Love Gives Rest
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Rest can be elusive during the holiday season. We have trees to put up, houses to decorate, cookies to bake, school concerts to watch, shopping to do, parties to attend, family to visit. All of these good things can pile up in our already busy and hectic lives and leave us feeling quite exhausted. When our focus is on a list of to-dos, it quickly leads to burn out.
Jesus confronted this often in His ministry as He dealt with religious leaders who burdened the people with lengthy lists of spiritual to-dos, everything that must be done to earn one's own salvation. Jesus had some pretty strong words for them, “‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’” (Matthew 23:27-28) These men had an air of superiority, commanding those within their influence to “go and do”, but Jesus came with a message of “come and see”.
The purpose of the law is to reveal our sin to us (Romans 3:20). God put it in place to reveal how desperate we are for Him. The more we know of it the wearier we become of our wretched state before God. Try as we might to keep the law and earn salvation through our own self-righteousness, we can never obtain it.
“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Galatians 3:23-26)
Jesus gives us a new command, “Come to me”. Come into relationship with the True and Living God. The One who laid down His life for our sin. All of our burdens, our striving, the weight of our past mistakes; Jesus says “give it to Me and rest”.
Rest can be elusive during the holiday season. We have trees to put up, houses to decorate, cookies to bake, school concerts to watch, shopping to do, parties to attend, family to visit. All of these good things can pile up in our already busy and hectic lives and leave us feeling quite exhausted. When our focus is on a list of to-dos, it quickly leads to burn out.
Jesus confronted this often in His ministry as He dealt with religious leaders who burdened the people with lengthy lists of spiritual to-dos, everything that must be done to earn one's own salvation. Jesus had some pretty strong words for them, “‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’” (Matthew 23:27-28) These men had an air of superiority, commanding those within their influence to “go and do”, but Jesus came with a message of “come and see”.
The purpose of the law is to reveal our sin to us (Romans 3:20). God put it in place to reveal how desperate we are for Him. The more we know of it the wearier we become of our wretched state before God. Try as we might to keep the law and earn salvation through our own self-righteousness, we can never obtain it.
“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Galatians 3:23-26)
Jesus gives us a new command, “Come to me”. Come into relationship with the True and Living God. The One who laid down His life for our sin. All of our burdens, our striving, the weight of our past mistakes; Jesus says “give it to Me and rest”.
Reality, Reality,
Lord Jesus Christ Thou art to me.
From the spectral mist and the driving clouds,
From the shifting shadows and phantom crowds
From unreal words and unreal lives,
Where truth with falsehood feebly strives:
From the passings away, the chance and change,
Flickerings, vanishings, swift and strange,
I turn to my glorious REST in Thee,
Who art the grand Reality.
—Frances Havergal
Lord Jesus Christ Thou art to me.
From the spectral mist and the driving clouds,
From the shifting shadows and phantom crowds
From unreal words and unreal lives,
Where truth with falsehood feebly strives:
From the passings away, the chance and change,
Flickerings, vanishings, swift and strange,
I turn to my glorious REST in Thee,
Who art the grand Reality.
—Frances Havergal
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