Rest For Your Souls

“There will come one day a personal and direct touch from God when every tear and perplexity, every oppression and distress, every suffering and pain, and wrong and injustice will have a complete and ample and overwhelming explanation.” Oswald Chambers

That day is known as the resurrection when we all stand before the throne of the Savior of the World and hear him say...

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest...you will find rest for your souls". (Matthew 11:28-29)

Believe and Enter His Rest

“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His REST, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have BELIEVED do enter that REST.” (Hebrews 4:1-3)

God has made a promise that when the gospel is “BELIEVED” the believer can have “rest”. This belief has nothing to do with obtaining salvation, that is a "free gift" from God. Believing gives us “REST” and peace. Some, however, “come short of” believing the good news of their salvation and therefore do not experience “His rest” in this life.

He is talking about "rest" and peace that we can have NOW, in this present world, while we wait for the gospel (good news) of our salvation to be manifested when Christ Jesus returns to resurrect the dead. It is now our "blessed hope” ...

"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." (Titus 2:13)

We have peace when we believe the "promise" and are"looking for" him to appear.  When he appears our salvation, the escape from death, will be a reality. It is this gospel (good news) that enables us to “rest” when it is believed.  For Christ Jesus…

“…has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself…And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time FOR SALVATION without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him (are resting by believing)” (Hebrews 9:27-28)

Jesus came the first time and dealt with sin as the great high priest and sin bearer. He is “the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He will come the second time to deliver mankind from death just as he himself was delivered from death.

At his second coming the sins of the world will not be considered against them because they were “taken away” by the sin bearing “lamb of God” at his first coming. As the result, the “judgment” of God is to grant sinful mortal mankind immortality as a free gift “in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord….when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘death is swallowed up in victory’….thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Romans 6:23: 1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Some are able to "REST" in the truth that the salvation of mankind is secure…knowing that although it cannot be earned, neither can it be lost…it is a “free gift" to all sinners who will have paid the wages for sin - death - and have also experienced the GRACE of God in saving them from that death by their RESURRECTION.

Believe and enter his rest now...it is a good place to be in these troubled times.

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest.” (Hebrews 4:1-3)

There is great peace and “rest” in this present evil age only to those who believe the gospel. And I am talking about the good news gospel of life AFTER the death of sinners.

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God...the wages or sin is death, but the free gift or God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 3:23; 6:23)

Preaching the gospel is of no value in giving “rest” in this present world unless it is mixed with faith that God will actually resurrect us, and those we care about...not because we make the decision to be saved, but because God made the decision to save sinners.

He raised Christ Jesus, “who became sin on our behalf”, and Jesus promised to return and raise us. Eventually all will find this rest after the resurrection, but NOW, in this life, only those who BELIEVE God find peace, rest and hope.