Rest in Christ (Grace-personified) is Holy Spirit-directed activity.

Rest in Christ is not inactivity or sitting down and doing nothing because we are under Grace. Rest in Christ is Holy Spirit-directed activity.

Faith without works is dead. How? Being in Christ without bearing fruit (works of faith) and living in triumph over sin and death is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. When you are immersed in water, nobody has to tell you to get wet. Being wet is the EVIDENCE of immersion in water. Good works are EVIDENCES of salvation in Christ, not conditions.

No one has to tell the one who is believing right to spend time in the Word, give, love and live a godly life. It's who Christ transforms us to be. The Holy Spirit transforms even the vilest offender who believes in Jesus to live right (2 Corinthians 3:18.)

Good works always follow after one puts his faith in Christ, just as it was with Abraham and Sarah. Christ says in Him, you will bear much fruit. These works are not works done by the arm of flesh (human striving) that will fail and which man can boast about. They come about through Christ working in all who believe. No matter how much a branch clenches its teeth and tries to produce fruit, without the Vine, it cannot produce anything. But as long as it is attached to the Vine and gets all of its nourishment from the Vine, it will bear much fruit. Christ says in John 15:5-

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

The Passion Translation puts it thus: “I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.”

How does one get separated from Christ? By doing the very thing that some "men of God" say will make a person godly: Galatians 5:4.

"Some of you are trying to be made right with God by obeying the law. You have been separated from Christ. You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Christ cannot lie. He says in John 15:5 that in union with Him, we who believe cannot but bear much fruit (works of faith that the world can see and glorify God.) It is automatic and has nothing to do with human striving aka arm of flesh.

Many churchgoers are yet to understand the weight and power of the Word of the Almighty and so try to help God to make His word come to pass through human striving at bearing fruit aka keeping the Law. This thought has its root in the belief that God's work cannot succeed without our making it so by some forceful effort on our part, much like how "Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled." in 2 Samuel 6:6. Uzzah must have had only good intentions and thought he was doing a good thing, but he still died from his action. This what law-keeping does. It seems right to man but the end is death - Proverbs 14:12-

"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."

Like Uzzah, proponents of this horrid mixture of Law and Grace (neither cold nor hot) try to "help God" to "steady His Ark" by introducing law-keeping (attaining righteousness via human effort) which kills to the New Covenant of God's Grace; even when it is written that "the letter kills." Even when Galatians 5:4 says:

“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.”

God doesn't need anyone's help to steady His Ark (Christ who is Grace-personified in us.) Without Christ, we can do nothing. False teachers preach dependence on the arm of flesh (human striving at obedience) that will fail as the way to attain godliness (be like God;) this is the same strategy that Satan used to deceive Eve in Eden. Such lead churchgoers to disbelieve and reject the power of the Holy Spirit to transform even the vilest offender who believes to glory and misinterpret “rest in Christ” as folding your hands and doing nothing. They lead churchgoers to trust in their human ability (arm of flesh) to keep the law that kills!

Christ says by abiding (believing, relying on, trusting wholly) in Him, we get to bear much fruit — when the believing is right, right living will follow. But many feel that the branch needs to do certain things by straining and striving on its own besides abiding in the Vine in order to prove that it is “of the faith." Not so. In union Christ, we get to bear fruit to God. Take the believer being a witness for Christ as an example -

Witnessing is not a “requirement.” It's who we are MADE to be in Christ. Being in Christ is being submerged in water. Witnessing is being wet. No one has to force a believer to be a witness for Christ. It is not a duty that we do to prove our faith. It's who we are transformed to be in Christ. He made us godly/righteous apart from the Law. We love Him so much that He's all we want to talk about. But the flesh (human effort at obedience) talks about witnessing as a duty that man must do in order to be godly and expects wages in return.

Believing (right) in Jesus Christ without being a witness for Him is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. See Christ's word in Acts 1:8—

“8 But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for Me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Christ did not say “you must DO witnessing for Me…” He said “you will BE witnesses for Me…”

See the AMPC: “But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.”

Witnessing isn't something we do to fulfill all righteousness or because God said so. Of ourselves, we can do nothing. Witnesses for Christ is something we are made to be by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. The ability, efficiency and power to be witnesses, even being witnesses at the right place and time and how this witnessing comes to be, whether house to house, from the pulpit or on the Internet, come from the Holy Spirit that dwells in all who believe (right.) This is why we sing: "Tis no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me."

I remember how I used to be shy and even embarrassed to talk about Jesus when I was still listening to wrong teaching. Evangelism was a duty that I disliked but did out of necessity. Every inconvenience was an excuse to cop out of it. But when the believing is right, right living will follow. With the revelation of God's love, we don't even have to try to talk about our Saviour Jesus like it's some kind of duty. We desire to (and get to) with all our heart, even in difficult circumstances such as when we feel very sick and worried as was my experience a while ago; yet not us but the Grace of God working in us.

You know how some first-time parents love to gush about their new babies (her first smile; how she turned on her side by herself for the first time and said 'dada'?) I had to endure a friend gushing about his kid in this manner and realised how tiring, even annoying it can be for some listeners. Not everyone wants to hear continuous chatter about how wonderful my two-month-old is for not crying as he took his tetanus shot.

I tried to restrain myself from yammering about my kids after that with little success. But my husband, on the other hand, is always eager to hear me and even share the “good news" about the achievements of our kids with others because he loves them too. My point being parents don't have to try to gush about their kids. I don't. The gushing comes naturally. We just can't help it because our beloved babies are precious; more wonderful than any other.

The bible says "We love because He first loved us." Christ loved us so much that He gave His life for us. The Holy Spirit in us reveals to us Christ's love for us. The more our revelation of His love for us - that He loves us unconditionally and freely gives us His righteousness and eternal life as a gift and not something we worked for - the more precious He is in our eyes and the more we desire to gush about Him. It no longer is a duty. It becomes a passion, as it has for me.

In Christ, we don't give to get; we get to give. In Him, God fills us to overflowing with His goodness and mercy so much that with what is spilling over, we can't help but be a blessing to those around us. In Him, we get to love, give, do exploits and even give beyond the lawful regulation of the tithe, yet not us but Christ in us. This is why we sing “Tis no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.”

Rest in Christ is not inactivity. Rest in Christ is Holy Spirit-directed activity. This way, utterly dependent on Christ and putting no confidence in our will-power to keep the Law aka arm of flesh, we get to bear fruit that is like Isaac and not Ishmael that was the result of Abraham (Faith) and Sarah's (Grace) faithless connivance that produced Ishmael (work/fruit of the Law) through  Hagar (Law.). See Hagar and Sarah typified as the two covenants of Law and Grace in Galatians 4. God does not recognize such “arm of flesh" works. Ishmael could not inherit the promise that God made to Abraham. Only Isaac who was born after his parents were utterly powerless to produce fruit inherited the promise. Likewise, those who claim to be saved by Grace through Faith yet depend on their human effort-driven law-keeping and good works to bear fruit to God cannot inherit the blessing of Abraham.

You know your works are of human striving when you can boast about them or even think that you can do them by your own will-power, the same way Peter boasted in his own strength to not deny Jesus. He ended up doing just that three times.

The reason why many are not committing particular sins and seem to be doing great at keeping the Law is because they have not been tempted beyond what they can bear. The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think that some sins are beneath them or imagine that they can keep the Ten Commandments.This is why we who believe in Jesus Christ are not held captive by sins and addictions: 1 Corinthians 10:12-13-

12 "So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall. 13 We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously."

If God was not filtering and screening, we'd all be wallowing in heinous sins. But we often think we did good all by ourselves. To the one who thinks he is “good”, can overcome temptation by himself and imagines that he can keep the Ten Commandments to notch up points of righteousness with God - you who don't know what will happen within the hour - Peter too thought he would never deny Jesus, until his circumstances changed:

After Peter boasted in his own strength (the arm of flesh) at not denying Jesus (the 9th commandment: You shall not bear false witness,) Satan asked for him to sift him like wheat, and he lied profusely. Boasting in one's ability to keep the Law or do anything at all gives Satan the opportunity to sift a person like wheat. Satan and his "pastor" agents know this so they are always pressuring churchgoers to depend on their will-power to keep the Law, get right with God and be free from earthly ills e.g. fast for 70 days to be delivered from generational and other curses- this when Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from the curse of the Law (see Galatians 3:13.) There is nothing like generational curse in the life of a believer in Christ. God help the one that thinks he can stand in his own will- power when Satan comes a-sifting. The arm of flesh will fail. Law and Grace don't mix. One is either saved by Grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9) or not saved at all. The Law is not of faith.

Beloved of God, never trust yourself. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Right believing always produces right living.