest

(Continued from: "What Part of Life?")

The Sabbath rest is a description of God's promised relationship with Him. He wants us to be relaxing in what He has done and continues to do –as opposed to relying on our own works to be godly –our own efforts of living a proper, holy, righteous life. In fact, the only way to live a life that's pleasing to God is trusting –having faith– in Him.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

The Enemy's Battle Plan

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To stop a Christian from experiencing the Sabbath rest, Satan –the enemy of our souls– employs a battle plan comprised of a two-prong attack.

The first prong keeps us ignorant of the fact that God doesn't expect –or desire– for us to go through life following some form of the Ten Commandments. (I say "some form" because we typically try to translate them into a Christian version –such as by claiming that we celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday; or that the law applies but the death penalty doesn't because Jesus paid the price for us.) Those commandments had a single purpose –it was to get our attention –to show us that we were lost –dead in our sins and transgressions –in need of the Savior that He provided! The enemy uses our failures of keeping the commandments to distance us –in our minds– from God.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. (Colossians 1:21)

The second prong is more subtle. It's disguised in the form of religious expectations that we place upon ourselves and upon each other. They are a familiar set: church membership and participation; being the spiritual leader of the family or the submissive wife; being faithful to family and friends, having a regimented prayer time; consistently tithing and giving; reading the Bible daily. These are all admirable traits, but if we do them in order to appear more pleasing to God, to other Christians, or even to ourselves, then they are effectively a law –a law of religious performance.

Just like he uses our failures to keep the Ten Commandments, the enemy uses our failures to keep these religious expectations. He brandishes them in our face to weaken our relationship with God –to divide us from Him so that we become dependent upon ourselves rather than upon God. Although that division occurs only in our minds, it diverts our focus from Him onto ourselves –leaving us feeling insecure, worthless, empty and defeated.

Going through life trying to follow rules –or living up to religious expectations– is a feeble attempt to reach up to God by self-righteousness. On the contrary, we are to trust God to have reached down to us and totally removed our sins from us. When we accepted His Son as our Savior, God exchanged our sins for His righteousness.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Absolutely nothing can affect the reality of your relationship with Him. So don't believe those lies that bring in doubt –changing your perception of that relationship. As a part of God's gift of eternal life, He also made you blameless, perfect and righteous. You have a new identity in Christ.

If Not the Law, then What Is Supposed to Lead Us?

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (Galatians 5:18)

The way we are to live is by faith –trusting God –relying upon Him for all things. When we love one another, we are following where the Holy Spirit is leading us. According to 1 John 4, God is love.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. (1 John 4:16-17)

God is actively increasing His kingdom on earth –and the purpose of that kingdom is to bring glory to Himself. This is being accomplished through the building up the body of Christ –drawing men to Himself with love. He demonstrated His love for us through Jesus, who lived among us, gave up everything for us, and died in our place. So loving others –as He loved us– aids in fulfilling His purpose.

This 1 John 4 passage goes on to explain that loving one another can't happen as long as we continue to live under the law –the "law of sin and death." It's because the law instills fear by demanding the death penalty for every offense.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:18-19)

God not only wants the size of His kingdom to increase but also its depth –its closeness to Him– to also increase. That deeper relationship with Him can only occur if we aren't fearful of Him –fearful of being punished. "Going to hell" isn't the only punishment that we fear. We fear disappointing Him by not living up to His expectations and subsequently being distanced by Him –losing fellowship with Him.

We read in the previous section that the power of sin is the law. The law prevents us from trusting that God is at work in our lives today. Let's keep in mind a most important passage –Romans 8:1.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1)

True Obedience Is Not Religion –It's Trusting

The "obedience" referred to throughout the New Testament is not following a set of rules to live by; it's the natural response to believing and trusting God. In his prayers, Paul asks God to deepen our knowledge of God's love for us as it was expressed through His Son Jesus –and to grow in that knowledge.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19a)

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

It's only after understanding how much He loves us that we can then respond with our love for Him.

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Don't be fooled by the ever so common Sunday sermons which state that "Obedience is merely following the law without questioning because God gave the Ten Commandments out of His love for us." They continue saying such things as "If we are following the Spirit, then we will not be breaking the commandments." This logic exchanges "keeping the commandments" for "listening to the Spirit"! This all sounds so convincing, but the core problem is that it relies on our ability to keep the law. The law is the very thing that kills us; gives power to sin; and stops us from being fruitful to God. How deceptive these arguments can be!

As we grow in our understanding of God's love, our trust in Him will also grow. And the more we trust Him –all the while experiencing the magnitude of His love– the more we will love others. This sequence is just as He designed it. And it works because we become less and less afraid of the potential consequences –getting hurt by others. His love heals and covers over the troubles that other people can and will cause us. Isn't that all He asks us to do, "Love one another"? Loving others must be of utmost importance to Him for He says:

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Love opens its heart to others. It's open for joy, but also open to be wounded. That's what happened to Jesus when He lived here as a man. The shortest verse in the Bible describes His tender heart: "Jesus wept." (John 11:35) It's a picture of a wounded heart. And He asks us to open our hearts in the same way.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)

Continue reading: "Teachers of Law"