Rest in Peace

The Shorter Catechism asks, "What is faith in Jesus Christ?"

It answers, "Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel."

The key word is rest. Not debate. Not admire. Not theorize. But rest. Faith is not merely agreement—it is collapse. It is the soul’s weary fall into the arms of another, into Christ Himself, and into Him alone.

Let me share a story I came across in John Whitecross that illustrates this clearly.

Dr. John M. Mason, a Presbyterian minister in New York, once received a request to visit a dying woman. She and her husband had long sat under his preaching but were proud non-believers by conviction. They showed up for the sermons, but they rejected the Savior those sermons proclaimed.

As he sat by her deathbed, Dr. Mason asked her plainly, “Do you see yourself a sinner? Do you sense your need of a Savior?”

She didn’t flinch. “No,” she said. “And I think the idea of a Mediator is nonsense.”

Mason, a faithful shepherd, replied just as plainly: “Then I have no comfort to give you. I can’t offer peace where God offers none. If you reject the Mediator He has provided, you must face the consequences of that choice.”

And with that, he stood to leave. Someone in the room called out, “At least pray for her.”

He agreed and knelt at her side. But this wasn’t a soft prayer. This wasn’t polite religion. Mason pleaded with God for her soul—as one guilty and near damnation, as one moments away from eternity without hope. He named the danger and named the only hope: Christ. He stood up, walked out, and assumed the matter was done.

But a few days later, a message came. It was from the woman.

She wanted to see him—urgently.

He returned, not sure what to expect. But as he entered the room, she reached out her hand with a calm, radiant face and said, “It’s all true. Everything you said—it’s all true. I saw myself in your prayer: guilty, lost, undone. But I also saw Christ—the all-sufficient Savior. God has pulled me from the pit of my infidelity and set me on the Rock of Ages. I rest there. I will rest there. I know whom I have believed.”

That woman didn’t need an argument. She needed a miracle. And the Lord gave it.

She charged her husband to raise their daughter in the fear of God. And then, she died in peace.

That’s faith. Not a vague religious feeling. Not theological curiosity. Saving faith is the grace of God that brings a sinner to rest entirely, desperately, and gladly on Christ—as He is offered to us in the gospel.

Only those who have faith in Christ can truly rest in peace. Trust Him.