Rest and Belief

Hebrews 3

      Faithfulness and unbelief.  What a fantastic topic for Good Friday. Today is the day we reflect back on the faithfulness of Jesus as He fulfilled the Father's redemption plan for mankind, though it cost Him much pain and suffering. It is a good day to hear again the warning God gave His people and that the author of Hebrews reminded the church of in the New Covenant: "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion..."   

 
     It is an apt warning for us all today.

     The words that follow are equally poignant: "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God; but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today' so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."  When I read this, I wonder at the struggle some seem to have to "make" the Bible relevant today. What could be more relevant than this warning? It is ageless, as true 2000 years ago as it was when first spoken hundreds of years before that. It is a warning that will be necessary as long as the sin nature exists. For it is very much in our nature, each of us, to drift away, to fall away, to harden our hearts and make excuses for our sin. It is very much a part of us that we will justify sin away by calling it something else; dressing it up in a more appealing-sounding package.
   
      But sin is still sin. And it is for sin that Christ suffered and died, laying down His immaculate life as the final and only price of absolution for all of our sin. Because of Him, and only because of His choice, we now have access to God. We now have an invitation extended to enter into God's Sabbath rest. This is a two-fold word, this rest. It is an invitation to come into the Kingdom, to have a life beyond this life of toil and labor, an eternal life of worship in the presence of the Living God. It is also an invitation to rest from our burdens and anxieties now; to understand that God is Sovereign and that He will carry out His plan. If He did not spare His own Son, do we honestly think He might just drop the ball now at the very point of finishing the game?  We have nothing to be anxious over, but if we are in Christ, we do have everything to be grateful for. I know that His faithfulness did not come easily. Neither will ours. But we can rest in the understanding that if our hearts truly desire Him, He will make us faithful. He has already done the work. We have only to enter the Father's rest--that is, to trust and believe.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 

John 19:30

Lord, we confess that we have such a small faith.  As we meditate on Jesus' work on the cross today, we long to believe without reserve, holding nothing back. We do believe; help us overcome our unbelief!!