"Rest must follow labor.
Indeed, rest presupposes labor.
But more than this: rest means labor completed.
No one can rest from a work that is unfinished.
"Every man at his best state is altogether vanity." (Psalm 39:5) 
"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6) A man must acknowledge the truth, namely, that in him dwells no good thing, before he will accept the perfection that God alone gives.
"The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." (Isaiah 57:20)
Therefore Christ, who is the fullness of God, and whose name is "God with us," says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and Iowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
The works were finished from
the foundation of the world.
Creation and redemption are the same, as we read, in His Son "we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins . . . for in Him were all things created" (Colossians 1:11-16). All this was done-these works finished-from the foundation of the world.
What is the proof of this? -"For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, 'They shall not enter into My rest.'" (Hebrews 4:4,5) "God did rest the seventh day from all His works." That is proof that the works were finished, and that the rest was ready. The work being finished, rest must follow, and so it did, on the seventh day....
At the close of each day the work was perfect as far as it had been done; but it was not finished, and therefore God could not rest from it until the close of the sixth day. Then God rested, and the seventh day was thus the seal of completion, of perfection.
The Sabbath, therefore,
is not a substitute for faith,
but a sign of faith."
E.J. Waggoner
