This is an important point. A part in the rest of God is the
distinctive privilege of saints — of God's people. Man had it not at the fall,
still God's rest remained the special portion of His people. He did not get it
under the law. But every distinct institution under the law is accompanied by
an enforcement of the sabbath, the formal expression of the rest of the first
Adam, and this Israel will enjoy at the end of this world's history. Till then,
as the Lord said so blessedly, My Father worketh hitherto and I work. For us,
the day of rest is not the seventh day, the end of this world's week; but the
first day, the day after the sabbath, the beginning of a new week, a new
creation, the day of Christ's resurrection, the commencement of a new state for
man, for the accomplishment of which all creation round us waits, only we are
before God in Spirit as Christ is. Hence the Sabbath, the seventh day, the rest
of the first creation on human and legal ground, is always treated with
rejection in the New Testament, though not set aside till judgment came, but as
an ordinance it died with Christ in the grave, where He passed it — only it was
made for man as a mercy. The Lord's day is our day, and precious external
earnest of the heavenly rest.[i]