Stop Trying

For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his. —Hebrews 4:10

As I’ve studied this passage in Hebrews, I believe God has promised two kinds of spiritual rest to His people. The first kind of rest is a future one. It’s our ultimate, eternal salvation. It’s heaven, eternity with the Lord. We don’t experience its fullness today, but we have the promise, and we can’t enter God’s eternal spiritual rest apart from faith in Christ.

The Scripture says we must cease from our own works. It means we stop trying to be righteous on our own and realize that our righteousness will never be good enough to get us into heaven. It means we rest in what Christ has done for us on the cross through His death, burial, and resurrection.

In order to enter that eternal rest God has for us, we must stop trying to accomplish our own righteousness apart from Christ. We must understand that it’s not what we can do but what Christ has done for us that’s our only hope of eternal salvation.