Rest in Christ.

Believers, imagine a person shivering in the cold and about to freeze to death just outside a warm and cozy house that offers rest from all of his troubles. The One inside the house persistently invites him to come inside where he can receive rest (warmth, food, healing, etc) free of charge, but this dying/freezing person who can do nothing to save himself insists on making himself warm and whole BEFORE going inside the house.

We would probably say to the man: “don’t be silly; enter and rest,” but this is the story of many in the church today. Christ says in Matthew 11:28- “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Believers, Jesus came to make us warm and whole from that cold, hard life of sin and the futility of keeping the law in order to be warm and whole (right with God.) It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Enter into His warmth and you will stop freezing (sinning and paying the wages of sin.) But many in the church have this backwards saying "make yourself warm first before you come to Christ."

Instead of seeking rest in Christ, many in the church are still labouring to keep the Law of Moses in order to get right with God and thus are heavy laden with the guilt of their failures because NO ONE can EVER achieve this (see Romans 3:20– “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands...”)

Remember Paul and Barnabas’ meeting with the church elders in Jerusalem (Acts 15) where some among them who were Pharisees were insisting that “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.” Peter addressed these Pharisees who had wrong believing thus -

“10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

Today, just like those Pharisees, many church leaders are CHALLENGING GOD, forcing the sheep to labour under the burden of this yoke of the law that they themselves are not able to bear. Christ says in Matthew 23:

“4 They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. 5 But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men;...”

Many sheep are labouring to obey the law (sow seed, pay tithe, keep the Ten Commandments....or else God will punish/not bless you) and are heavy laden with the guilt from their inability to do so. This is not of Christ. Paul says to us in Philippians 3:2 (KJV) - “Beware of dogs, ...” Beware of those who preach reliance on the arm of flesh (human effort) for salvation.

The one who is freezing cannot make himself warm by his own power; he has to enter the house to get warmth. But these preachers of a distorted gospel tell you that you cannot enter into Salvation (Christ Himself) unless you first save yourself!

Beloved of God, Christ says to you: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He came to save you from your sins and to lift the burden of the law from off your shoulders. Let’s take our blessed brains to church. Matthew 1:21 says “And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Christ came to save us from our sins. If we could stop sinning all by ourselves and do all that the law commands, Jesus would not have needed to come and save us.

The one who is trying to obey the law in order to get right with God has been cut off from Christ according to Galatians 5:4: “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.”

What’s more? Romans 6:14 says “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Sin has dominion over those who are trying to obey the law in order to get right with God. The longer a person stays outside trying to make himself warm (law-keeping using the arm of flesh that shall fail,) the colder and closer to death he becomes. Sin has dominion under law. The letter (law) kills. But somehow, many in the church have Romans 6:14 backwards and are still trying to get right with God and obtain His favour by trying to obey the law of Moses that kills. Believers, let’s not be found here. This broad road on which many in the church are on only leads to destruction: being cut off from Christ.

This is how we are made righteous and thus enjoy every single blessing in Christ: “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.

We are made righteous from our freezing to death in sin not because we obeyed the law but through Christ’s obedience when we put our faith in Him. See Romans 3:

“26...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

This is grace. When we enter this rest that is Christ with all of our baggage of freezing (sins, guilt, sickness, depression, lack, stinginess, all of our shortcomings,) we cannot but become righteous, just as Christ is. ONLY by the abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness do we reign over sin and every earthly ill. Just enter His warmth and forsake yours and you will get to live right. See Romans 5:17-

“For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.”

By God’s grace, watch what you are hearing in your local church. Is it righteousness by works or righteousness by faith? Once the foundation is righteousness by faith, Christ’s righteousness and not ours from obeying the law, “all these things shall be added unto you.”