Gospel

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For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:20-24)

Most Christians are aware that Jesus Christ destroyed the letter of the Law on the cross. However, between the destruction of the letter by His bodily death and our life in Him, it is easy to get lost.

It is true enough that we are unable to earn true righteousness and eternal life. Every single one of us has sinned at some point in time. Much worse than that is the source. If you do not believe that our inherited nature permeates our hearts, you miss something altogether. We have not only sinned. We are born sinners at heart, from the belly of our soul. If not, we have no fault before God.

You and I might deserve some praise and pats, but our good works end along the time we do not do everything we could have. It is never enough. If you chase it all down you spend up your time and energy spread out and run down. Then if your heart is set on a prize made of pride, you may end up on defence for your own good, or not so good, works.

You have your limits and I have mine. So whose limit is the right one? No one’s but those who walk in the Spirit by faith. The letter is dead and a better way is established. Instead of works, we have been set free to hold fast to the heart of righteousness, where Jesus lives and breathes.

This is what it means to enter His Rest. That peace lives in the heart of all Christians and flows from our bellies as living water. However, it is only the beginning and accompanies a crossover from our work to His.

For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:10-13)

Christ pointed to our hearts as the epicenter of what we do and who we are. He called hate without a good cause murder. To look at someone for the purpose of desire is adultery. Swearing YOU will or will not do something is to steal eyes (glory) away from God. To show how godly you are for others to see you that way is to lie. And to put your hope in financial readiness for the future is coveteousness. These things may not seem like spiritual crimes, but they are nonetheless. It is not so much in the outward action as it is in the subtle underlying motives. Christ addresses the problem more than its effects, takes attention off works, and places it on the source.

It appears simple enough at first glance. But keep it in your knowledge and you will realize just how grossly unfaithful our hearts are. What is the right attitude? The crux of the whole matter is our faith in God and His supremacy. To walk in the Spirit begins with transforming the heart. We must put on the mind of Christ. His mind emanates from the heart, whose life is no longer rooted in corruption and rebellion, but righteousness.

…that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Another closely related aspect of Christ’s Rest deals with food and drink. We are free to consume any food or drink we want. It is no longer a sin to eat pork or any other animal considered unclean in the Old Testament. People can become spiritually defiled through food under the letter of the Law. But now that Christ established His righteousness by the Spirit instead of the letter, physical filth cannot harm us spiritually.

He made this clear in Mark 7.

So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?" And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. (Mark 7:18-20)

Romans reiterates this and suggests the relationship to the Sabbath.

Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. (Romans 14:1-6)

Some people believe mankind is emerging from the earth to manifest himself as God. We know so much today. Science is so far advanced that we know things we never could have imagined. Communications, Health Care, Psychologies and Ingenuity have flooded the world with so much. The strange thing to me is that the more we know the more we seem to condemn ourselves. “It is better to do this in these intervals with those combinations,” and so on. There is no end to the details. Tomorrow we find it is better another way. I’m sure there are even times when we realize there is no way to predict what the best way truly is.

I am not talking specifically about foods and health care. One of the hardest things for me to really take hold of was just how far faith must go. Can you predict what will happen in any given situation or circumstance? Science can tell us all kinds of things. Statistics can show us trends. But no one knows the grand outcome of it all except the one who knows it all and with the perfect perspective. I don’t know about you, but that is not me.

When troublesome times arrive or confusion sets in, remember where your life is rooted. Some may tell you to go with your gut. Some may say that statistics and probability show the safest bet. But as a Christian in Jesus Christ I will do all I can to rest in Him.

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