Jesus Sat Down, So Should We
Since many Hebrew people rejected the new covenant of grace, including many of the priests, the priests continued the daily and yearly sacrifices of animals for the sins of the people (Hebrews 10:11).
The work of the priests under the old covenant was never finished.
They stood day after day and year after year sacrificing animals to cover their own sins and the sins of the people.
They could never rest (Hebrews 10:11).
There was always another animal to be sacrificed to cover their own sins and the sins of others (Hebrews 5:1-3).
But Jesus was the final High Priest.
He was the final sacrifice.
When Jesus offered himself as the final sacrifice for all sin, for all people, for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3; 10:12).
This act of Jesus sitting down is symbolic of his payment for the sins of all people being complete and eternal...finished forever.
Jesus now rested from his work of paying our sin penalty through his shed blood.
Since Jesus rested, so do we!
The Bible says we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6).
Those who have received God’s grace through faith in Jesus can rest too!
We no longer have to seek to maintain God’s forgiveness through religious works.
We do not have to try to maintain fellowship with God by keeping short accounts on sin since this account doesn’t even exist because it has been paid in full by Jesus.
We rest from trying to make sure all our sins are confessed in order to stay in fellowship with God.
We rest from the weariness of the spiritual disciplines, which we believe God and others expect us to keep.
We rest in a loving relationship with God, rather than seeking to fulfill a list of requirements.
We rest from the misery of the religious wilderness of shame, guilt, and condemnation by entering into God’s Promised Land of Grace where we enjoy a land flowing with love, forgiveness, peace, and righteousness.
A land where God remembers our sins no more and where we enjoy a love-relationship with him forevermore.
