Resting in Jesus

Chapter 1: HIS OBEDIENCE, NOT YOURS

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Romans 5:19

As she drove away from the church, she knew she was not coming back. After nine years of attending church there, she was worn out. Even her husband asked her almost every Sunday after she came home from church, "Why do you keep going there? You always come home all mentally beat up." "I go because it is the right thing to do," she thought to herself. "I go because I want to please God."

But that Sunday she did not want to do it anymore. She was tired. She was worn out. She needed a break. In fact, that is exactly what she told everybody who asked her why she stopped going to church, "I needed a break." She even took a break from reading the Bible, because every time she read it, she heard the preaching in her mind that she had been listening to for the past nine years. "You need to do this. You need to do that. You need to throw that away. You need to dress this way. You need to live this way. You need to be pure and holy." Oh, sometimes she succeeded in following these rules, but more often than not, she had failed.

In fact, she felt like a failure most of the time. She did not know it then, but she was living a defeated Christian life, because her eyes were always on her obedience or the lack thereof, instead of on Christ's obedience. So every time she felt like she had obeyed, she was elated, but every time she felt like she had failed, she was depressed.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5, it says, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." If she would have kept her mind on Christ's obedience, her obedience would have flowed out of her effortlessly. In Matthew 6, it says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." She should have kept her mind off of her righteousness, and put all of her focus on Jesus' righteousness.

Jesus' righteousness was her foundation. It was the rock she should have stood on. It was the place she should have always come back to, especially after she had failed. If she had kept her mind on Jesus' righteousness, instead of her righteousness, all the things she sought after, including living right, would have been added to her effortlessly.

This story is my story, but it could just as well be the story for many Christians. God has since set me free. I no longer live a defeated Christian life, and you will not either, if you keep your eyes on Christ's obedience instead of on your obedience. It is not about you. It is about Jesus! His obedience made you righteous. His obedience will keep you righteous. In fact, all spiritual warfare is based on the Devil making you focus on yourself, your thoughts, and your deeds. It is painful to be self-occupied. God wants you to be Christ occupied. Preachers feel if they do not preach against sin, people will continue to sin, but preaching against sin keeps people's minds on sin. Preachers need to preach about God's grace. I have found the more I know about God's grace, the less attracted I am to sin and the more attracted I am to Jesus. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.

If I had to tell you in one sentence of how to live a powerful, amazing and victorious life, I would tell you to let go of all your striving and to rest in Christ. To rest in Christ is a simple statement, but for most of us, it is not so easy to do because we think if we are not striving, nothing will be accomplished. We think we need to be striving to become a better Christian or striving to please God, but Galatians 3:3, says“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” What this means is you should not strive to change yourself into what you think is the perfect Christian.

Part of resting in Christ means to let Jesus make the changes in you that need to be made. This is very, very important for you to understand, because if you start making changes in yourself, you still think you can please God by your works. There is a great example of this in Genesis when the first two sons of Adam and Eve brought their offering to God. Cain brought harvest from his garden, the fruit of his hands and this displeased God, because Cain thought he could please God by bringing his works. But his brother, Abel brought a lamb and this pleased God because it was a picture of Christ who, the Bible says, was slain before the foundation of the world.

It is all about the sacrifice you bring. It is not about you. It is all about Jesus, our perfect sacrifice. In the Old Testament, when the Israelites brought their sacrifice to the priest, the priest did not examine them, he examined their sacrifice to make sure it had no spots or blemishes. In the New Testament, we come before God in the name of Jesus, and just as the priest did in the Old Testament, God examines our sacrifice, not us. It is not about us. It is not about what we did, or did not do. It is all about what Jesus did on the cross.