He Sat Down To Rest

Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed in interceding for us.  Romans 8:34

These are Paul’s words for any child of God who doubts that they are really God’s children.  Is that you?  Maybe the severity of your sins makes you doubt.  Or, maybe you are in a spiritual desert and your experience of Christ is absent.

If you once came to Calvary, acknowledged your sin, asked God to save you ~ and then embraced Jesus to the point that you became His disciple for life ~ you are His child.  No sin can ever condemn you.  No spiritual desert can erase your place in God’s heart and His future kingdom.  Why?  Jesus died for your sin.  Jesus rose again and proved that He was the Christ and His atonement was valid.  Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God and His ‘sitting’ position means He finished what He came to earth to do.  His work of atonement is completed and nothing can undo that.

The priests in the Old Testament never finished their work.  Day after day, and year after year, they labored to perform their religious duties, even performing the same sacrifices over and over again because the Lamb of God had not yet come.  There were no chairs in the Jewish temple, no sitting.  Only working.

Many scriptures reveal that once Jesus ascended to His Father, God gave Him the seat of honor and glorified Him.  Jesus finally sat down and rested.  His seated position proves his statement from the cross when He said, “It is finished.”  He is resting just as God rested after the seven days of creation.  His work, then, was also finished.

I know that I belong to Jesus, now and forever, because He is seated at God’s right hand.  His work on my behalf was completed on a cross, was proven by an empty grave, and is now reinforced by his seated position.  I do not miss the power of this subtlety.  If my sin were not forgiven, if I was not justified and perfect in His sight, Jesus would still be working.

Everything that you did for me is completed.  The legal judgment of ‘not guilty anymore’ was rendered at the cross.  Nothing, not even my greatest failure, can undo that.  You are resting so I can rest in my salvation.  Amen