Part of a series of articles on living in covenant with God
We have seen that many of the laws in the old testament have a symbolic meaning and were fulfilled in Jesus.
One of these laws was that the jewish people who lived in covenant with God had to take a day of rest every week, called the Sabbath.
It was so important that people who didn’t keep it and worked on it had to be killed.
In the natural this doesn’t make sense but it wasn’t just about giving your body the required rest it needs. Although we do need it.
The sabbath was a picture of the work that Jesus had finished doing for us. His death on the cross.
This shows us the importance of accepting Jesus sacrifice on our behalf and that we cannot have eternal life without it.
Even as believers though we often still live from a place of trying to earn God.
We may not try to earn his salvation but we tend to try earning his approval of us.
Like we could pay back what He did for us.
But key part of living in covenant with God is that you enter his rest.
It means that we cannot earn forgiveness or anything else from God.
It’s all a gift.
It means that you don’t have to live your life in constant effort and anxiety worrying whether what you do is enough. For God or others.
Whether you are enough.
God already declared that you are.
In Jesus we are made complete.
We were never meant to be complete without him.
I had a dream last night in which I entered a recreation park.
I realised I had not brought my bading suit with me and so I thought I couldn’t do the attractions since there was a lot of water.
However at the entrance they told me I could partake in any outfit I wanted. I only needed to have a hammock with me.
As a matter of fact I actually had something in my hands which I assumed to be extra clothing because the fabric was the same as the fabric of my pink short dress with flowers. Which didn’t seem to be very practical.
The attendants at the entrance though assumed it was a hammock so I was allowed to enter.
It wasn’t after I was awake a bit later that I realised that it was the same thing: my clothing is my hammock. Meaning that what I wear is what gives me rest.
I’m not speaking of clothing in the natural here but about a spiritual garment we can put on and that gives us rest if we wear it.
The bible says that if we accepted Jesus sacrifice for us then Jesus is our righteousness.
It speaks about putting him on like clothing.
If we keep trying to please either God or others we don’t live in rest.
We are always striving and never satisfied. We never know when we have done enough.
We never feel truly loved the way we are right now.
We always feel we have to do something more in order to be accepted.
The point of my dream was that I already had what I needed although I thought I didn’t.
I thought I could not partake in the fun because I didn’t fulfill the requirements. Not realising that it wasn’t about what I had done but about what I was wearing.
If we wear Jesus by faith then we are accepted.
We are pleasing to God when we accept Jesus offering for us.
That’s the only ground on which He accepts us and is pleased with us.
Through our faith in him, not our works.
Although a natural fruit of that faith will be good works.
But it’s all through his life inside of us.
We can’t do anything good without him.
In the bible it talks about a parable were there is a wedding feast. However one of the guests was not wearing the required festal garments and therefore he was thrown out.
We can only enter God’s kingdom if we wear Jesus.
You can’t marry him without wearing clean pure festal garments.
When we give our lives to him we receive a new heart that is pure.
However if we keep trying to live holy in our own strength we will never succeed in that.
We have to put our trust in Jesus and believe that He is our righeousness.
That we are not accepted because of what we have done but because we accepted Him who took our place on the cross and now we are accounted as righteous.
His righteousness is our garment, our covering.
Hiding every sin and shame.
But also his righteousness enables us to live holy, in God’s ways.
His Spirit lives now inside of us.
Don’t try to live your life without him in your own strength.
Only through him, by being in relationship with him and by leaning on him and trusting him, can we live out the righteousness we already have received and that already has been accounted to us.
It’s all a gift.
We get to rest in him, knowing that we fully are accepted and his blood atoned for all our sin and mistakes.
Knowing that we are united with him in spirit and therefore we are holy as He is holy.
It’s his ability in us. Not our own.
We only have to believe this and stay in communication with him. And He will finish the work He already began to do inside of us.
Until then Jesus blood is enough for our atonement and there is nothing, no sin, we can do to undo the shedding of his blood for us.
It’s enough, and because of that we are enough.
Creator's Joy 