MAT 11:28-30
THERE are two rests spoken of here—the rest of salvation, and the rest of communion. The second rest cannot be known without the first: the first is the introduction to the second. Let us look at them both. And first,
The Rest of Salvation.
Nothing can be more simple than the way in which salvation is here presented in the aspect of rest. Blessed word! What is rest? It is a ceasing from labor. Those who need rest, those by whom rest is welcomed, are those who labor; and, accordingly, such are they to whom Jesus Himself speaks of rest. And how—oh, how does He present the thought to the already wearied one? Does He speak of work in another field? Does He change the sphere of the working one's toil, but still direct him to work in another way? Does He speak to the worn and jaded heart of one single effort in another direction? No; not one, not one.
Oh, laboring soul, listen to His words—not mine, not man's—but His: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Hast thou ever heard anything so sweet, so suited to thy case as this? Yes, toiler for salvation, worker for eternal life, poor heavy-laden soul, this word is for thee! Jesus GIVES—I beg you mark that word—GIVES rest! And what a rest! A rest as perfect as the One who gives it, and a rest which, therefore, leaves nothing further to be provided, and nothing more to be desired. "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13, 14); "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). It is a rest which the word of Jesus is pledged to give. And mark, beloved reader it is a present rest; for it is linked with coming—that is, the one who comes will not be kept waiting, but will get rest the moment He comes.
There was one who, under the power of His gracious words, began to long for rest, and came in spirit to Him, ere she knew to Whom she had come; but she was not kept waiting, for His "I that speak unto thee am He" rolls away the burden from that sin-stricken heart, and sets the accusing conscience at rest forever (Heb. 10:2), and so fills the heart with His own joy, that self is lost sight of altogether, and nothing is before her heart but the One who has told her "all things that ever she did," and the precious souls around her who are strangers as yet to that rest which her own heart so fully knows (John 4).
There was another who, in the midst of a lucrative calling, found his conscience accusing, and his heart unsatisfied, and the desire of his soul that which the world could not give; and he ran and climbed a sycamore-tree to get a sight of Jesus. He was not kept waiting; for what "I that speak unto thee am he" had been to the woman of Samaria, "Zacchæus, make haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house," was to Zacchæus; and Zacchæus was at rest.
Beloved reader, let me ask you the question ere I proceed further, "Is this first rest yours, or are you still seeking rest, but finding none?" Listen again to His "Come unto ME." Mark that He does not say to this or that so-called "place of worship," or to this or that ordinance, or to this or that man, but "unto ME." And let me, for your encouragement, give you His own words, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
And now let us turn for a little moment to the second rest.
The Rest of Communion.
This is the rest which the believer finds in learning the Lord's mind so as to be able to work for Him with the assurance that He has set us to work, that we are therefore doing that which is according to His mind in the way which is according to His mind—that is, really, that we have no mind or will of our own in service, but that He is working in us. This is the blessed rest which Mary had in Luke 10 she "sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word." Martha was "cumbered" and "careful;" Mary had "chosen that good part." Do not suppose, dear reader, that Martha ought to have been doing at the same time just the same thing as Mary—that is, sitting "at Jesus' feet"—for these bodies of ours must be cared for; but that, had she learned the heart of Jesus as Mary had, she would have been doing her work "as unto the Lord," (Col. 3:23), and in grace rejoicing in her sister's blessed leisure.
The first rest, then, is found in knowing Jesus as the Savior; the second, in learning Him as the pattern. The mistake which many thousands of really earnest souls are making is, that they are trying to learn the second rest before they have experienced the first-trying to learn Jesus as the Model before they have learned Him as the Savior. This can never be: and for the simple reason that till Christ is known as the Savior there is no life to God (John 3:36; Eph. 2; 1 John 5:12); and hence no power to walk, no power to act for God at all. And hence, such souls not only get no peace, but, endeavoring to be holy while strangers to the power of holiness (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), they get, in spirit, under the law which was given by Moses (John 1:17), and instead of getting peace, they get far more wretched and miserable than they were before. And no wonder; for the testimony of the law is, that the man who keeps God's judgments and statutes shall live by them (Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11). But the poor, laboring soul under law soon finds how utterly incapable he is of keeping it according to God's standard (Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-28; Matt. 5:28; 1 John 3:15; James 2:10).
Moreover, to aggravate his sorrow, and fill up his cup of wretchedness to the brim, he finds that not only is he no nearer God than he was at the first, but that he is CURSED; for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3:10). Such is the result of trying to learn that which is alone the effect of the second rest: true service to God, without the knowledge of the first. The "terror of the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:11) is all that is learned, and an unsatisfied and accusing conscience the result. I repeat, the first rest is the gate through which the second is entered. There cannot be true rest of soul except in the reception of this first rest into the heart; and this rest, in one word, is Christ.
I may here apply a word morally, for the sake of illustration, which is found in another connection in Heb. 4:10: "He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." So I may say, dear reader, that the one who has entered into this blessed rest of which we are speaking, salvation, is the one who has ceased from all his own works, doings, for salvation, and has learned that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
“Till to Jesu's work you cling,
By a simple faith,
DOING is a deadly thing—
Doing ends in death.”
“Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that BELIEVE: for there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness; that he might be JUST, and the JUSTIFIER of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:20-26).
Come now to Jesus! Take Him, trust Him, appropriate Him by faith in His finished work for you (John 19:30), and your heart shall know, the moment you believe, the full joy and blessedness of the first rest, and through grace, shall be enabled to prove the practical power which the second gives to walk to His glory.
R. H. G.