Newsletter Signup Form Here
Rest Exodus 6- 8 and Luke 23 Relax into the adequacy of someone who is always big enough for the job. -Major Ian Thomas. Today’s reading is from the book of Exodus 6-8 and Luke 23. We are reading through the New Living Translation....
Rest
Exodus 6- 8 and Luke 23
Relax into the adequacy of someone who is always big enough for the job. -Major Ian Thomas.
Today’s reading is from the book of Exodus 6-8 and Luke 23. We are reading through the New Living Translation.
The horrors of this day culminated in a moment of rest. All hell was breaking loose and Luke tells us, the people rested.
The women from Galilee, who had witnessed Jesus’ body being taken down from the cross, went home on that horrific day, thinking that they still had work to do. We’re told in vs. 56 that they went home to prepare spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested from their work, as required by the law. Even after all the horrors of the day, they thought that there was still more work to be done. What they did not know was that Jesus, on this Good Friday, had completed all the work necessary, so now, theirs was to rest. Now the Sabbath really had come.
Jesus finished the work so the girls could rest. He finished the work so that you and I could find rest. On that Friday, Jesus went to work for bystanders and mocking soldiers. He went to work for a reluctant Pilate and an indulged Herod. He went to work for guilty Barabbas, and Simon the Cyrene, who was just a bystander coming in from the country. Jesus was working for sign-makers, cross-builders, common criminals, gamblers, good and righteous men like Joseph of Arimathea, and heartbroken women who were forced to watch at a distance. Jesus was finishing his work on that Friday, his work of redemption – the salvation of our souls. Jesus was giving everything. He was working hard. He did, for us, what we could not do for ourselves, on That Good Friday . They call it Good Friday because He was the only one who has ever really been good. He lived that sinless life and demonstrated God’s loving heart. He showed us grace, and continues to show us grace. He answered that mocking criminals request to save him, and he still saves. He has done the work so that we can rest. He forgave us, because we do not know what we are doing. Thats why he came to us, because we don’t know, we are trapped and blinded, unable to save ourselves. We don’t know what we are doing. Athenasius said, “what then was God to do They were forgiven before they
There’s no way that any of us could do the work necessary, that he accomplished for us on the cross. As you read this, maybe there are some of you that have responsibilities and bills, obligations, debts to be services, a future to be saved for. Yet, in all that heavy responsibility that you are carrying into your day, there is One who is carrying you. And there is one thing that you don’t need to shoulder. You don’t need to work for God’s approval. You don’t need to work to be made right with God. God’s already done all that work for you, in Christ.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.(II Cor 5:21 NASB)
He did that work for you, on the cross that day, so that you could rest from your labor and enter into His Sabbath rest. It belongs to you and is made free to you, out of the abundance of God’s heart of love for you.
Live in the that grace today. Rest today in Jesus. Relax into the adequacy of someone who is always big enough for the job. ( -Major Ian Thomas. )
Don’t insult the glorious work that He has done for you, and for the whole world. Receive it. Thank him for it and rejoice in it. Rest easy in Jesus, today.
You are loved!
