Of course, the larger picture of the pattern of working and resting is seen in the spiritual realm. Prior to the fall, Adam was called to work for confirmed righteousness and life. If he had obeyed, and had not eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would have entered into the everlasting Sabbath rest that lay before him.
The Sabbath day was a promise of something better (Heb. 4:1-11). After the fall, humanity was to learn to trust in Christ alone for salvation. The Sabbath laws in the Mosaic economy were so strict because they reflected what a man thought about salvation, namely, whether he thought it was by his own labors, or whether it was entirely by grace through faith. Just as God commanded the Israelites to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (Ex. 14:13), so God commands His people to cease working on the Lord’s Day and “see the salvation of the Lord in the finished work of Christ.’Jesus is our Sabbath rest in that he has taken the curse of Adam and the Law upon Himself. Jesus sweat great drops of blood as he entered into the work of redemption. He was crowned with the crown of thorns when he suffered for our sin. He died on the cross. Jesus bore the curse when He became a curse for us at the cross.
Then he rested from His work by lying in the tomb, dead on the Old Covenant Sabbath Day. Just as He had created the world and looked back over all his work and said, “It is good,” so too did He carry out the work of redemption, look back over it, and cry, “It is finished.” Now, by faith in Christ we enter in our Sabbath rest and will do so fully and finally in the consummation. He says to us, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28).
Christian Writer 