There is a noteworthy theme that was first mentioned in Hebrews 3 that is continued on in Hebrews 4 — entering God’s rest. In Hebrews 3, we learned that we can forfeit this blessing by responding to God’s voice with a hardened heart. Hebrews 4 teaches more about what this rest is and how we can enter into it.
Let’s jump right into the passage. One thing is clear — the author is saying that the blessing of God’s rest is available to us today. He asserts this three times in verses 1, 6, and 9 (Hebrews 4:1,6,9). His point is that although the Old Testament spoke of two “rests,” it also clearly spoke of another future and greater rest that God’s people could enter into.
There was the weekly Sabbath rest — rest from physical labor on Saturdays. Genesis 2:2-3 says that God rested after His creation of the earth, not because He was tired, but because He was finished with the work. And the Israelites were invited to enter into God’s creative rest by not working on Saturdays and trusting that God would provide for them. In a world of subsistence living, this was unheard of. Yet as the Israelites expressed faith in their God in this way, it was a testimony to the other nations that their God was real, powerful, and faithful to His people.
But this was not the only rest God offered Israel in the Old Testament. He also offered them the Promised Land and rest from their enemies. He said He would go before them and defeat their enemies so that they could live securely in the land He had given them (see Deuteronomy 12:9-10). All they had to do was trust Him and go into the land and He would protect them so that they could settle in the land and live securely. As seen in Hebrews 3, the Exodus generation forfeited this rest because they refused to trust God’s promise by going into the land. But the subsequent generation did trust God, and by following Joshua, they entered this rest.
But even this was not the ultimate rest that God offered His people. 400 years later, with the Israelites living securely in the land, David speaks in Psalm 95 of yet another rest that God’s people could enter. This implies that a greater Joshua, which was the Hebrew version of the Aramaic name “Jesus”, would yet provide a greater rest — the rest of salvation that the Messiah would offer when He came. Both of the previous rests pointed to and foreshadowed this Messianic rest. Now, Jesus the Messiah has come, and His rest of salvation is available to everyone who comes to Him.
Jesus spoke of this rest in Matthew 11:28-30. What a beautiful image! He calls out to people who are weary from trying to pull loads that are too heavy for them. He is obviously not speaking of physical loads, rather, the burden of living in this broken world by our own inadequate resources. He says that He is able to pull this load because He is strong, and He invites us to get into His yoke by coming to Him and learning from Him. If we do this, we will experience rest for our souls — the wonderful blessing of His presence and power enabling us to pull this load.
English pastor and evangelist F. B. Meyer describes this kind of rest in this way: “To all of us Christ offers ‘rest,’ not in the (next) life only, but also in this life. Rest from the weight of sin, from care and worry, from the load of daily anxiety and foreboding. The rest that arrives from handing over all worries to Christ and receiving from Christ all we need. Have you entered into that experience?”
What a shame it would be to have this kind of rest offered to us and not take advantage of it! This raises the obvious question — how do we enter this rest?
The author of Hebrews has already told us that the key to entering God’s rest is faith — believing in His promise of provision (see Hebrews 4:2-3). But what does this faith like? The rest of chapter 4 answers this question. Hebrews 4:10-13 explains the essential nature of this faith, and Hebrews 4:14-16 explains the proper object of this faith.
Hebrews 4:10-13 explains faith’s essential nature. Read Hebrews 4:10-11. Faith involves both ceasing from your works and making every effort. This sounds like a nonsensical paradox, but this is not the case. There is a sense in which biblical faith involves both passivity and effort.
It requires passivity in the sense that you stop depending on your own resources and depend instead on God’s resources. Faith is saying: “I cannot do this — only God can do this.”
Yet it requires effort to choose to depend on God. We instinctively rely on our own efforts and resources instead of on God’s. This is the heart of what it means to be fallen. So faith is counterintuitive, a deliberate choice that is usually against our feelings and “wisdom.” It was counterintuitive for the Israelites to not work on Saturday when they did not have excess food. It was counterintuitive for the Israelites to go into a land full of strong enemies.
What convinces us that we need to stop trusting our own resources and instead depend upon God and His provision? The answer is God’s Word (see Hebrews 4:12-13). Notice the “for” in Hebrews 4:12. When we read God’s Word or hear it shared and taught by others, God Himself opens our eyes to see how desperately we need to depend upon His provision. It reveals the discrepancy between what we have and what God wants us to have; it exposes the reason for this discrepancy — lack of faith — and it creates a healthy “tension” that motivates us to close that gap by depending on God.
Reflect on a time when you may have had a hardened heart toward God’s Word; many of you realized that you have forfeited God’s transforming presence in your life by saying “I do not trust you” in a specific area. It was God’s Word that searched your heart and exposed this and motivated you to cry out to God: “I have not been trusting you, God. I have been calling you a liar. I want to trust you again so I can be close to you.” This was God’s Word exposing your need and motivating you to humbly entrust yourself to Him.
Our hearts are attracted to the rest that Jesus offers — and we realize that we do not have this rest, and this means we are not relating properly to Jesus, otherwise we would have this rest. This is what God’s Word does — it shows us our lack of faith, and it points us to Jesus as the proper object of our faith.
Read Hebrews 4:14-16. The central idea is that Jesus is our High Priest, and therefore, personally depending on Him is how we enter into God’s rest. Upcoming chapters in Hebrews take a closer look at the Old Testament concept of priesthood and how Jesus fulfills it. Until this point, however, it is enough to know as our High Priest, Jesus is the One through whom we receive God’s mercy and grace.
“Mercy” means not getting the punishment you do deserve. When the policeman pulls you over for speeding and then lets you off with a warning, that is mercy; he did not give you the fine you deserved.
“Grace” means getting the favor you do not deserve. If the policeman also fixed your leaky tire, gave you a sandwich, and escorted you to your destination, that is grace — he gave you help that you did not deserve.
The author is saying that you need both mercy and grace from God — and that God is offering you both mercy and grace through Jesus and Jesus alone. This is God’s rest!
You need God’s mercy because you have violated His law countless times and you deserve His condemnation.
You have no resources to get out of this predicament. You can insist that you are a good person or that God will not judge you, but that is unrealistic. You can rely on observing religious rituals or performing good deeds, but God says this can never get rid of your guilt.
Your only hope for mercy is Jesus. Only Jesus lived the perfect life that you owe to God, and only Jesus sacrificed Himself as a perfect payment for your guilt. When you humbly admit your guilt to God and depend only on Jesus’ sacrifice, you will find mercy. God will release you forever from the judgment you deserve. No matter how many times you fail or make mistakes after trusting Jesus’ sacrifice, you need never fear God’s judgment. It is a wonderful “rest” to know that this problem is permanently resolved. Have you entered God’s rest by doing this?
Through Jesus, you receive more than God’s mercy — you can also receive His grace. That is, you can receive God’s help that you do not deserve.
This does not mean getting God to help you do what you want and get what you want. That turns you into God and it turns God into your inferior. This is the help that you need but do not deserve in order to serve Him and follow His will for your life. This is God’s help to overcome temptation, to have His love for other people, to receive His guidance for today, to comfort and encourage you when you are disheartened, to receive the wisdom and power in order to impact others with God’s presence, and so forth.
This help is available to you whenever you need it, which is always, even though you never deserve it. All you have to do is come to God through Jesus and ask Him for it, believing that He is willing and able to give it to you. The more regularly you do this, the more you experience His undeserved help, and the more humble confidence you develop in the truth that He will always help you. This is entering God’s rest — and it is a life of peace and hope and even joy in the midst of life’s storms. This rest is available to you, are you grabbing hold of it?
