Repentance and Rest

When you find an area in your life that needs change, do you seek to try harder and do betterbut find it just gets worse? As Christians, this is often how we look at the gospel. How have we taken something so simple and turned it into a to-do list? Into Jesus plus this? Into I don’t see how God can really forgive me and love me when I keep doing _______? In Isaiah 30, God’s children were rushing about without consulting God (verse 2). They were making plans to ask for Egypt’s protection in crisis instead of turning to God and crying out for help. In verse 15, the Lord reminded them: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. The children of Israel were doing what we so often do: trying to worship God by following rules and saying the right things instead of through true repentance and rest in Him alone (Isaiah 29:13). Jesus confronted this same faulty thinking in Matthew 15:1-20. The Pharisees were upset that Jesus’ disciples weren’t following the traditions of the elders and washing their hands before eating (verse 2). Jesus showed them their hypocrisy by reminding them of what Isaiah said: merely following rules is not a mark of true repentance (verses 7-9). True repentance is turning to Jesus, the One who wipes out sin by His blood and gives the only true rest (Matthew 11:28; Acts 3:19). Savannah Coleman Why do we sometimes think of the Bible as do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that (Isaiah 28:12-13)? When you notice you’re trusting more in your good works than the blood of Jesus, how can you remind yourself His work on the cross finished it completely for you (Ephesians 2:8-9)? How does it make you feel to know salvation is free from a set of rules and regulations but instead involves a simple turning to and trusting in Jesus? How will you live in this freedom today? To learn more about what it means to trust Jesus, check out our “Know Jesus” page. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3 (NIV)

Read Verses:

Isaiah 30:1-22; 1 John 1:1-2:2