What is the repose of the soul?

Even so, rest from labor develops into rest in labor, or it is not the full rest Christ gives. Rest for the conscience is attained when we have known that the work of Christ is what God alone accepts, and has accepted, as justifying us before Him. Therefore He gives rest. "Come unto Me all ye that labor, and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28.) Does He stop there? Is that all? No; "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (v. 29.) That is the only way in which rest in the full sense is attainable. It is rest, not apprehended by the conscience merely, but laid hold of by the heart; rest from all restlessness, — perfect and complete repose.

Rest is spoken of under different aspects in Holy Scripture. We are all familiar with the evangelical invitation given at the close of Matt. 11. First, our Lord says, "Come to Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This is manifestly rest of conscience. Many labour under the burden of realised guilt; others groan under the yoke of religious ordinances by means of which they hope ultimately to obtain salvation. To all these the Saviour offers rest as a gracious gift. His atoning sacrifice has so perfectly satisfied all the claims of divine holiness in regard to sin that none need carry the burden of guilt for a single hour; so completely, too, has He finished His work that none need toil on their own account. Both the guilt laden and the ordinance-laden are thus tenderly invited to be at rest. Believers having been purged once for all have "no more conscience of sins" (Heb. 10:2). On the ground of the Saviour's work their consciences are in rest and peace before God for ever.

Our Lord proceeds thus in Matt. 11:29: "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your souls." This goes beyond rest of conscience. It is rest of heart in the circumstances of daily life. Many who enjoy the one blessing know little of the other. Yet the condition is a very simple one. It is the abandonment of self-will, and the hearty acceptance of the authority of Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. Nothing is more disquieting than thwarted self-will. The Saviour knew no such painful experience. In meekness He ever bowed to the Father's will; it was characteristic of Him to say, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." He alone is the Christian's perfect pattern. In measure as He is imitated so the heart finds perfect repose whatever befalls. Abraham is the Old Testament type of the restful believer, as Jacob is of the unrestful. The stories of these two men are highly instructive in this connection.

Then He adds, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall FIND REST UNTO your souls." This rest is quite different from the rest of conscience which I get through the work of Christ; it is the REST OF HEART, the rest of spirit, that I get by communion with Him as a living Person from day to day. The first rest is the Sinner's rest, the second rest is the Saint's rest, and there is still another rest, of which the apostle speaks in Heb. 4:9 — "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God." That is God's rest, which we are going to get by-and-by. A sinner gets rest of conscience in the work of Christ; the saint gets rest of heart in the Person of Christ, and then there is God's rest -GLORY, where sin and its fruits can never come, into which He is going to take us who believe, spirit, soul, and body, for eternity: and that is the end of the path on which the soul enters who once trusts Jesus, comes to Jesus, confides in Jesus.

Now, tell me, would you not like to know these rests? You know the world cannot give you rest. Have you rest as you think of Death? Have you rest as you think of the Day of Judgment? No! you know you have not; "There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked;" no peace till you come to Christ. Those who have come to Him have rest. It is impossible for a soul to have come to Christ and not to have rest. If you have not rest you have not simply come to Jesus, that's all; you may have come half-way, and you may he a little self-complacent, too, that you are different now from what you used to be, but there is no real rest save in personal contact with the Lord Himself, getting alone with Him, and finding out how He meets the need of the soul.

Do not suppose that one overlooks Matt. 11:28, that in Christ is a present rest for faith. "Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." This is the rest of grace now, not of glory. Then follows something further too: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls." First, in pure sovereign favour, He gives rest unconditionally to all the weary that come; and then, when walking in the path of obedience and submission to Him, the faithful find rest. For if one be disobedient, one must have (as 1 John 3 teaches) the heart ill at ease. Our heart condemns us; how then can be any rest of soul? But there remains a third sense: not only rest given by Christ as a present relief to the conscience; and, again, true rest of heart found in the path of obedience and learning of Him; but the rest of God, when it is no longer a question of man and sin and self-will and misery, but all the chequered scene of toil and suffering will be over; when God will rest in the satisfaction of His own love and glory, having brought His sons and His people into His everlasting rest, rest above and rest below.

Doubtless, as the apostle argues, God gave the sabbath at the beginning; but this was not His rest, for sin spoiled creation. Hence He says afterwards, "If they shall enter into my rest." "If" implies that they had not entered it, and might fail also. So again, after Joshua (the "Jesus" of Heb. 4:8) had put down the Canaanites (though never completing the conquest), after Israel had settled themselves in the land, was it then the rest of God? By no means; for the Psalm which speaks of that rest as not yet was written long after Adam and even Joshua. The conclusion is that "there remains therefore a rest (σαββατισμὸς , a sabbath keeping) for the people of God." Consequently it is not yet come.

Further, the apostle strengthens this from another principle, namely, that one cannot be both working and resting in the same sense, at the same time. If one has entered into rest, he has done with works, even as is said of God Himself (ver. 10). But the bright day when we shall rest is not yet arrived. He therefore exhorts the saints to diligence meanwhile. Now is the time for work; and every one that has the love of Christ in such a world as this must feel it, for the simple reason that sin and wretchedness overspread the world. Divine love, whether in God or in His people, refuses to rest in evil or in misery. After Christ comes, it will not he so. "There remains therefore a sabbath-keeping for the people of God."

This is a very practical and experimental peace. "Peace with God" (Romans 5:1) is manifestly to be distinguished from this, for all the children of God, on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ, have peace with God by faith: it is their eternal possession immediately upon conversion. "The peace of God" rather is that tranquillity of soul that rests in the will of God: it is the same blessed peace seen in its perfection in all the path of the Lord Jesus. And such is a very real guard for the heart and mind, as the passage has been rightly translated, "shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Yet this infinitely strong protection and comfort can be enjoyed by the believer only as he acts truly upon the instruction of verse 6: this alone will give the calm, tranquil peace of a mind and heart resting in the blessed will of God. There is no real reason that this should not be the common experience of all saints: alas, that it is not more constantly so!

This was the yoke of Christ; and this is what He, in His infinite grace, invites us to take upon us, in order that we, too, may find rest to our souls. Let us mark, and seek to understand the words. "Ye shall find rest." We must not confound the "rest" which He gives with the "rest" which we find. When the weary, burdened, heavy laden soul comes to Jesus in simple faith, He gives rest, settled rest, the rest which flows from the full assurance that all is done; sins for ever put away; perfect righteousness accomplished, revealed and possessed, every question divinely and eternally settled; God glorified; Satan silenced; conscience tranquilized.

But there is another element in this touching picture of grace. The perfect submission of a man humble of heart had been the occasion of the revelation of glory and of grace in His person. It is just the same in John 12. It is always so. Submission to the ways of God opens the door to the knowledge of His grace and of His glory. Now it was thus with Jesus as man; and He engages His hearers to take the yoke, the yoke that He had taken Himself, and to learn of Him in this manifestation of submission and of poverty of spirit, and they should find rest for their souls. It is perfect grace, the revelation of the Father in the Son, which gives rest to hearts weary of this world of sin; it is the perfect submission of the will which gives practical peace to the heart, whilst one crosses it. It is Christ the Son revealing the Father, the man Christ perfectly subject to the yoke, which gives both.

"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (vers. 29, 30). Grace does not leave men to do as they list, but enables the heart that receives it to desire the will of God. So, after saying, "I will give you rest," our Lord adds, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Mark the difference. In verse 28 it is, "Come unto Me. … and I will give you rest" — it is pure grace to the soul in need, with nothing but its sins to bring; but in saying, "Take My yoke upon you. … and ye shall find rest to your souls," He speaks of subjection to Him, and the effect is finding rest to our souls. When the sinner goes in his wretchedness to Jesus, the Saviour gives him rest — "without money and without price." But if that soul does not follow on in the ways of Christ, he becomes miserable, and loses the comfort he had at first. Why? He has not taken Christ's yoke upon him. The terms on which the Lord gives rest to the sinner are, "Come unto Me," just as you are. The terms on which the believer finds rest are, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." The Lord keeps His moral government over His people, and they are more disturbed than any, if not subject to Christ; they can neither enjoy Him nor the world. If I have found such a Saviour, and yet am not bearing His yoke, God does not intend that I should be happy. All else is a false happiness.

Approached from this direction, the next point is soon reached, the character of the meek. Amid the lusts and strife of earth, if like others you have your portion to seek, you must strive as they do. If you have nothing here to live for but God's will, you can afford to be quiet. Be sure for yourself of a Father's love and care always over you, ― infinite love and wisdom concerning itself with all your path, and such realization will of necessity subdue all rashness of self-assertion; and make you careful only to give God His way, to cease from the folly of your own. Here too the Lord leads his people, "Learn of Me," He says, "for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." There is the present blessing of it, and how great it is! ― "rest to your souls:" rest from all restlessness; quiet in the knowledge that God is God; what an inestimable joy is this!

Hence quietness and contentment take the place of fretfulness and impatience. For though we know not what to pray for as we ought, yet we do know "that all things work together for good to them that love God." And the believer loves God. The very occasion of all his groanings is the presence of the Spirit crying, Abba, Father. The soul, then, whilst in heaviness because of temptation, of weakness, and of unsatisfied desire, is yet kept in joy. The power of God to work good is the practical solace of the heart that knows God as its eternal portion in Christ. Thus godliness with contentment becomes great gain (1 Tim. 6:6). The Blessed One Himself, amid the sore amazement of His matchless sorrow, could utter His request as to the God of His life: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me;" yet He straightway adds, "Not my will, but Thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). So is it with the soul that, as led of the Spirit, is walking in His steps. The will of God is to such the measure of obedience and the rule of patience. Faith reposes in God, committing all to Him; knowing that He is not overcome of evil, but that His end is glory and rest. Joy thus fills the sufferer's prospect. Happiness is known in the soul under the quiet assurance that all that is suffered is but a process whereby Almighty power is working out in grace the counsels of the will of love.