How Do I Rest in Christ?

One of the most incredible New Testament passages is the simple explanation of Jesus’ identity we find in Colossians 1:15-18: 

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

The main point is clear: Jesus is preeminent, supreme, glorious and excellent. There is none like him. He is the Lord. But how do we apply such a text? What difference does it make in how we live our lives?

To answer that question, it might help to think of Colossians 1:15-18 as a sister text to Matthew 11:27-28:

 ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

In both passages, Jesus is presented as one with the Father. In Colossians 1:15 he is the image of the invisible God. In Matthew 11:27 he is the only one who can reveal the Father. We know from both texts that to know Christ is to know God himself! What do we do with such a tremendous truth? The answer is in Matthew 11:28. We turn to him for rest. We run to Jesus promises to give us rest for our souls. Because Jesus is excellent we can find rest in him.

Not far from where I live stands Stone Mountain. It’s a chunk of granite jutting nearly 1,700 feet out of the earth. The path to the top has just a few steep inclines, but on a hot day the burning sun can make the journey grueling. But Stone Mountain is a bit unusual in that on the top that is a concessions stand that sells refreshments. After a long hike, sitting on that rock, looking out over the edge of the mountain, sipping on a cool treat—one understands the value of rest.

Let me suggest five ways, today, you can rest in Christ.

First, remember the wrath of God from which you’ve been spared. The hike up Stone Mountain is really pretty easy. But a couple of years ago, my family and I took another hike, this one in the Smoky Mountain National Park. This journey was not so easy because the trail was quite narrow and the fall treacherous. When I finished that hike I knew that I had been spared. Every day of the this Christian life should be like that. We should remember that we have been spared the just judgment we deserved for our sins. The Christian life means nothing unless we embrace the truth that to know Christ is to escape the dreadful wrath of God. 

Second, stop trying to earn God’s favor. It’s stunningly easy for Christians to fall into the trap of trying to make themselves right with God. We assume that our standing with God depends upon the length of our quiet time, the purity of our thoughts, or the amount of our Christian service. To be sure we are to live in a way that pleases the Lord—this is the life of sanctification. But before you can ever live a life that pleases the Lord you have to first realize that, if you are a Christian, you are pleasing to the Lord because of Christ’s death and resurrection for you.

My Christian brother or sister, consider what Christ has accomplished on your behalf. He lived a perfect life, bore the righteous judgment of God in your place, and rose from the dead for your justification. Because of his tremendous work, you are saved. Therefore you should stop trying to earn God’s favor. The law tells a dead heart to work and work and work and work. But the gospel tells us to rest in the work that Christ has done. There is some question regarding who penned the following words, but whoever it was, they are worth remembering:

To run and work the law commands,

Yet gives me neither feet nor hands;

But better news the gospel brings,

It bids me fly and gives me wings.

Third, don’t live to impress other people. This should be obvious from the previous point. If we have God’s favor, why would we ever feel the need to impress a sinful, fallen human being? So many of us live trying to please others. We go through our daily lives, as Ed Welch so fittingly put it, as if “people are big and God is small.” We know with our minds that the reverse is true! God is big, glorious, and worthy of our praise. People are small, sinful, and needful of our help. Resting in Christ means jumping off the people-pleasing treadmill. See people as fallen creatures who need your love and concern, but not as idols worthy of your worship. Paul understood this. After all, he bluntly told the Galatians, “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Fourth, serve without the expectation of receiving anything in return. It’s easy to hear the word “rest” and think of soaking in a bath, getting a massage, or as I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, sitting in the cool shade on the top of a mountain. All these images communicate something true about Christian rest—it is refreshing and restorative. And yet, it is also true that Christian rest is active. The same Savior who said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” also said, “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life” (Matt 7:14).  I take this to mean that resting in Christ includes both the pursuit of holiness and the love of others. Paul put it this way in Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

To rest in Christ then is to be freed to serve others in love. We don’t serve because we expect to be served, but because we have received so much in, through and from Christ that we are delighted to serve others. This kind of rest can be hard work, can’t it? Just ask the father who serves his family by waking up early and going to work each day. Or what about the mother up in the wee hours of the night nursing a helpless baby! But in Christ, these acts of service are part of our rest, because they can now be done out of love instead of duty.

Fifth, find joy in the midst of disappointment and suffering. One of the hardest passages of Scripture to obey is James 1:2, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Life is full of disappointments. Cars get wrecked. Families fall apart. Bodies fail. Most every week, if not every day, we lose something valuable to us. Only those who know Christ can find joy in the midst of such loss. Those of us whose hearts have been transformed by the gospel understand that Jesus gave up his very life so that we could have life.

We know, in fact, that as Christians we are called to suffer for the gospel (2 Tim 1:8). After all, it was for the joy set before him that Jesus willingly endured the cross (Heb 12:2). It is Jesus who said we are blessed even as others revile, persecute, and speak evil against us (Matt 5:11). In the midst of persecution and suffering we can rest, assured that in Christ the most potent trial will produce character, endurance and hope (Rom 5:4).

Resting in Christ, then, means finding joy in the midst of disappointment and suffering. To rest in Christ is to look out over your life like a general surveying the ground he’s just lost in battle and saying to yourself, “I’ve lost that ground, but I don’t need it—Christ is everything to me.”

I pray that because Jesus is preeminent, supreme, glorious and excellent, you would rest in him today.