“since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8)
We are going to spend eternity somewhere—heaven or hell. We can receive retribution, paying the price for what we have earned as we experience the justice and wrath of God, or we can enter rest, because Christ paid the price for us in suffering the wrath and justice demanded in His death on the cross.
What is the “rest” Paul mentions here? This is how it is described in Revelation 14:13, “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.“‘ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.’”
This eternal rest is heaven—the everlasting home of the saints. It is the place where we will abide in the presence of God in the fullness of His glory, where we will worship Christ and see Him face to face, where we will be united with loved ones gone before us, and where there will be no sin, no sorrow, no sickness—no more.
What a day that will be! Give praise to God who sent His Son to die that we might live, to suffer the punishment we merit so we can have His merits by faith and enter His rest!
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