Hebrews 4:3-5

‘For we who have believed do enter into that rest. Even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.” Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, “They shall not enter into my rest.” ’

The argument here is somewhat complicated in presentation.

‘For we who have believed do enter into that rest.’ For we who have truly believed and recognise that all that needed to be done has been done in Christ, ‘do enter’ into rest continually by being partakers in Christ, a rest which is like the rest of God on the seventh day of Creation, a rest of contentment and satisfaction and joy, and which we know will lead on to our final rest. Legally nothing further is required of us. The present tense supports the idea of a present rest although some see it as a futuristic present signifying ‘will certainly enter into it’.

‘Even as He has said, “As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.”’ Here there is a contrast between ‘we’ and ‘they’. The entering into rest of ‘we Christians’ is in direct contrast to ‘they’, those who are in sin, disobedience and unbelief who do not enter into it. The fact that they do not enter it confirms that there is a rest to be entered into. But they cannot enter it because they are still under His wrath. They are still in unbelief. They have refused the means of propitiation and reconciliation. It is therefore left for ‘us’ to enter.

‘Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ’

And this refusal is sad because in fact that rest has been available to God’s people from the very beginning, from when the world was first made. God did not intend that mans should have to engage in ‘works’. Such were all performed by God in preparation for man and completed so that they ceased on the seventh day. He did not want His own to labour, His desire for them was continual rest. (So that the ‘works’ He had to carry out against Israel in the forty year period (Hebrews 3:9) meant that the ‘rest’ of creation had been disturbed by sin). God’s works were finished and His rest was available. Life was not intended to be a life of ‘works’ because God’s works were finished. It was intended to be a life of ‘rest’. And the rest that the believer enters into is like the rest on the seventh day of Creation, a rest where all works are completed and only God’s provision remains to be enjoyed (as we shall see later, all works are completed for us through our Great High Priest Who will cleanse us from ‘dead works’ - Hebrews 9:14) and nothing further remains to be done.

And this rest was intended to be enjoyed by Adam and his seed after him, had they not sinned. For them the Garden was to be a place of rest (timewise Genesis 2:0 is seen as taking place before the seventh day as the preparation of the Garden must have preceded the creation of man). They were to engage in activity but it was never to be seen as ‘labour’. Their subsequent requirement to ‘work’ resulted from sin. The ‘rest’ is thus that of Paradise, and a restored Paradise, beginning with our new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and resulting finally in the new Heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1 to Revelation 22:5; Isaiah 11:6-9). (Note how all ‘creatures’ are to subject to strict examination in Hebrews 4:13, both old and new). And it was later to be seen as enjoyed by those who became reconciled to Him through the genuine offering of sacrifices and of a believing heart, as the Psalmists and Prophets declare (e.g. Psalms 16:9; Psalms 37:7; Psalms 116:7; Psalms 132:14; Isaiah 28:12; Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 32:17-18; Ezekiel 38:11).

‘And in this place again, “They shall not enter into my rest.” ’ But those who are under His wrath because of their disobedience and disbelief, still fail to benefit from that rest, as the Scripture in mind has further said.

Thus from the beginning there are two types of people. Those who have believed and enter into rest, and share God’s rest, ceasing from their own law-works and efforts, and trusting in His merciful provision. They partake of Christ, and by taking His yoke on them find rest along the way (Matthew 11:28-29), and become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). See Hebrews 4:13 where human ‘creatures’ old and new are in mind. And those who have not entered into rest because of their unbelief, who are pictured in terms of the failure to enter Canaan. Of them (those who refuse to believe) God has sworn that they will not enter into His rest, life will be a constant struggle, and indeed if they will not respond in faith they cannot, nor will. But now, as the writer will soon demonstrate, that rest is available, but only through the great High Priest. Those to whom men once looked for it will no longer be able to give it, for what they offer are but shadows now replaced.