Entering God's rest

The Letter to the Hebrews is one of the more complicated books in the New Testament, but also one that is most rewarding if we study it. Here I would like to look at one of the themes in Hebrews, namely that of entering God’s rest. We find this in Hebrews 3:7-4:13.

When we hear the word “rest” we think of putting our feet up, of not doing very much, but this gives a misleading impression when we look at the Bible speaking of entering God’s rest. Perhaps a better way of looking at it in order to get a sense of the meaning is to think of it as “entering God’s completed work”. Heb 4:4 speaks of God resting on the seventh day. In Genesis 1 we read after each day that God saw that it was good. After six days everything was complete and God rested on the seventh day. Man was meant to live in this completed world. God had made everything for man. Man was not to rest in the sense of doing nothing, far from it. He was to fill the earth and subdue it, to be fruitful and multiply, but everything was there for him to complete this task. Of course, as we know, Adam sinned against God and came under judgement because of this.

The dominant theme in Hebrews is the supremacy of Christ and the absolute completeness of His work. The Hebrews were in danger of wanting to add to this work, of wanting to go back to offering sacrifices, and to other aspects of the Law. When the writer speaks of us entering God’s rest he is talking of us entering into the completed work of God on the cross. In John 19:30 Jesus declared “it is finished”. Through the cross and resurrection, and the giving of the Holy Spirit God’s work of salvation is complete. There is nothing that needs to be added to it, indeed we must not seek to add anything to it. We are to live in the light of the completed work of God in Jesus Christ. It most certainly does not mean that we do nothing, but that we live in the glorious completed work of salvation that God has worked through Jesus Christ. And we enter that rest through faith in Jesus Christ.