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\u201cThere remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;\xa0for anyone who enters God\u2019s rest also rests from their works,\xa0just as God did from his. \xa0Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.\u201d (Hebrews 9:9-11)

Today I want to focus on Christ as our Sabbath rest. \xa0The origin of Sabbath goes back to creation when after creating the heavens and the earth in six days God \u201crested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made\u201d (Gen 2:2).\xa0 God\u2019s rest wasn\u2019t because He was tired. \xa0God rested in the sense that He stopped what He was doing and ceased from His labours.

In Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15 God gave the Israelites the fourth commandment, that they were to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.\xa0 One day a week they were to rest from their labours, and also give the same Sabbath rest to their servants and their animals.

This Old Testament Sabbath symbolized the coming of the Messiah who would provide a permanent rest for His people.\xa0 Under the Old Testament law the Jews were constantly labouring under a list of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts to make themselves acceptable to God, and thus too, the need for sin offerings and sacrifices in order to come to God for forgiveness and to temporarily restore fellowship with Him.\xa0 But there was a continual need for offerings and sacrifices because the law \u201ccan never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship\u201d (Hebrews 10:1).\xa0

But these offerings were offered in anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross who \u201cafter He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God\u201d (Hebrews 10:12).\xa0 Jesus sat down and rested after performing the ultimate sacrifice because there was nothing more to be done.\xa0 His cry \u201cit is finished!\u201d from the cross was His cry of victory over sin, over death and the works of the law.\xa0 Jesus was sent so that we might rest in God and in what He has provided us.\xa0 God\u2019s Sabbath day is a holy day unto the Lord.\xa0 Christ is the perfect symbol of our sabbath rest.\xa0 The holy, perfect Son of God sanctifies and makes holy all who believe in Him.

The writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers to enter into the Sabbath rest provided by Christ and pleads with them not to harden their hearts against Jesus as the Israelites had hardened their hearts in the wilderness after their deliverance from the Egyptians. Because of their unbelief God had denied that generation access to the promised land saying, \u201cThey shall not enter into My rest\u201d (Hebrews 3:11).\xa0 In the same way, the writer of Hebrews asks his readers not to make the same mistake by rejecting God\u2019s Sabbath rest in Jesus Christ.

Only Jesus satisfies the requirements of the law.\xa0 As our great high priest Jesus has made the old system and the old covenant obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).\xa0 There is no other Sabbath rest besides Jesus. \xa0He is \u201cLord of the Sabbath\u201d (Matt 12:18). \xa0On Tuesday I will look at our Sabbath response to the sanctifying work He has done.\xa0 But for today I want to leave you with these words from Jesus inviting us into the rest of God:

\u201cCome to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\xa0 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light\u201d (Matthew 11:28-30)