Introduction

God is always in rest. Therefore someone who is in God is in rest. Even though God is in rest, He is the source of constant, powerful activity. Indeed, it is He who works in us both to will and to do. And it is the same with all those who rest in Him. The effects of their lives are manifold and powerful.

It is the power of sin in people’s lives that has made the following adage generally true: “Much bleating but little wool.”

Yet from the quietness in God radiate great and eternal effects, which are the result of sin having lost its power. That is why it is sometimes said of such people, “They achieve more by their silence than others achieve by their words.”

Our rest in God, be it great, small, or non-existent, manifests better than anything else our relationship to sin and reveals our growth (or lack of growth) in Christ Jesus. We can say what we like, but it is the measure of our rest in God that reveals what we are.

The goal of our high and holy calling is to partake of divine nature, which is the same as: