Now, get to work (Eph
2:10).
Soundly saved, but what next?
Response to
comment [from a Christian]: "There are so many threads in this forum explaining
how that salvation is simply to believe that Jesus died for sinners, and that we
simply accept him as our Lord and savior and rest in what he has done for us.
No argument here, but what comes next?"
Now, get to work (Eph
2:10).
Response to comment [from a Christian]: Heb 4:10
Or
you could be like Peter and go fishing (Jn 21:3).
"Oh, I'll never leave Montana, brother." ~ Paul, A River Runs Through It
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works,
as God did from his [Heb. 4:10].
"We shouldn’t get the impression that when God rested on the seventh day He sat
down and said, “My, I’m tired. I’ve been working for six days, eight hours a
day, from sunup to sundown, and I’m weary! I’ll pull up the rocking chair and
rest.” That is not the thought behind “rest” at all. The thought here is the
rest of completeness. Creation is finished. God has never been in the business
of creating since then. There were just so many atoms which He needed for His
universe, and He just made them all at once. He hasn’t made any more since then.
Now there have been quite a few changes taking place in the universe, but it is
just those original little atoms rearranging themselves.
You and I live in a universe where creation is over with—except in the new
creation. That new creation began yonder at Calvary and the Day of Pentecost.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). Sons of God are the only
things God is creating today—through faith in Christ. And there is a rest that
He has promised to them. God has promised a heavenly rest, but, my friend, He
wants us to enjoy ourselves even now. As someone has said, “All the way to
heaven is heaven.” We ought to enjoy this life. That is what the writer is
talking about here: God rested, He ceased from His labors, and He is finished.
Therefore, you do not have to lift your little finger to do something toward
your salvation. Isn’t it really a matter of conceit on our part to think that
you and I as sinners could do anything that would cause God to say, “Oh my, what
a nice little fellow you are! I’m so happy to have you in heaven because you are
going to add a great deal to it.”? Well, my friend, that is not the picture at
all. He did it all for us. Even our righteousness is filthy rags in His sight.
He cannot accept our righteousness, because we really do not have any. “There is
none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Therefore He offers a finished
salvation to us, and when we trust Christ we become new creations in Him."
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas
Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 5:532-533
