Rest - Part 4: Ceasing From Work

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. 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”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 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.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (Hebrews 04:03-10, NKJV).

A hallmark of faith is surrendering your pride.

Underlying all desire to please God through relying on ritual, or ceremony, or adherence to tradition, or charity, or kindness, or honesty, or refraining from evil behavior, is rebellion.

By doing so, you are demonstrating trust in yourself rather than trust in Him. Does this mean that we should't be kind, or generous, or refrain from evil, or tell the truth?

As the Apostle Paul would say, "Certainly not!"

It does mean acting out those things with the full understanding that it is God who works in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. You deserve none of the glory.

We are not saved by good works, but are saved by grace through faith for good works.

Ceasing from your own works means not putting the cart before the horse.

You can't please God without first believing Him, and believing in Him. The gospel means that you are already dead in trespasses and sins, but Christ, through allowing Himself to be killed in your place, paid for those sins, and made you alive again.

He paid for all your sins.

Every last stinking one of them, from birth until the day you die. 

The debt has been forgiven, not because you did anything to warrant it, but because Jesus paid it all.

Unless you realize that you are incapable of any goodness apart from Him, you are still working the penance angle, and not fully relying on His finished work on the Cross.

It means you are still in unbelief, just like the Children of Israel.

From the outside, your life may look good, but from the inside, your heart is still hardened, and you will not enter His rest.

Later in Hebrews, we will be told that there is one thing we are to do with the same agonizing effort and determination that a world class athlete employs to win first place, and it's this: we are to strive to enter His rest.

This means the giving up of self-reliance is difficult, like fighting a physical addiction.

If you've ever been successful at that, you know that even years after your last indulgence, that desire, that taste, that craving, can come back with unbelievable and surprising strength. It can literally knock you over with the force of it.

And unless you are fully prepared ahead of time to continue steadfast resistance, you can succumb to the old dependence.

Know that underneath stubborn self-reliance is a spiritual addiction to pride.

There is no craving stronger than that which drives you to uphold your self-image, no matter how torn and shredded it has become.

Even the most craven street addict, the most reprobate social outcast, the most hardened criminal, retains some semblance of this pride, and is concerned with some aspect of saving face.

So it's hard to cease from works. God knows that and gave you a perfect example.

When He, the omnipotent. omniscient, omnipresent God, the one worthy of all glory and power and honor and worship, finished Creation, He ceased working.

So when each one of His children by faith - who are sinners by birth and proclivity, worthy of nothing but condemnation - come to Him to be cleansed of our unrighteousness, we need to let Him do it all.

We need to be still and know that He is God, and watch Him work the miracle of transformation in our hearts and minds.

And that means giving up our own paltry and feeble attempts at self-righteousness and fully surrendering to Him.

When we do, we'll be changed from the inside out, and in the end, we will be transformed into the image of His Son.

That's His goal.

He will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Rest - Part 3: The Door is Still Open

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. 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”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 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.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (Hebrews 04:03-10, NKJV).

The Israelites of ancient times were offered sanctuary in the Promised Land as soon as they departed from servitude in Egypt, but they did not enter because of disobedience.

In refusing to believe the promise, they opened the door for that ultimate rest to be offered to the entire world. In other words, what they meant for evil, God used for His good purpose. What would have happened had they obeyed that first time is a matter of speculation, but their refusal was an intrinsic part of the Father's Plan of Redemption, and foreshadowed that nation's rejection of their Messiah some 14 centuries later.

Paul says it this way in Romans:

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. (Romans 11:11, NKJV).

God used their stubbornness and pride to throw open the door of salvation to the entire world. And that door is still open to Jews and Gentiles alike, so that for the last 2000 years, what was a bipartite division of mankind between Jew and Gentile, has, during this designated day, become a tripartite division, consisting of Jew, Gentile, and the Church. The former two become one in Christ, who is our ultimate rest.

This is very good news indeed, and reminds us of three very important characteristics of our God.

The first is that He is faithful. He ordained rest, and when it was refused, although He swore that the disobedient generation in the wilderness would not be allowed to enter His rest, He guaranteed that that some must enter it.

That some is is comprised of all those who are descendants of Abraham by faith (as opposed to genetics).

Secondly, it shows He is long-suffering. Jesus, our most Excellent Sovereign and King, sacrificed Himself nearly 20 centuries ago, and yet the door remains open.

Finally, it demonstrates God's incredibly gracious persistence. He has been saying since David (the ancient psalmist King of Israel), and in reality, since the Fall in Eden, Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.

This is not an exhortation made once, or a few times, and then forgotten. It is an invitation that He has repeated daily throughout human history - through His Word, through a person's circumstances, through the gentle persuasion of His Holy Spirit who is with mankind continually, wooing us to Christ. His goal is for each man, woman and child to ask forgiveness so that He can be in each one as a down payment, or guarantee, of eternal life to come.

But there is bad news here, as well, and it's this: there will come a day when that door will shut, like the door of Noah's Ark, and then those left outside, by their own choosing, will suffer irrevocable judgment. They will have waited too long, past the Day of Salvation freely offered through faith.

And rather than entering into His rest, they will enter into the Day of Judgment and God's Wrath.

To any who read these words and dismiss them as quaint, or fantasy, or myth, or dysfunctional superstition, please note, your willful rejection of the truth is precisely what will become for you, an unpardonable sin.

Repent now, while you still can, and believe.

That is all it takes, but it takes no less than that.

Rest - Part 2: Unrest

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. 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”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 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.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (Hebrews 04:03-10, NKJV).

There's a depressing timelessness about the events that occur in this world. While the accessories of sin may change with the times and technology, the underlying nature and motive is the same: offenses against a holy God, and self-aggrandizement, respectively.

Nothing is new under the sun in terms of human misbehavior. The results and reasons are the same throughout history. From "little white lies" to execrable, heinous depravity, all marches on as it has from Eden's demise.

Knowing this, as He knows all things, God still prepared, from the foundation of the world, a marvelous destiny for his beloved creatures, and called it rest. Specifically, His rest. Within the magnificent Creation Symphony, played out over the course of six earthly days, and building up to the stirring crescendo of His creation of the first human couple, He enacted a final dramatic pause: the Sabbath Rest. By doing this He signified His ultimate purpose and plan - the Universe and everything in it was designed and constructed for everlasting, carefree fellowship with God Himself.

He is like that father who takes great pains to provide joy, entertainment and safety for his beloved children in that custom backyard playground, except His playground is the Universe and all time, space and spirit.

Once mankind rebelled, that destiny was forfeit, again like that father who cannot reward bad behavior in his children lest their evil and rebellion be rewarded and they become incorrigible. In truth, Adam's sin could have ended the whole saga, but God in His mercy and love, chose before the outset to provide another way to regain the perfect fellowship that was lost, but it was at the greatest conceivable price - the death of His beloved Son on the Cross.

Belief in Christ, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His voluntary sacrifice and His stunning resurrection is all that is needed for the children to regain favor. In short, believing God is accounted for righteousness. In that sense, belief is a command that if disobeyed, renders all possibility of reconciliation null and void. 

Prior to Christ's incarnation, belief in the promise of the Coming One was the requirement that made one righteous, and since the sparklingly clear revelation of His actual earthly work and ministry, belief that He has come and finished the work of redemption is what is necessary.

And to those who remain in disobedient unbelief?

To them God has sworn that they shall NOT enter that rest, but shall be condemned for all eternity to agonizing unrest.

There can be no starker contrast; perfect joyful rest in God's Presence versus unending separation from that Presence, described as everlasting torment in Outer Darkness and eternal immersion in the Lake of Fire.

I am of the persuasion that God does not visit torture or punishment upon those who choose Hell, but that Hell itself, by definition, are those things inherently. What does it mean to be separated from the source of light and life and love forever? It means conscious agonizing pain, sorrow and regret that can never be relieved.

Unless you obey the command to believe, you will not enter that magnificent destiny fashioned before the foundation of the world.

Your eternity will be spent in unflagging weariness and striving to avoid that which can never again be avoided. It will be literal Hell in ways far beyond what we can conceive or imagine.

There has always been an effort to undermine the theology of Hell. It is nothing new.

But without Hell, there can be no Heaven. Without judgment there can be no justice.

And without faith, there can be no rest.

Rest - Part 1

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. 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”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 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.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (Hebrews 04:03-10, NKJV).

I highlighted (bolded) the start and finish of the passage above to focus on perhaps the loudest cry of the human heart: the desire to rest.

By this I don't necessarily mean cessation from activity, but freedom from worry, stress, and uncertainty.

Even a young child fresh from the womb has needs that equate to worries - food, comfort, quiet, and heights, to name just four- and the range of worry only increases exponentially as the little one matures.

Only in Eden was there no legitimate cause for worry. Since then, nothing but, especially in regard to loved ones under our care.

Then too, if a person is at all concerned with judgment and eternity, to all the stresses of physical survival, add the compulsion to please God, or at least the hope of being able to please God.

The Creator, in His beneficence and mercy, gave us sleep, making it an essential for life, at least post-Fall, so that at least we might gain regular physical rest. But even that need can add to the sum total of things that can be fretted over; just ask an insomniac.

As we age, the effort to survive gets no easier, even if we have been fortunate enough to heap up for ourselves earthly treasure and provision, because maintaining that storehouse of goods adds yet more to the stress level.

The bottom line is this, while we cry out for rest, it eludes us constantly and the longing increases as time passes.

Part of this is God's plan for restoring fellowship between us and Him. Like the Law, weariness is a tutor that shows us our essential helplessness over the things that matter most.

Humans will try anything to rest. Drugs, alcohol, relationships, frenetic physical activity, mind-numbing stimulation - anything - all in a largely futile effort to be assured of entering into a blissful state of freedom from care and worry.

All such attempts result only in fleeting success at best, and futility at worst, until finally, the grave itself is anticipated in moments of exhausted delirium as perhaps a solution. It is no accident most cultures look at the place of burial as the final resting place.

Perhaps the greatest irony and tragedy in all this is that for most humans who have ever been alive, death is the beginning of eternal, irremediable torment, and the epitome of lack of rest. The most harried, hectic, and anxiety-riddled spans of time in life are a sweet picnic in comparison to each and every nanosecond of Hell.

But there is rest to be had, and it was purchased at unimaginable cost - the Savior on the Cross.

The entry price is to become of child of God through faith, for we who have believed do enter that rest, It may not seem so day-to-day, but as children of God, rest is not only our destiny in the life to come, but is part of the down-payment we receive in this life. Why? Because, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

God promised rest to the Children of Israel, but they forfeited that promise through the disobedience of unbelief. Yet the promise remains, and some must enter it in order for God's infallible and inerrant Word to be fulfilled.

And the only way to enter that rest in this life, is to trust in Him and know that He rules over the affairs of all men, and that He cares for us in ways that we cannot know or imagine. This is the only means to attain that peace that passes all understanding that is bequeathed to us now. 

And part of that trust also entails the cessation of trying to please Him through any works of our own flesh. This is a crucial aspect of the gospel - the surrendering of all false beliefs that we can somehow earn His approval by any means other than faith in Christ.

No ritual, no sacrifice, not ceremony, no generosity, not good deed of any kind done in our own strength avails us of anything except condemnation. For all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

But through faith in Him, and only through faith in Him, can the cry of hearts be answered in all His fullness.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10, NKJV).