Christian Experience and Redemption's Rest Day
By John Quinn
HOW many wearisome pilgrimages have been made in order to obtain the blessing of him who claims to be the vicar of the Son of God; and yet how unsatisfactory is the result. The soul-longing and the burden of sin remain; peace comes only through receiving Him who is the “Desire of Nations.” When Christ Jesus is received into the heart, God’s blessing floods the life, and rest is obtained in the work finished on the cross. The Holy Spirit, the true Vicar of Christ, controls the life, and His power to sanctify ever after is revealed. A great change has come into the life; old things have passed away, all things have become new. He has entered into rest, has received the blessing of God, and is being sanctified through the truth. In the beginning God rested from His work of creation, pronounced His blessing upon the seventh day, sanctifying it to the service of His children. Many are teaching that there is no distinction of days in the Christian dispensation. One might just as consistently teach that the experience of a Christian is not different from that of a sinner, or from what it was before he became a Christian. God’s rest, blessing, and sanctification can never be divorced from the seventh day; neither can they be separated from the believer in Christ Jesus. And if there is a great difference between Christian experience and the bondage of unbelief, so also is there a vast difference between the seventh day and the other days of the week. Eph. 1:3; Heb. 4:3; John 17:17. The plea is made that in resting on the first day of the week honor is given to the redemption made possible by Christ Jesus. But the observance is one day too late, as redemption’s rest day is identical with creation’s rest day. The work of creation ended at the close of the sixth day, and the next day was set apart as its memorial. Near the close of another sixth day, four thousand years later, the world’s Redeemer in triumph cried, “It is finished,” even as God had said on the first sixth day, It is very good. The next day He rested in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, thus making redemption’s rest day identical with that of creation. When the first day came, He spent it in travel from earth to heaven, and from place to place on the earth, convincing men of their unbelief in Him as the promised Messiah, and establishing their hearts in faith. And just as God brought light out of the darkness on earth’s first day, so again out of the open tomb in Palestine the light broke forth, to shine even to the perfect day. Loyalty to redemption means loyalty to its rest day, the seventh day of the week. Gen. 1:21; John 19:30; Luke 23:56; 24:1, 13; 2 Cor. 4:6, 7. Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.