“‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength’” (Isaiah 30:15b, NKJV).
How are we saved? In returning and rest. That returning, that’s repentance, coming back to God. We were away from God—we come to God. Or we turned away from God; we turn back to God. It’s the changing of our mind, changing of our hearts, which is in part our decision and in part the Holy Spirit working in us. It’s that returning to God, calling to Him, running to Him, asking to pray for forgiveness and asking for His help to carry on in righteousness and rest. We’re saved by rest. We’re not saved by works. We’re saved by grace through faith which is a gift, not of works. Our job is to rest. We are saved by resting, the Believer’s Rest, that’s in Hebrews 4.
(By the way, when I mention something—Believer’s Rest—you can Google search: “Bible verse believer’s rest” and it’ll come up. In another lesson I mentioned the washing by the word, you can Google: “Bible verse washing by the word.” I was thinking of Ephesians 5 when I said that. Or “Christ is the vine,” you can search: “Bible verse Christ vine.” John 15 will come up. You can search these things out for yourself, make sure I’m not just saying something. Search it out for yourself in the scriptures.)
Alright, Believer’s Rest, that’s Hebrews 4. It’s the place we’re all supposed to come into. That’s our salvation: resting in his finished work. Jesus said, “It is finished.” It’s a finished work. Our salvation is accomplished and we’re to rest in it. We’re not to try to add to it. We work out our salvation. That’s already been accomplished. That’s not working for our salvation. I know people who get tripped up in that. Maybe we don’t think of it as earning our salvation. Sometimes we do. Maybe we’re trying to fast and pray enough to get healing or whatever it is we think we need. Our salvation is all part of that. It’s not just heaven at the end. It’s walking in God’s presence now. It’s our healing, and our protection, and our provision, all those things in the psalms, all those things we see in the Old Testament that God does for His people. That’s part of our salvation, our life in Christ. And so sometimes we do try to be good enough, do the right things so that we can get the thing that we think we need. But if we really needed it right then, we’d have it, because He meets all of our needs.
We also, try to work for our salvation because we’re not at rest. We’re not trusting Him to bring it about. We’re not trusting Him for healing, so we run to the doctors. We’re not trusting Him to provide, so we take out a loan. We don’t trust Him to… whatever it is. You can watch our miracle stories to see some of the ways we have waited on Him and trusted Him to provide. And He always protected, even when we didn’t realize that we needed it, He did it anyway. Because He’s a good God.
Our goal is rest and that is our salvation. Our strength is in resting: quietness and confidence. Quietness, that makes me think of the verses: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, NKJV); be still, or be silent, and see My salvation, that’s all you need to do (Exodus 14:13-14). Our job is to know He is God, to see His salvation—just to look to Him, know who He is. I see You. I know You’ve got this. I know You’re working it out, and You hold me in Your hand. I know Your will can’t be thwarted. I know Your will is only good and perfect for my life. I know that You are only loving towards me. I know that You are in control and able, so there’s nothing to fear. I will wait on You, and You will strengthen my heart as I wait for You.
There’s another similar verse in Isaiah. Isaiah 32:17: “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever” (WEB). Where does that quiet confidence come from? It’s the effect of righteousness, but again righteousness is a gift from God. We’re clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We make the choice to obey the Holy Spirit, obey the Scriptures, but He does the working; He does the doing. He puts the will in and the want in, into us to obey. He puts His love in His heart so that we want to please Him, and He puts the ability in us to walk in obedience. We do fumble around in this flesh. It’s not that we never fumble in any way, but we’re not choosing sin. We’re choosing Him. We choose love; we choose Him.