We live in a hurried and distracted world. We are overstimulated and bored. We are driven to do more, achieve more, schedule more, and yet feel more disconnected, more left out, and more guilty about what we can't be part of. As a culture, we know how to work hard, play hard, and escape even harder. But we don't know how to rest.
As a result, most of us are running dangerously close to complete melt down. We are frayed and coming undone. I think Weezer said it best (well, maybe not the best... but it will work) in their song Undone (better known as the sweater song). It's a silly little song - but look at the lyrics.
If you want to destroy my sweater
Hold this thread as I walk away
Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked
Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I've come undone.
How many of us are so frayed that if that one thread were pulled - we would be naked on the floor curled up in the fetal position. So we spend our time trying to patch our souls even as they are coming unraveled. But for all our managing - all our scheduling - all our little of escapes - all of our denial - we know we are running on a treadmill that is set just a little too fast. Eventually it will get to fast, we will, and get thrown across the room.
Here's the deal. We need rest, not more play or escape. We need to be refreshed and recreated, not just regurgitated to a new day. We need rest. Rest is as essential to our souls as air is to our lungs. We were built to need it. In fact, God built in a daily reminder of our need for rest at the end of every day - sleep is God's way of reminding us that we are finite beings in need of rest. We simply cannot function without it. And in the same way our bodies need sleep, our souls need Sabbath.
Sabbath is God's solution for our soul's need of rest. Sadly, many Christ-followers have ignored Sabbath. They see it as one of those things people did a long time ago and they see it now as an archaic idea that has no relationship to modern life.
Others have turned it into a legalistic duty. They make the same mistake as the first century Jews. They see it as relevant to today, but they undermine its power through their practice. They define it as a day off of work - something to be done to either earn God's favor or avoid his displeasure - and end up working (for God's favor) the whole time they are trying to rest. We need a better understanding of Sabbath.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us that true Sabbath rest can only be found in God's finished work.
After creating for six days, God rested on the seventh. He didn't rest because he was tired. He rested because he was satisfied. He was satisfied with his work and rested in the delight of his own glory and peaceful harmony with it.
On the cross, God worked again. This time, instead of working to create the world, he worked to redeem it. He worked on the cross and rested in the resurrection. He looked at his redemptive work and was satisfied and rested in it.
And this is why Sabbath rest cannot simply be about taking a day off. And this is also why no one who claims Christ as Lord can afford to miss Sabbath. Sabbath rest is gospel rest. Because God is satisfied with Jesus (our Substitute in judgment and our forerunner to glory) he is satisfied with us.
And here's the catch: for us to enter into Sabbath rest, we have to be satisfied in God. In fact, we need to delight in God. We need to rest in God's delight in us - we need to delight in God's rest for us in Christ. We need to stop striving to earn God's favor and start striving to identify every disbelieving tendency of our hearts that blocks us from resting in him.
This is true soul rest, when we cease our striving to make ourselves worthwhile before men or God and simply rest in God's declaration over us: you are right because I made you right. God looks at us as believers and rests in the finished work of Christ. When we look at God, we need to learn to delight in his satisfaction and rest in us. Only then will our souls know true Sabbath rest.
As a result, most of us are running dangerously close to complete melt down. We are frayed and coming undone. I think Weezer said it best (well, maybe not the best... but it will work) in their song Undone (better known as the sweater song). It's a silly little song - but look at the lyrics.
If you want to destroy my sweater
Hold this thread as I walk away
Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked
Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I've come undone.
How many of us are so frayed that if that one thread were pulled - we would be naked on the floor curled up in the fetal position. So we spend our time trying to patch our souls even as they are coming unraveled. But for all our managing - all our scheduling - all our little of escapes - all of our denial - we know we are running on a treadmill that is set just a little too fast. Eventually it will get to fast, we will, and get thrown across the room.
Here's the deal. We need rest, not more play or escape. We need to be refreshed and recreated, not just regurgitated to a new day. We need rest. Rest is as essential to our souls as air is to our lungs. We were built to need it. In fact, God built in a daily reminder of our need for rest at the end of every day - sleep is God's way of reminding us that we are finite beings in need of rest. We simply cannot function without it. And in the same way our bodies need sleep, our souls need Sabbath.
Sabbath is God's solution for our soul's need of rest. Sadly, many Christ-followers have ignored Sabbath. They see it as one of those things people did a long time ago and they see it now as an archaic idea that has no relationship to modern life.
Others have turned it into a legalistic duty. They make the same mistake as the first century Jews. They see it as relevant to today, but they undermine its power through their practice. They define it as a day off of work - something to be done to either earn God's favor or avoid his displeasure - and end up working (for God's favor) the whole time they are trying to rest. We need a better understanding of Sabbath.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us that true Sabbath rest can only be found in God's finished work.
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
(Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV)
After creating for six days, God rested on the seventh. He didn't rest because he was tired. He rested because he was satisfied. He was satisfied with his work and rested in the delight of his own glory and peaceful harmony with it.
On the cross, God worked again. This time, instead of working to create the world, he worked to redeem it. He worked on the cross and rested in the resurrection. He looked at his redemptive work and was satisfied and rested in it.
And this is why Sabbath rest cannot simply be about taking a day off. And this is also why no one who claims Christ as Lord can afford to miss Sabbath. Sabbath rest is gospel rest. Because God is satisfied with Jesus (our Substitute in judgment and our forerunner to glory) he is satisfied with us.
And here's the catch: for us to enter into Sabbath rest, we have to be satisfied in God. In fact, we need to delight in God. We need to rest in God's delight in us - we need to delight in God's rest for us in Christ. We need to stop striving to earn God's favor and start striving to identify every disbelieving tendency of our hearts that blocks us from resting in him.
This is true soul rest, when we cease our striving to make ourselves worthwhile before men or God and simply rest in God's declaration over us: you are right because I made you right. God looks at us as believers and rests in the finished work of Christ. When we look at God, we need to learn to delight in his satisfaction and rest in us. Only then will our souls know true Sabbath rest.
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