1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
Commentary
Vs. 1 "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it."
The Holy Scripture having already given us a strong warning in chapter three by drawing it's lesson from those Israelite's who did not enter the Promised land because of their rebellion and disobedience and ultimately it was their unbelief that kept them out of the Promised land; therefore having shown us by their example of what not to do we are all to fear lest anyone now who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ likewise comes short of it, because a promise remains of entering His rest. Therefore no one should presume upon the grace of God, or play flippant with the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, because God is not mocked, whatever a person sows that they shall also reap! (Gal 6:7)
Vs. 2 "For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it."
The gospel here means the Word of the Lord; the Promise of His giving and taking the Israelite's into the Promised Land (also consider Rev. 14:6). Yet as the Word of the Lord declares here the Word which they heard did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it. And so those who did not believe the gospel spoken to them did not enter the Promised land, instead they all perished in their own sins in the wilderness. The warning to us all is that hearing the Gospel and not believing it will likewise only end in ones own eternal condemnation (John 3:16-21).
Vs. 3 "For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
Now that is not the state which we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are in, or will ever be in, since the Holy Scripture states here we who have believed do enter that rest, for having been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God the moment we believed our eternal fate is settled (Eph. 1:13-14). Therefore in quoting Psalm 95:11 the Holy Scripture is making it clear that unbelief is the cause of God's wrath falling on any individual who does not believe His Word, and thus that is what excluded those unbelieving Israelite's from entering the Promised Land, and that is what will now exclude those who do not believe the Gospel from entering the Kingdom of heaven (John 3:35-36). Now that the works were finished from the foundation of the world is stating that the works needed for our eternal redemption were settled from the foundation of the world. For God already knew what would happen when He created the world and humanity on it, and so He also knew what He was going to do (and when He was going to do it) to redeem us from sin, Satan, death. And so the point being made and will be made in the upcoming verses is that salvation is not based on what we do, or have done or not done, (whether good or bad), it is based solely on what God has done through the Crucifixion death and ressurection from the dead of His Son Jesus Christ and ones faith in Him (Rom 9:11). Anything that anyone then tries to do to add to that finished work completed and accomplished by God's Son for our eternal redemption is not counted as grace, but rather is charged as debt against them (Rom. 4:4-5). And so just as God rested from His works on the seventh day, so we who believe in Christ are to rest from ours, that is from every work (whether according to the law or not) that is only an attempt by us to try to earn salvation for ourselves by our own works and not by faith in God's. For the works were finished from the foundation of the world, and as it will be made clear in the following verses God is commanding us all to enter His Rest by faith in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Vs. 4-5 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
And so to bring this point home to us the Holy Scripture now recalls God resting from His works on the seventh day, that is having completed everything He needed to do to bring us and all of creation into being, God rested from His works. For it was a settled issue God had completed everything that needed to be done. Therefore if God Himself rested from His works when they were completed so now should we rest from ours, because as we will also see in the following verses those who did not obey God did not enter God's rest. And God has commanded that we rest from our works, having used the seventh day, and then the Sabbath under the law, to reveal this Spiritual reality to us all, that He has through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ already accomplished everything that is needed to be done for our eternal redemption.
Vs. 6-7 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
Now that is not the state which we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are in, or will ever be in, since the Holy Scripture states here we who have believed do enter that rest, for having been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God the moment we believed our eternal fate is settled (Eph. 1:13-14). Therefore in quoting Psalm 95:11 the Holy Scripture is making it clear that unbelief is the cause of God's wrath falling on any individual who does not believe His Word, and thus that is what excluded those unbelieving Israelite's from entering the Promised Land, and that is what will now exclude those who do not believe the Gospel from entering the Kingdom of heaven (John 3:35-36). Now that the works were finished from the foundation of the world is stating that the works needed for our eternal redemption were settled from the foundation of the world. For God already knew what would happen when He created the world and humanity on it, and so He also knew what He was going to do (and when He was going to do it) to redeem us from sin, Satan, death. And so the point being made and will be made in the upcoming verses is that salvation is not based on what we do, or have done or not done, (whether good or bad), it is based solely on what God has done through the Crucifixion death and ressurection from the dead of His Son Jesus Christ and ones faith in Him (Rom 9:11). Anything that anyone then tries to do to add to that finished work completed and accomplished by God's Son for our eternal redemption is not counted as grace, but rather is charged as debt against them (Rom. 4:4-5). And so just as God rested from His works on the seventh day, so we who believe in Christ are to rest from ours, that is from every work (whether according to the law or not) that is only an attempt by us to try to earn salvation for ourselves by our own works and not by faith in God's. For the works were finished from the foundation of the world, and as it will be made clear in the following verses God is commanding us all to enter His Rest by faith in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Vs. 4-5 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
And so to bring this point home to us the Holy Scripture now recalls God resting from His works on the seventh day, that is having completed everything He needed to do to bring us and all of creation into being, God rested from His works. For it was a settled issue God had completed everything that needed to be done. Therefore if God Himself rested from His works when they were completed so now should we rest from ours, because as we will also see in the following verses those who did not obey God did not enter God's rest. And God has commanded that we rest from our works, having used the seventh day, and then the Sabbath under the law, to reveal this Spiritual reality to us all, that He has through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ already accomplished everything that is needed to be done for our eternal redemption.
Vs. 6-7 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
The Holy Scripture now reminds us that the promised rest was not just preached to the O.T. Israelite's and then ended, but it is open to one and all who repent and believe in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now to those whom it was first preached; that is the Old Covenant Israelite's who did not enter God's rest; they did not enter because of their disobedience, that is in refusing to believe and obey God they instead tried to return to Egypt, and thus return to their state of bondage which He had delivered them from. Therefore it was their own disobedience, again being born out of their own unbelief in not believing God could bring them into the Promised land, that they themselves shut themselves out of the Promised Land. So today both Jew and Gentile must beware that they too do not follow that same example of disobedience by not believing the Gospel (vs. 6). For God's Promise is not limited by or linked to time, for even in David's generation God was still extending His Promise to one and to all who would repent and believe, saying, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” And so He does so even now not wanting any to perish but rather that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Vs. 8 "For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day."
Vs. 8 "For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day."
Therefore the Promised rest did not come through Joshua, "For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day." Joshua then was not the Savior and Canaan was not the Promised Land through whom we find salvation and have eternal rest for our persons and souls. For that day of salvation is the day that God is always alluding to throughout the Scriptures so that both the Old Covenant Israelite's and every generation of humanity since would diligently look forward too and wait on the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ when He would accomplish and fulfill all that is required for our (and all of creations) redemption from sin and death, and thus Jesus has brought and He will usher in that Glorious Rest to us all who believe in Him (Matt. 11:28-30; 1 Peter 1:10-12).
Vs. 9 "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
Therefore the rest spoken of and often alluded too in the O.T. Scriptures is not then found through the Old Covenant which required diligent and constant and ongoing observance to all of its statutes and decrees, rather the Promised rest foretold and spoken of in the Holy Scriptures comes to one and to all through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 11:28-30; also see Acts 15:7-11). And so there remains a rest for the people of God which God Himself will usher in when He has gathered together all the people of God through Christ to Himself. And so though we have entered that rest by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Person we will not fully and eternally experience it completely and uninterrupted eternally until we are all gathered together in the Kingdom of heaven.
Vs. 10 "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His."
Having then entered God's Rest through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we who believe (and thus are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone for our salvation), have likewise ceased from our works as God did from His. Now works here is anything and everything that ones tries to do to atone for ones sins and transgressions whether done under or according to the Law or not. Therefore we who believe having ceased from our works as God did from His is not saying that we cease from serving the Lord, or doing good towards others; works here is trying to earn forgiveness or salvation by doing something. And so maybe for some of us before we knew God personally through Christ we were motivated by a sense of guilt or shame, or religious duty, rather than being motivated by the grace of God which not saves us, but also frees us to be all we can be. Therefore this is critically important for some us to understand because trying to earn salvation for oneself whether by observance of the Law or some other means (observing the doctrines and commandments of men which are not found in the Holy Scriptures, or are a perversion or misapplication of what is stated there) will not end with one receiving the grace of God, but rather the wrath of God for trying to supplant His Works with ones own (Rom 4:4-5). Therefore if you have not yet believed and thus received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, placing all of your faith and hope on Him and what He has done out of God's love for you, by suffering Crucifixion death for you (John 3:16), then please don't delay receive Jesus Christ the Lord today! By a simple prayer of faith confess your need for Him and desire to have Him come into your heart and life and He will just as He Promises, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20 Therefore invite Jesus into your heart and life today!
Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
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