THIRD QUARTER 2021
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #11
SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
“LONGING FOR MORE”

 

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:11, 12

 

The messages in these texts bracket the first passage of our lesson, found in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11, and represent the immediate context of the passage. Even as we believe in the corporate salvation provided for all humanity and personally appreciate the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, being baptized into that death to self, appropriating the spiritual food and drink from our Rock Jesus Christ, we find a longing for more. Where does the longing come from and what do we do with that longing? Why do we continue to long for more even after we come to Christ, since He has promised to give us rest? What are the risks of this longing and the discipline needed to fulfill it?

There must be a certain discipline in “entering into His rest.” The Jesus Who said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) also said “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul is using the corporate experience of Israel to point to the individual experience of those who have appreciated the objective truth of the gospel and entered to some extent into the subjective experience that it brings, but who are on a journey, like Abraham and Israel of old, to a better country and a heavenly city, where righteousness dwells and true rest occurs. (Deuteronomy 12:10, 2 Peter 3:13)

We begin the journey of rest by believing the objective gospel; we moment by moment continue in it by believing its subjective practicality in our day-to-day experience, when the flesh rises up to confuse our longing for final rest with its longing desire for “something more” in the here and now. Thus, Paul’s notation of essentially the same trilogy found in 1 John 2:16 - the lust of the flesh (1 Corinthians 10:8), the lust of the eyes, or idolatry (vs 7), and the pride of life (vs 9, 10), where the world presents a more immediate and apparently better way to fulfill our longings than the way of humility and trust that Christ has prepared for us.

But we are called to live now in the eternal realities already present and revealed in the gospel.

Crucial to continually entering His rest is a deepening appreciation of what our salvation has cost God, the suffering that sin causes both Him and us. Our appreciation of the sacrifice for sin should never become merely a ritual (like that of killing a lamb) in which we forget the personal cost to both the Father and “the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.”

Hebrews 4:2 and 4:6 link a believing faith with obedience, much like Jesus did in answer to the question presented to Him, “‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He sent.’” John 6:28, 29. This belief in Jesus as a personal, indwelling Saviour (the mystery of God), is the key, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us then be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:10, 11.

It is when we start to view what we do as primarily our work, rather than His, that we fall out of His rest, or we might say we fail to enter deeper into the rest He has already provided. He has promised to complete His work in us, and the works are already provided from the foundation of the world so that we might enter in to them (Ephesians 2:10). We all long for something more, but we will find only His indwelling of us as the fulfillment of that longing. The continual crucifixion of the flesh and its desires is something He will do in us, for us, as He did as us (as the 2nd Adam), if we do not harden our hearts and take control of the process. This disciplining of the body and its subjection is in this sense personally ours, as there is a crucifixion of self in letting God do His work:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God Who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12, 13.

May we choose to be part of the remnant who by faith receive the fulfillment of the heart’s longing for more - Christ revealed in the law of love, written in our hearts.

 

~Todd Guthrie

 

E.J. Waggoner:

The Gospel does not consist in theories or dogmas, but in actual life. It does not present to men and women abstruse problems to puzzle their brains over, or questions for speculative discussion, but present help for daily need. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. xlvi. 1. Real Gospel teaching consists in giving the people such instruction as will help them to live the right kind of life from day to day. It is to the labouring and the oppressed classes that the Gospel appeals. All that labour and are heavy laden are offered rest. When the Lord says, "Come," He means come now, and whoever comes finds rest at once. He does not disappoint anybody.

This is just what the fourth chapter of Hebrews presents, in the statement, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." This verse has been strangely misread, and made to refer only to the future, when it means now. That which remains is not that which is yet to come, but that which has already been, and is still in existence. The remnant of a piece of goods is the portion that has not yet been disposed of. So, the rest that remains is the rest that God prepared from the foundation of the earth, and which is still open for weary souls to accept.

The Christian life is a life of rest even in toil. "These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John xvi. 33. This rest is found in Christ, - in His life. But His life is eternal life, which He gives to as many as receive Him. "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John v. 13, R.V. So it is that the Gospel has to do with eternal things, but eternal things in the present time. The trouble with people is that they regard eternity as only future, whereas eternity is past, present, and future. It has been, is, and is to be. But specially is it now, God "inhabiteth eternity" (Isa. lvii. 15), but His name is I AM. Eternity with Him is always present.

Likewise, He desires us to live the life eternal, but always in the present. He who truly believes in Christ, passes from death unto life, from the temporal to the eternal, from the unreal to the real.

And thus, it is in a sense true that the Gospel has to do with the next world, rather than with this. Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." Gal. i. 4. But He delivers us from this present world only by saving us from the evil of it. He gives us rest in righteousness.

But this rest in righteousness - the rest that remains - is the rest that was ready for man from the foundation of the world. Heb. iv. 3-5. As we learned in the second chapter of Hebrews God has put "the world to come" in subjection to man, not to angels. Do not forget that "the world to come" has been put in subjection to man, not is to be put in subjection to him. That world to come is the new earth, the same that God created and gave to man in the beginning. Its rest and peace and power are to be enjoyed in this present time, thus bringing heaven upon earth, and giving men a heaven in which to live, while going to heaven. While the redeemed are to sing a new song on Mount Zion, they are to "come with singing unto Zion." Isa. li. 11.

"God did rest the seventh day from all His work." Heb. iv. 4. "The works were finished from the foundation of the world." Verse 3. That rest God gave to man, and the rest still remains, for in the cross, Christ, in whom all things are created, said, "It is finished." The same rest which is now given, is to be enjoyed in the ages to come, for "He that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto Me, Write; for these things are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Rev. xxi. 5, 6. The finished work of creation in the beginning, and the finished work of the new creation, are found in the cross of Christ. Oh, come to Christ, believe His word, and find rest now. (November 18, 1897 EJW, PTUK 724-5.)

Entering into Rest. - "For we which have believed do enter into rest." Heb. iv. 3. The proof of this follows in the statement, "As I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest." R.V. That was because they did not believe. The positive side of that oath is, that those who believe shall enter into rest. The rest remains, is left behind for us, for it existed in the days of Israel in the wilderness, and they would not go in; therefore we enter in as soon as we believe. This is seen from the statement already quoted, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29. But the work of God is complete and perfect; therefore to have the work of God is to have His rest.

 

Work Finished and Rest Prepared. - They could not enter into God's rest, because of unbelief, "although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." What does that signify? - Simply that the rest was prepared from the foundation of the world; for finished work means rest. When work is finished, rest must follow.

Remember that the rest offered is God's rest; there is, indeed, no other. This rest is found in Christ, who calls all the weary to Himself. The rest is found in Christ, because in Him are all the works of God; He is the righteousness of God. Only in Him is there righteousness and strength.

Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The power of the cross is creative power, for "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor. v. 17), or, as the margin of the Revision has it, "there is a new creation." So we see the cross from the foundation of the world. (November 4, 1897 EJW, PTUK 692.)

 

W.W. Prescott:

The spiritual significance of the Sabbath is clearly set forth in the third and fourth chapters of the epistle to the Hebrews. The experience of the children of Israel is taken for the basis of the instruction. They were promised rest in a land out of which the Lord was to drive their enemies before them, if they would be obedient to His voice, but their failure to obey led to the loss of that rest. Thus it is stated: "To whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that were disobedient? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief." Heb. 3:18, 19. Immediately there follows a warning lest the experience of Israel should be repeated in the Christian church: "Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. For we who have believed do enter into that rest." Heb. 4:1-3.

Plainly it is the rest of faith which is here considered, the rest of soul which comes by believing on Christ as the Saviour from sin, the rest which is forfeited through unbelief, which means disobedience. But it is equally plain that this rest of soul is in some way directly connected with the seventh day Sabbath, for there follow immediately these statements: "He hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, And God rested on the seventh day from all His works; and in this place again, They shall not enter into My rest." Heb. 4:4, 5. This connection is simple and significant. The seventh day is God's Sabbath, His day of rest, in which He rested from His work. "He rested, and was refreshed." Ex. 31:17. After man's rest in God was disturbed by sin, the gospel made provision for the restoration of this rest through the operation of the creative power of God in the new creation, and physical rest on the seventh day became the sign of the spiritual rest, the rest of soul, which results from the saving work of Christ. The rest which Joshua endeavored to give to the children of Israel was not the final rest, and so we read: "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." Heb.4:9, 10. The original work of God in creation was absolutely perfect, for "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:31. But as for man, "there is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one." Rom. 3:12. To rest from our own works and to enter into God's rest is therefore to cease from our sinful works and to accept the finished work of Christ in our behalf, and the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is the outward sign of such an experience.

The gospel of the Sabbath is therefore the good news that Jehovah has "wrought all our works for us" (Isa. 26:12) by virtue of the new creation, and that the observance of the original Sabbath is our confession that we are saved by the work of another rather than by our own work. This is our constant testimony to the saving power of Christ. (1929 WWP, SOTW 108-10.)