Jesus Christ is our example of perfect rest

In the life and ministry of Jesus we see for the first time a real human being who lived in complete rest.

How many miracles did Jesus do? How many works did He do?

NONE!!!

Look at What Christ said about Himself

John 5:19 "The Son can do nothing of himself, and of my own self I can do nothing." The human Jesus had no power of His own.

John 5:31-33. "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." Jesus didn't bear his own witness.

John 5:43. "I am come in my Father's name." Jesus did not come in his own name.

John 6:38. "I came not to do my own will." He did not do his own will.

John 6:57. "I live by the Father." He didn't have his own life.

John 7:16. "My doctrine is not mine." Jesus didn't have a doctrine or teaching of his own.

John 7:28. "I am not come of myself." The Father sent him.

John 8:16. "If I judge, my judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." His judgment was not his own.

John 8:28-29. "I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me, I speak these things." He didn't learn from himself, and he didn't teach himself.

John 8:50. "I seek not mine own glory." His glory is not His.

John 8:54. "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing." He doesn't honor himself.

John 12:49. "I have not spoken of myself." Jesus didn't speak his own words.

John 14:10. "I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me He doeth the works." His works were not His own works.

He even claimed to be God in the flesh.

John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."

John 14:9, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."

Philippians 2:6. "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:"

It is impossible for any person to live the "Christian Life" (including Jesus Christ the human man) even with all the help and grace from God that is available. A person needs their Spirit to be INFUSED with God's Spirit that causes this person to be ONE IN Him! Religion, works, and will power can never achieve that. That was old Covenant. As a result of that infusion, the power of God that is in you will do for you JUST EXACTLY WHAT THE POWER THAT GOD HAD IN JESUS CHRIST DID FOR HIM.

Heb 2:16-18, "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."

Heb 4:14-16, "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

Before Christ was born on this earth He had emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:5-11

He lived His life here on earth as a 100% human person. He had been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet He did not sin. Heb. 4:15. He lived a life of another. He lived by the Father's life inside Him and by the faith of the Father. He never lived a life of His own or as an independent self. He was just a vessel and a container, just like us. He was made like us in all aspects and every way. Heb. 2:17

He was sent likeness of sinful flesh. Rom 8:3

He was righteous only because He contained God's Righteousness. He was Holy only because He contained God's Holiness. He was perfect only because of God's perfection within Him. He did not even consider Himself Good because His Goodness came from the Father. Mark 10:18

John 10:37-38, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

John 14:10-11, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very works' sake."

Christ did all His work in the power of the Father dwelling and working in Him. So complete and real was His dependence on the Father, that, in expounding it to the Jews, He used the strong expressions (v.19, 30)John 5:19, 30: The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing'; I can do nothing of Myself.' As literally as what He said is true of us, Apart from Me ye can do nothing,' is it true of Him too. The Father abiding in Me doeth the work.'

John 14:12-14,"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

Christ Himself did NOTHING from His own initiative or self effort. Everything He did was in response to the Father living and working within him. I wonder why we think we can do something from our own self when Christ did and could not.

Even Christ pleased not Himself - (Romans 15:3

John 5:30; "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."

The person of Jesus Christ who is NOW indwelling us is our Sabbath rest. Now it is the indwelling God, the Father abiding in us, that God works in us. It is HIS life within us that accomplishes His work.

Jesus Christ was totally dependent on His Father and overcame all temptation just by simply resting. He was never concerned about obedience or disobedience. He put forth no effort to obey the law at all. The Live and divine nature of His father accomplished all that within Christ.

Amen, amen and amen.

I believe this to be one of the messages God is trying to communicate to the church today. Would that they, in hearing would hear. It's my complete conviction that when this truth truly takes hold, we will see revival and the only true demonstration to the powers of the wisdom of God.

In meditating on your post brother, the Lord revealed to me the hypocrisy in what I previously posted.

I do heartily agree with your post, and it is full of life.

But THAT truth does not need to take hold, and THAT doctrine does not need to be preached. Jesus said He was the truth, and He is the truth that needs to take hold (please don't take this as a disagreement with you at all, in fact the Holy Spirit speaking the way He did through it, even in this seemingly small way, proves its reality)

Forgive me for posting hastily before, and I thank the Lord for what you wrote.

Here is what Andrew Murray wrote about rest

"I can never, by any effort of mine, grasp it; it is God must bestow it on me." I want you to be very bold in saying, "It is for me." But then I want you to fall down very low and say, "I can not seize it; I can not take it to myself." And how can you then get it? Praise God, if once He has brought you down in the consciousness of utter helplessness and self-despair, then comes the time that He can draw nigh and ask you, "Will you trust your God to work this in you?" Dearly beloved Christians, say in your heart: "I never, by any effort, can take hold of God, or seize this for myself; it is God must give it." Cherish this blessed impotence. It is He who brought us out, who Himself must bring us in. It is your greatest happiness to be impotent. Pray God by the Holy Spirit to reveal to you this true impotence, and that will open the way for your faith to say, "Lord, Thou must do it, or it will never be done." God will do it. People wonder, when they hear so many sermons about faith, and such earnest pleading to believe, and ask why it is they can not believe. There is just one answer: It is self. Self is working; is trying; is struggling, and self must fail. But when you come to the end of self and can only cry, "Lord, help me! Lord, help me!"-then the deliverance is nigh; believe that. It was God brought the people in. It is God who will bring you in.

I have heard some say it is not even our own faith, but the faith of Jesus within us believing, that we live by.

Not sure where I stand on that, but I can say for certain that when God saw fit to reveal this to me, I was in no state to believe for it, and was on the doorstep of throwing away my Bible and walking away. It truly is revelation knowledge.

From ANDREW MURRAY

Do not think it is an easy thing to get rid of self. At a consecration meeting, it is easy to make a vow, and to offer a prayer, and to perform an act of surrender, but as solemn as the death of Christ was on Calvary-His giving up of His unsinning self life to God,-just as solemn must it be between us and our God-the giving up of self to death. The power of the death of Christ must come to work in us every day. Oh, think what a contrast between that self-willed Peter, and Jesus giving up His will to God! What a contrast between that self-exaltation of Peter, and the deep humility of the Lamb of God, meek and lowly in heart before God and man! What a contrast between that self-confidence of Peter, and that deep dependence of Jesus upon the Father, when He said: "I can do nothing of myself." We are called upon to live the life of Christ, and Christ comes to live His life in us; but one thing must first take place; we must learn to hate this self, and to deny it. As Peter said, when he denied Christ, "I have nothing to do with him," so we must say, "I have nothing to do with self," that Christ Jesus may be all in all. Let us humble ourselves at the thought of what this self has done to us and how it has dishonored Jesus; and let us pray very fervently: "Lord, by Thy light discover this self; we beseech Thee to discover it to us. Open our eyes, that we may see what it has done, and that it is the only hindrance that has been keeping us back." Let us pray that fervently, and then let us wait upon God until we get away from all our religious exercises, and from all our religious experience, and from all our blessings, until we get close to God, with this one prayer: "Lord God, self changed an archangel into a devil, and self ruined my first parents, and brought them out of Paradise into darkness and misery, and self has been the ruin of my life and the cause of every failure; oh, discover it to me." And then comes the blessed exchange, that a man is made willing and able to say: "Another will live the life for me, another will live with me, another will do all for me," Nothing else will do. Deny self; take up the cross, to die with Jesus; follow Him only. May He give us the grace to understand, and to receive, and to live the Christ life.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches."--John 15:5

"Tis only a little Branch,
A thing so fragile and weak,
But that little Branch hath a message true
To give, could it only speak.
"I'm only a little Branch,
I live by a life not mine,
For the sap that flows through my tendrils small
Is the life-blood of the Vine.
"No power indeed have I
The fruit of myself to bear,
But since I'm part of the living Vine,
Its fruitfulness I share.
"Dost thou ask how I abide?
How this life I can maintain?--
I am bound to the Vine by life's strong band,
And I only need remain.
"Where first my life was given,
In the spot where I am set,
Upborne and upheld as the days go by,
By the stem which bears me yet.
"I fear not the days to come,
I dwell not upon the past,
As moment by moment I draw a life,
Which for evermore shall last.
"I bask in the sun's bright beams,
Which with sweetness fills my fruit,
Yet I own not the clusters hanging there,
For they all come from the root."
A life which is not my own,
But another's life in me:
This, this is the message the Branch would speak,
A message to thee and me.
Oh, struggle not to "abide,"
Nor labor to "bring forth fruit,"
But let Jesus unite thee to Himself,
As the Vine Branch to the root.
So simple, so deep, so strong
That union with Him shall be:
His life shall forever replace thine own,
And His love shall flow through thee.
For His Spirit's fruit is love,
And love shall thy life become,
And for evermore on His heart of love
Thy spirit shall have her home.
Freda Hanbury