Heb 4:3–10 — Entering God's Rest by Faith

Last week we began looking at this section in chapter 3, the second of Hebrews’ five warning passages. The first warning passage was back in chapter two, and verses one through four, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. But now we are in the second warning passage, which is derived from a commentary on Psalm 95. Psalm 95 is the passage that the author of Hebrews is quoting here from when he says, today, if you hear his voice, it is the second half of Psalm 95.

The first half is they call to worship, come let us worship the Lord. And then the second half is today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. The main point that the author of Hebrews is drawing from this in his exhortation, in this warning to the people of God, he is focusing primarily on those two statements.

The Promise of Rest

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And in the second statement at the end, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And he sees those two things as being the flip side of the same thing. In other words, if you do not harden your heart, then you are entering God’s rest.

The author of Hebrews is using Psalm 95 and using this exhortation from Psalm 95. He is using it and applying it to his audience who are Jewish Christians who are contemplating returning to Judaism and turning away from Christ. They are on the verge of apostasy. They are on the verge of rejecting the gospel and turning away from their profession of faith in Christ. Or at least some of them are. And he is concerned about them, and so he is warning them not to do that.

And to make this call, to make this exhortation, not to harden your heart and turn back to Judaism, he is quoting from Psalm 95 to apply that passage to the people of God today. He is a good preacher. He is taking a passage from the Old Testament that It was written hundreds of years before and had a different initial original context in which it was given, but he is applying it now to his people today and encouraging them and calling them to greater faithfulness, to not harden their heart and turning away from the Lord, but to persevere in their faith and to trust in Christ and to enter into God’s rest. Now that raises a question. What does that mean? What does that phrase mean, to enter God’s rest?

That is clearly the main focus of this passage, especially the second part of the warning, which is the one we are in today, beginning in chapter four. And in this section, in chapter 4, verses 1 through 11, I read 3 through 10, but in 1 through 11, he uses this phrase, entering God’s rest, multiple times.

Just look at it there. For example, in chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fearless any of you should seem to have failed to reach it then he uses that phrase again in verse three for we who have believed enter that rest I would encourage you to take a pencil or a highlighter and highlight that phrase, because that is the key to this whole passage. Once that phrase, we who have believed enter that rest, that unlocks the whole meaning of this passage. But just notice, I am just bringing out here the fact that this phrase of entering God’s rest is used so often in this passage.

In verse one, in verse three. It is used in verse 3b in the quotation from Psalm 95, they shall not enter my rest, there it is with a negative, but still at least the idea of entering God’s rest is mentioned. Then again in verse 5, he quotes it again. Again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest. Then verse 6, since therefore it remains for some to enter. There is that phrase again, entering God’s rest. And then again, it comes up in verse 10, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works. And also in verse 11, which we are going to look at next week, but in verse 11, he says, let us therefore strive to enter that rest.

So in case you were a little bit confused about all the ins and outs of this passage, and admittedly, it is a little bit complicated. You are not really sure exactly what he is saying from verse to verse. He has these weird arguments that are kind of a little bit assuming a lot, and you have to like think about what he is saying, especially the one there in verse three, where he says, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, It is like, what are you saying? I am not quite sure I follow the logic here.

So you might be a little bit confused about the logic of every little detail in the passage, but if you just step back, okay, if you just step back and think about the main point here without getting lost in the weeds of each individual verse, the main point is we need to enter God’s rest. That is what he is calling the people to do. Let us enter God’s rest. Let us not be like the wilderness generation who hardened their hearts and did not enter God’s rest.

He is referring to that story in Numbers chapter 13 and 14, when God appointed the 12 spies, 12 from each tribe, and they went into the land. They are in the wilderness, but the spies went into the land, the promised land, to scope it out and to see what God had promised to give them. And the spies came back, 10 of them with a negative report, to discourage the people, to say, we cannot go in, they are too big for us, they are too strong for us. And two, Caleb and Joshua, with a positive report, saying, no, let us go in, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, he defeated the Egyptians, surely he will be with us and enable us to enter into the promised land that he has promised us. He made his promise, he will be faithful to fulfill it.

So the author of Hebrews here is alluding to that incident. He is alluding to this story, which is also the context of Psalm 95. Psalm 95 is also alluding to that same incident, which was about 500 years before Psalm 95. So you have a chain of historical events. You have the wilderness generation, which is way back there. Then you have Psalm 95, which is later on, 500 years later, where they are already in the land and they are worshiping God. And then you have, now in the first century, these Jewish believers.

And the author of Hebrews is making an analogy and saying, do not be like the wilderness generation who, when they heard God’s promise, yes, we can go into the land. He has promised it to us. They did not believe that promise. They hardened their heart. And as a result, they were not able to enter God’s rest. That is, they were not able to enter into the land of promise. And so the author uses encouraging the people of God. Do not be like the wilderness generation.

Do not harden your hearts, but believe in God’s promise and enter into God’s rest that he has promised you. The whole point of this passage then is a warning, an exhortation, an encouragement to God’s people to not be unbelieving, but to be believing and trusting, to be like Caleb and Joshua and to say, the Lord has made his promise. He has guaranteed it with an oath. He has also shown us his mighty power by already delivering us from the enemies when we were in Egypt. And so let us trust the Lord.

Let us believe in his promise and enter into God’s rest. Let us strive to enter that rest, as he will say in verse 11. Let us strive to enter that rest, so that none of us would fall by the same example of disobedience as the wilderness generation did, or at least the majority of them did. But that raises the question, what exactly does this phrase, to enter God’s rest, mean? What does it refer to? What is it that we are being called to do?

Creation Rest and Canaan Rest

Now, one of the most common interpretations of this passage, and most of the contemporary commentators hold to this view, is that the rest that is being referred to here is the final eschatological rest at the end. Referring to heaven, referring to when all of our wilderness wanderings are done in this life, and we are with the Lord forever in the new creation in glorified bodies. And so the rest is entirely future. God is calling God’s people to believe that heaven is there for us as a promise, and that we are to persevere and endure through our trials and tribulations in the wilderness time, which is the time of the Christian life now before the second coming of Christ. And we will enter that rest at the end. Now there is a sense in which you could say we enter it at death, because at death all of our striving is over and we are completely made perfect and without sin at that moment as we are with the Lord in what is called the intermediate state.

But that is still not quite the main point here. In this first theory, this first view that is referring to heaven, they would say it is not even referring to death or the intermediate state of the believer with the Lord. It is referring to the eternal inheritance in the promised land, which is the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, which is only after the second coming of Christ. It is true that our rest with the Lord at death is a foretaste of that, but really the focus is on the eternal state, the new heavens and new earth in Revelation 21 and 22.

A Sabbath Rest for God’s People

Now that theory makes a certain degree of sense. And there are some things in the passage that would support that. For example, in verse nine, verse nine says, so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That makes it sound like the Sabbath rest is future. And since it remains in the future, then we must persevere in hope and confidence that the Lord will provide it for us at the end.

Another support for this view, that it is referring to the eternal state at the end, is the fact that The author of Hebrews repeatedly refers to the land as the eternal inheritance. So for example, just to give you some passages later in Hebrews, Hebrews 9 verse 15 says, therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. That is referring to heaven. That is referring to the eternal state at the end.

Or again, in Hebrews 11, in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith, when he goes through and says, by faith, Abraham, by faith, Noah, and so on, he talks about Abraham’s faith, that Abraham was looking forward to a future inheritance. Hebrews 11 and verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They are looking forward to the city that has foundations, which is the eternal city of God at the end. And so there are some things in the context here and throughout this whole letter that would support that theory, that interpretation, which is held by most of the commentaries on Hebrews. It fits in well with 1 Peter 1, which I read earlier in the revelation of God’s will, that we have an eternal inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us, and we are going to get there one day, but we are there not yet.

On that theory though, the question then becomes, so what are the works that we rest from to enter that rest? Notice how it says there in verse 10, whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works. As God did from his. And the answer that they give, that the most modern commentators give, is that it is talking about the works of the Christian life. All of the works that we are called to do in persevering in our faith through trials, in serving the Lord, in bringing forth the fruits of obedience that are the necessary consequences of saving faith. In fighting against our temptations and our sins.

And that is all true, but is that really the point that the author of Hebrews is making here? In the context, he is addressing a situation which is that this congregation of Jewish Christians is on the verge of apostasy. And they are being tempted to reject Christ and return to a non-messianic form of Judaism that rejects Christ. They are attracted to all the outward splendor of the temple worship and the sacrificial system, which we believe was still standing at this time, because this letter was probably written right before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Most commentators think that. So how does that apply?

The call, the warning call, the exhortation of this passage does not seem to fit the context, if you take that view, that entering God’s rest is only something we do at the end, either when we die or when Christ returns, and then we rest from our works by, then we will rest from our works at that point, because we will be done with the battle of the Christian life.

We will rest from our works then, but not now. The author of Hebrews though is encouraging them and exhorting them to rest now. He is saying you need to rest now from your works and enter into God’s rest now. I believe that the rest that he is referring to does indeed have a secondary application of referring to the eternal state at the end. And perhaps verse nine is talking about that. There remains a Sabbath rest at the end for the people of God, perhaps. But I think the primary focus of this passage, the primary thrust of this passage, is to exhort the people of God to something now, to rest now, to enter into God’s rest now. What are some things that support that? Number one, notice that he emphasizes the word today. Over and over again, he emphasizes the word today. That is from Psalm 95. Today, if you hear his voice, you do not harden your hearts. But he himself, the author of Hebrews, highlights that. He is quoting it from Psalm 95, but then he says, take a highlighter and emphasize that word today, because that is an important word. He says that, for example, in verse six and seven.

He says, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again, he appoints a certain day, today, quote, unquote, saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

He emphasizes that this is a call to the people of God that is coming now. As we enter into the presence of God, remember Psalm 95 is a call to worship. It is in that section of the Psalter in the 90s that are calls to worship. The Lord reigns. Let us worship the Lord. Let us come into his courts with praise. Let us worship him.

Do not harden your hearts today if you hear his voice. And so the author is taking that call to the people of God in Psalm 95 to enter into God’s rest now, and he is applying it to the people that he is writing to and encouraging them. Today, this call comes to you today. The gospel offer, the gospel call comes to you today. Listen to it. Do not turn away from it. Do not harden your heart. And go back to Judaism, but listen to that gospel call now and believe in it and thus enter into God’s rest.

Entering Rest by Faith

Another key feature of our text that strongly emphasizes the present reality of entering into God’s rest now by faith is verse three. Remember I mentioned that I said verse three is the key verse that unlocks the whole passage. Because what does verse three say? It says, for we who have believed, enter that rest. We have believed what? We have believed the good news. Go back to verse two. For good news came to us just as to them, to the wilderness generation.

But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. In other words, they were not united with Caleb and Joshua. Those that did listen to the good news and believed in it, they were not united by faith with those that brought back a good report. They did not believe the gospel message that they received.

For it is we who have believed in that gospel message, in the good news of what God has done in Christ to enter that rest. And it is in the present tense. It does not say we who have believed will enter that rest one day after we die and after Christ comes back. No, it says we who have believed enter that rest. Today, as we hear the gospel, as we hear the good news of the gospel preached to us every Lord’s Day, when we come into the presence of God with that call to worship, calling us to enter into his presence, when you heard that call, it was about 42 minutes ago, when you heard that call to worship, that was a call to enter by faith into God’s rest, to not have an unbelieving heart, like the 10 spies with an unbelieving heart and the rest that we are following in their rejection of the gospel, but to have a believing heart that hears the gospel, believes it, that says, yes, I believe that Jesus has indeed entered into the heavenly glory and that he is there for us and that we are able to stand in the presence of God through him, our mediator.

The author of Hebrews again and again uses this language of drawing near to the presence of God, of entering into God’s presence, of entering into his rest, all throughout Hebrews. For example, later on in Hebrews chapter 10, remember that one? It is that glorious passage that we sometimes use as a call to worship here in church. Hebrews 10, 19, he says, since we have confidence to enter because Christ has entered into the holy places, let us draw near with a true heart. In full assurance of faith.” That is the main exhortation of this letter and it is used throughout. Now at the end in chapter 13, he will add some additional exhortations specifically to their situation, calling them to submit to their leaders, calling them to specific things in the Christian life. That is in chapter 13.

But up until that point, Okay, in Hebrews 1 through 11, the main point of the author of Hebrews is again and again and again to draw near to God by faith, believing in Christ, believing in the gospel, and not turning aside, not hardening your heart, and going back to an unbelieving religion that rejects Christ. So that is another argument then. Another argument is the whole context of Hebrews. He is hammering the same exhortation over and over again. He is calling the people of God to faith. To faith now, to believe in the gospel now.

One thing that helps to understand the argument here is to understand that there is this pattern that the author of Hebrews explains as being repeated at various points in redemptive history. And the pattern is that God works and then he rests, and then when he rests, he invites us to participate in his rest. He sees that pattern three times. He sees it at creation, when God worked and then he created everything and then he rested on the seventh day.

And then he invited man, he invited Adam to participate in that rest. And he even gave Adam a weekly Sabbath sign to remind him of that promise. Adam would work for six days to do the cultural mandate, being fruitful and multiply. And then every seventh day he would rest. And that seventh rest, that seventh day of rest was a reminder to him, it was a pledge to him that one day his work would be over and he would enter into God’s rest.

One day all that cultural work would be done and he would have created this human race of image bearers that glorify God, filling the earth with the glory of God. And one day it would be done and then he would enter into the eschatological Sabbath rest of which the weekly Sabbath was simply a sign and a foretaste. And so there is this pattern of God doing the work, God resting, and then he invites us to join with him in that rest. And the author of Hebrews sees that pattern repeated throughout the Bible. It is repeated with Israel.

What was the work of God with Israel? It was the work of saving Israel out of Egypt with his mighty hand. The work of bringing them through the waters of the Red Sea. The work of giving them all of his promises, God’s mighty work, which in a way is like creation. In fact, the language of God having power over all of the different physical realities of the waters of the Nile and the authority over the firstborn, all the different judgments of God, they are indicators of God’s power as the creator to show that what he is doing now with Israel is a new creation. The Exodus, coming to Mount Sinai, God’s own glorious presence in the form of the glory cloud, which is not literally God himself, but a theophany of God, a manifestation of God in physical form to be a pledge to them of his presence with them. All of these things are the work of God with Israel.

But then God himself, having finished the work with Israel, is entering into his own rest, which is what? It is when eventually, it is going to take time for this to flesh out, but eventually there is going to be a sanctuary that will be built. Initially, it is the tabernacle during the wilderness time, but then later it will become the temple. And there he says, this is my resting place. And the glory cloud came and rested in the temple.

Psalm 132 verse 13 and 14, the Lord has desired Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place. That is why he is doing all this wonderful stuff. Of saving a people and bringing them out of Egypt and bringing them into the land. It is not just so they can have lots of flocks and crops and fertility and happiness in the land. No, it is so that they could be God’s people who are God’s chosen ones in whom God dwells in the temple, in the place of God dwelling in the midst of his people.

That is his resting place. He says, this is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. That is from Psalm 132. And the word that is used there, this is my resting place in Psalm 132, is the same word that is used here in our text in reference to they shall not enter my rest. In other words, you could translate Psalm 132, this is my rest. And he is referring to the temple.

He is referring to the presence of God in the midst of his people. Now what is amazing is that hundreds of years later, after Joshua had already brought them into the land, the Psalm 95 call to worship reiterates the need for them to enter God’s rest. You would think, well, wait, they already entered God’s rest. Why is it that they need to hear the call to enter God’s rest?

The fact that the offer still stands so long afterwards, and the author of Hebrews mentions that point in verse seven, so long afterward, that is about 500 years from Joshua or from the wilderness generation and Joshua up until Psalm 95, which was sometime during the monarchy. The fact that the offer still stands so long afterward in Psalm 95 demonstrates that Israel’s rest in the land and God’s rest in the temple was only a type.

It was only a picture. It was not the reality. It was not the true rest. The rest that Joshua gave them in the land was only a picture of the rest that Christ gives us. The rest of God in the temple that David and Solomon, David prepared it, Solomon built it, was only a picture of the rest that Christ gives us. And so we have this pattern. God does the work, and then he rests, and then he invites us to enter that rest. That was first at creation, then with Israel, And with Israel, it was only a picture. It was not the reality. But now in Christ, the author of Hebrews is saying, we have the same pattern. Christ does the work. He accomplished it all. He became a man. He lived a perfect life. He bore our sins on the cross. He rose again from the third day. He entered into his rest when he ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

So the author of Hebrews is calling the people of God to enjoy that rest, to enter it by faith. We who believed are entering that rest. Now again, it has both a present fulfillment and a future fulfillment. There is a present reality now. By faith, we presently enjoy this reality of resting in Christ because he has ascended into heaven. In fact, it is almost as if The future hope of the new creation is already present in heaven itself. We do not see it, but it is already present in heaven.

And then there is also the not yet. There is the already and the not yet. The not yet is that it will be consummated and perfected in the eschaton when Christ returns. And I think that it is possible that is what he is referring to in verse nine, when he says, there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

So what is the application for us? The application for us is to believe in the gospel. And you might be thinking, well, I already believe. So why are you asking me to believe again? That is the whole point. That is the whole point of the author of Hebrews’ letter, is he is saying that we need to continually exercise faith in those promises.

We need to continually remind ourselves of the truth of the gospel and of the fact that Christ has finished the work and entered into the heavenly sanctuary where he has already secured that rest for us. Faith is like a muscle. And if you let it atrophy, pretty soon you do not have any muscles left. You need to exercise that muscle of faith. We need to exercise conscious, deliberate, active faith in the promises of God.

And there is another side to that as well. The author of Hebrews is also saying, but be careful of the opposite possibility, which is that you might harden your heart because of the deceitfulness of sin. Remember, the author of Hebrews is addressing a mixed congregation. Not necessarily everyone in the congregation is elect and regenerate. And he is saying, so be careful.

Be careful if you allow yourself to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin has a tendency to do that to us. It is wonderful that we can confess our sins and be forgiven again and again. But at the same time, if we are not careful, sin has a tendency to kind of deaden your heart a little bit. If you are not careful to repent, you start to get tired of repenting. And pretty soon you start to kind of just make excuses for your sin and just sort of say, well, this is just the way it is and I cannot help it and I am just going to have to continue in this and pretty soon your heart begins to become weaker and weaker and you lose hold of the truths of the gospel.

That is what the author of Hebrews is warning against. All these five warning passages are warning against the possibility of apostasy, against the possibility of turning away from the Lord because of the deceitfulness of sin. That is the flip side of the call to enter by faith into the promised rest. The flip side of it is, be careful that you do not harden your heart and turn away from that rest in Christ. Beware of the possibility of failing to enter because of disobedience. That is what he says there. In verse six, it remains for some to enter it. And those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.

Now I understand that this is a little bit hard to understand because of the fact that the language of entering sounds so much like a threshold. And so it sounds like something future, and it is hard to translate that into the argument that I am trying to make, that I think the author of Hebrews is making, is that it is a present, continual reality. The metaphor of, okay, let us say you have a doorway, and you are outside the doorway, and you gotta go and enter the door, and then once you enter, you are in.

That metaphor sounds too decisive, like as if he is talking about conversion. But he is not talking about conversion. He is talking about the call to continually exercise faith in the promises of God. And to be warned against the possibility that because it is a mixed community and that there are some in this community who do not believe, to be warned against the possibility of falling away. And you might say, well, if I am elect and if I am regenerate, I cannot fall away. The amazing thing is, is that the author of Hebrews is still saying, I want that exhortation to come even to you, the elect and the regenerate, because this is the very means that God will use to preserve you in the faith. These calls, these strong calls, and there are some really heavy ones.

We are going to come to one later in chapter six. That is the third warning, where it is like a whopper of like, it is impossible to restore to repentance those who have once been enlightened and tasted the good word of God and yet have turned away. It is impossible for them to be restored. We will explain what that means when we get there.

But there is some heavy, heavy calls, heavy warnings. The Puritans even referred to those as gospel threatenings. I am not sure I like that word threatening. It sounds a little bit too human and too much like trying to threaten somebody to do something that you want them to do with a threat of violence. But still the idea is there. It is a gospel warning. It is a gospel call to be careful, to take heed, to make every effort, to strive, to enter that rest.

The reason why we get a little bit tripped up because of this metaphor in our minds of we are outside the door, and then we got to enter through the door, and then once we are in, we are in, is because the author of Hebrews is deriving his exhortation from this text. He is basing it upon Psalm 95. And Psalm 95 uses that language, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And then from that, he implies the logical opposite of that is if they would not enter, if they could not enter because of unbelief, then the flip side of it is true, that we do enter by belief, by believing in the Lord. But the reason why we get tripped up because of this metaphor of being outside the door and then walking through is because he is using that language, but he is using that language from Psalm 95.

The language that has been given to him by scripture. But he is interpreting that language. He is interpreting that metaphor in a present continual sense, not as a one-time deal. I entered back when I was saved, and so I do not need to worry about entering anymore. He is applying it today. Today, if you hear his voice, do not allow that root of bitterness to creep up in your heart where you are turning away from the Lord. Today, if you hear his voice, hear the gospel and believe it afresh again and again.

That is why we have in our worship service, not only a call to worship, but also confession of sin, hearing again God’s hardening grace, reminding ourselves of the truths of the gospel, and then responding to it. Faith is a muscle that we must actively exercise. We must be deliberate about consciously enjoying Christ. About consciously resting in all that he has accomplished for us. We must be deliberate about making sure that we do not have that root of unbelief growing within us. We must continually turn from sin and continually hunger and thirst after righteousness.

And it sounds a little bit frightening, using that Puritan language of the threatenings of the gospel, but it is not. It is not a covenant of works. It is not saying that you better do this, otherwise you are going to be punished if you do not. It is saying just the opposite.

It is saying Christ has done the work. He has already accomplished the work and he sat down at the right hand of God and you are in him and you have all that he has. So enter into that rest, consciously enjoy it. Enter into what has already been achieved for you by Christ and believe it. That is the hardest thing, is to truly believe that Christ not only did the work, but he is presently in heaven interceding for us, and that he has already guaranteed our entrance into that glory.

Just as God finished the work of creation and rested on the seventh day, Not doing any more work of creation. He rested on the seventh day. So also Christ finished the work of our salvation. He perfectly kept God’s law in our place. He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. And he is now in heaven, having finished the work. He is resting in all that he has done.

So we are called to rest in him. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest. So what then are the works from which we are being called to rest? Verse 10, whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his. It is the work of unbelief. It is the work of having our hearts be hardened and turning away from the truths of the gospel And in the context of the letter here, it is specifically the people of the Jewish Christians that he is writing to must rest from their sinful works.

They are very interested in all of the rituals of Judaism, all the temple rituals and the sacrificial system. And those were good before Christ came. God gave them to the people of God to be a picture of the work of Christ. And the godly Israelites who enjoyed the sacrificial system did so in faith in the coming Messiah. And it was not a sinful work for them to do that.

But now that Christ has come, Now that all the shadows of the law are done away with and Christ has come, to go back to all those things, let us say, hey, we are really interested now in keeping all the food laws, or we are really interested now in doing all the proper procedures for ritual cleanness and impurity and offering the right sacrifices, to do that now after Christ has come is a sinful work of unbelief.

That is what the author of Hebrews is calling the people of God to rest from. Rest from your sinful works of trying to salve your conscience by doing these rituals. By thinking that if I just go to the temple and I watch the priest do the ceremony, that I will be okay with God. Rest from those sinful works of trying to be right with God by your own efforts and your sinful works and rest in Christ. Enter into that rest because Christ has already done it. Christ has accomplished the work and Christ has already rested. And therefore you must enter into that rest as well by faith in him.

What a glorious gospel exhortation this is. The gospel exhortation comes to us again and again. The good news has come to us just as it did to Israel. But do not harden your heart. Believe in the gospel, believe in all that Christ has done for you. The other day, well, it was last night, I read through the entire book of Hebrews just in one sitting, just read it straight through. And over and over again, this exhortation that the author of Hebrews makes.

There are so many different ways that he makes it. But over and over again, he is focusing upon what? He is focusing upon the ascension of Christ. So often we focus on the resurrection of Christ in isolation from the ascension. But the resurrection of Christ is unto the ascension. In other words, he rose again from the dead to ascend into heaven. That is the whole point. He ascended into heaven. He has entered into God’s eternal rest. And he is resting there. He is not afraid or worried about anything. We get worried about all the things we hear about in the news or all the problems in our lives. Christ is not worried one bit. Everything is done. It has already been accomplished.

So the author of Hebrews is calling us to enter into that by faith, to rest in it by faith. And to let that transform the way that we think. That is why the author of Hebrews has these exhortations such as, just to think of one off the top of my head, but there are many of these throughout. But think of this one here in chapter 12, a famous one. Where he says, chapter 12, verse one, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, that is the Old Testament saints who believed in God’s promises. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” And then here is the key. Looking to Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Notice how he is saying, do not just think about Jesus in the Gospels, doing the miracles and teaching, and we are on the cross. He is saying, specifically, focus your thoughts on the exalted, ascended Christ in heaven, seated at the right hand of God. And then let that fixation, as you fix your thoughts upon Christ, who has already finished the work and entered into the rest, let that give you the strength to endure, to lay aside those weights and sins that hold you back and that drag you down and that lead you away from the Lord, and to persevere in running the race with your eye fixed upon Christ, the forerunner, who has already gone before us, who has already secured it for us.

That is the call of the gospel. The renewed call of the gospel that comes to us every time we read the word of God, every time we come to church and we hear the preaching of the gospel, we are called again and again to come to Christ, to rest in Christ, to rest from our sinful works, and to rest in what Christ has done for us.

Resting in Christ’s Finished Work

He said, it is finished. It is finished. We must rest in that finished work of Christ.