The Everlasting Rest

Puritan: Richard Baxter

Source: The Saints’ Everlasting Rest

Originally Delivered: 1647, Worcestershire, England

The Lord’s Day: September 20, 2026

“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” – Hebrews 4:9

“Rest! How sweet a word is this to my ears? Rest! Not as the stone rests on the earth or as these clods of flesh will rest in their grave. Nor is this such a rest as the carnal world desires. No, no, we have a different kind of rest from these. We will rest from all our labors, which were only ever the way and the means to rest. Yet even that is only the smallest part.

Oh, blessed rest, where we will never rest day or night, crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaths!” We will rest from sin but not from worship, from suffering and sorrow but not from solace! Oh, blessed day, when I will rest with God, when I will rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing, and praising, when my perfect soul and body together will perfectly enjoy the most perfect God! This God, Who is love itself, will perfectly love me! He will rest in His love for me just as I will rest in my love for Him. He will rejoice over me with singing (Zeph. 3:17), as I will rejoice in Him. How near is that most blessed, joyful day? Though my Lord seems to delay His coming, yet a little while, and He will be here (Heb. 10:37).

Oh my soul, look ahead to that day. Do you regret your sufferings and sorrows now, your self-denying and holy walking? See how the Judge smiles on you! There is love in His eyes. Listen, does He not call you? He bids you stand here at His right hand. Do not fear, for that is where He sets his sheep. Oh, joyful sentence pronounced by that blessed mouth: “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). See how your Savior takes you by the hand. The door is open, the kingdom is His – and therefore yours. There is your place before His throne. The Father receives you as the spouse for His son. He welcomes you with the crown of glory (1 Pet. 5:4).

This was the aim of free, redeeming grace, this the purpose of eternal love. This joy was purchased by sorrow; this crown was obtained by the cross. My Lord wept so that now my tears might be wiped away. He was forsaken so that I might not now be forsaken. He died so that I might now live. This weeping, wounded Lord will I behold. This bleeding Savior will I see. I will live in Him who dies for me. Oh, free mercy that can exalt so vile a wretch – free to me but dear to Christ.

Oh, blessed grace! Oh, blessed love! Oh, the frame that my soul will then be in! Oh, how love and joy will stir! But I cannot express it. I cannot conceive it.

See the happy reunion with my old friends with whom I prayed, wept, and suffered. We spoke together of this day and place! The grave could not contain you. The same love has redeemed and saved you as well. This is not like our cottages of clay, our prisons, our earthly dwellings. This voice of joy is not like our old complaints, our groans, our sighs, our impatient moans. Oh, what a blessed change this is! Farewell, sin and suffering forever. Farewell, my hard and rocky heart. Farewell, my proud and unbelieving heart. Farewell, my idolatrous and worldly heart. Farewell, my sensual and carnal heart. And now welcome, most holy and heavenly nature. As it must be employed in beholding the face of God, so is it full of God alone and delighted in nothing else but Him.

Ah, my drowsy, earthy, blockish heart! How coldly you think of this reviving day! Do you sleep when you think of eternal rest? Are you leaning earthward when heaven is before you? Would you rather sit down in the dirt and dung than walk in the court of the palace of God? Come away! Make no excuse, make no delay. God commands you, and I command you: Come away! Gird up your loins, ascend the mountain, and look about you with seriousness and with faith. Do not look back toward the way of the wilderness, unless your eyes are so dazzled with glory that you desire to compare this kingdom with that howling desert and more sensibly perceive the mighty difference between them.    

Draw nearer yet, then, oh my soul. Here’s something truly worth your loving. If love deserves love, what incomprehensible love is here before you? What a sea of love lies before you. Throw yourself in. Swim with the arms of your love in this ocean of His love.