Read Psalm 95:8-11. 7Today, if you hear his voice 8do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
The great irony of Israel’s failure to listen, and ours, is that we are failing to listen to a God who simply wants us to find rest. We don’t reject the slave master God, we reject the rest giver God and rebelliously return to the slave master of sin and self. Like a toddler who fights going to bed at night even though they are clearly exhausted, so are we in our relationship with Christ. Hardened not against his demands to work but against his offering of rest.
The good news is that in Christ our position is one of rest. In him we have entered into the Promised Land of peace with God; we are seated in heaven with Christ. And yet the lesson from Israel’s wilderness rebellion is clearly still relevant for us today. After quoting Psalm 95 the author of Hebrews will say these words to the church:
Hebrews 3:12-25. 12Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
And these words:
Hebrews 4:11. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Yes, in Christ we have entered into his rest, but at the same time we must constantly renew our faith in his rest. We must take care. We must exhort one another daily. We must hold our original confidence. We must not harden our hearts. And we must strive to enter that rest.
So are we in rest or are we striving to get there? Yes.
Both are true at the same time. To live is Christ understands and embraces this paradox. The paradox of the finished yet ongoing work of Christ in us. The paradox of striving to rest. The paradox of a faith that saved you and is saving you. So do not harden your heart. Do not resist the grace of rest. Stop striving to earn your salvation and start striving to trust in a salvation that has already been earned.
Prayer. Jesus, I will not rest until I find my rest in you. Help me strive to rest in your grace today and every day. Amen.
To Live is Christ 