A Present Entering Into Rest

 The following is from T. Austin-Sparks' article "The Rest and the Courage of Faith " from A Witness and A Testimony magazine, Nov-Dec 1946, Vol. 24-6:

"If you look at the context, the meaning is something into which the people of God had not entered. 'They were not able to enter in because of unbelief' (Heb. 3:19). They could not enter in. Who were they?--the people of God. It is still the people of God for whom the rest remaineth.

"Do not let us put that into the future, that is not the meaning at all; that afterward, when we get Home to glory, then we will arrive at the Sabbath day rest, we will enter into rest. It is not something for the tombstone--he or she entered into rest. It is something which remains now as a present thing for the people of God, not in death, but in life. The rest remaineth.

". . . It is the rest of faith, not just the rest of passivity, indifference, carelessness. There is all the difference between carelessness and carefreeness. There remaineth, there is still to be had, there still obtains, there still exists, there is still preserved a rest for the people of God--for the people of God . . . Our testimony and our ministry is jeopardised; weakened, limited and discredited if we are not ourselves in rest; and this is the object of the enemy's activity in this matter--to discredit us by taking from us that very birthright of our union with Him Who is never perturbed, never anxious, never in doubt as to the issue, the One Who reigns. You see, rest is the practical outworking of our belief that He is Lord, and the very Lordship of Christ is struck at by the unrest of the people of God."