Working out of Rest

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Galatians 2:21

God doesn’t need our help with anything! Think of it. Have you ever been awakened by God at two o’clock in the morning and been enlisted in the effort of pulling off a sunrise? Every morning we awake to a new sunrise complete with birds singing sweetly as trees sway in the breeze. The rain that blesses the soil and the lightning that cleans the air are all His ideas. Each evening He lays the day to rest in grand panoramic gestures quite apart from my advice or input. He has been accomplishing these amazing feats, with great ease I might add, long before I arrived on the scene. Have you ever simply looked around and been in awe of the life that flows from every corner of His creation? Have you ever considered that mankind’s first full day in God’s new creation was designed by the Creator to be a day of rest? It is amazing to think that all creation was finished before we received our first breath from God. We were created to receive from God all that He had made for our blessing. We were created to draw life from God. His very life was meant to be the source of our own daily existence.

What is true of the created order is equally true of God’s plan to rescue us from our rebellion. Our revolt against the throne of heaven was passed on to us through the first man’s fall into what the Bible calls sin. Sin is turning away from the source of life, which is God Himself. Sin was not a part of the original design of God but was introduced by mankind; yet God took responsibility for our sin on the cross of Christ. Just as God finished His work of creation, He has finished the work of dealing fully with our sin and it’s results by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. All that is left for us to do is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that His work in paying for our sins on the cross is complete. Turning back to Him in faith and trusting in Jesus that He paid for my sin is what brings salvation to our souls.

God doesn’t need our help with any part of our Christian experience; it is a finished work. Jesus died in our place so that our sin would be forgiven (Romans 5:8). We died with Christ so that we could be delivered from who we were before coming to Christ (Galatians 2:20). There is no human effort involved in the salvation of the Lord (Psalms 68:20). Are you struggling as a believer to live the Christian life? Fight no longer, the battle was won long ago on the cross of Christ. What a Savior! Have you received Him who is the source of life? Do you see that it was for you that He died? Will you come to Jesus today? The work is all His; not mine.