Hebrews 4:3

Hebrews 4:3

It's time to enter His rest

This verse is, at first, a confusing read. We need to turn it upside down and start at the end, where the author makes the point that God stopped working on the seventh day of creation and He had nothing to add to all that has been made. It is complete, it is finished, it is a reality. In the same way, when Jesus finished His work at the cross, He was able to cry out, “It is finished.” The work of salvation was completed and now He could rest. 

God’s work of delivering the Hebrew slaves from their captivity and bringing them miraculously to the boundaries of the Promised Land had been accomplished in a very short time. He had used that time to meet with them on Mount Sinai and deliver the Torah so that they had everything they needed to live in His rest when the land was subdued. Here was the fulfilment of all their wildest dreams! God could rest now that they had arrived, but these foolish people dug in their heels and refused to enter into His promises, they refused His rest. As a consequence, God was angry and swore that they would never be allowed to enter the land that He had assigned to them. Psalm 95:11. And so they remained in the wilderness and died there. Homeless and godless. What is so sad is that the Lord wanted them to rest with Him, it was His rest that was offered but they refused to take it. 

If we share in the finished work of Christ and have believed in the Gospel, if we have transferred our allegiance from this world to His kingdom and sovereignty, then we are invited to enter His rest. We cease from our own labours, we have no reason now to strive for success, recognition and status, we take our rest in Him and who He is. Everything we could possibly need is ours!! We transfer our allegiances to Him and cease to fret over ourselves. We no longer have to work at our salvation. Most people are doing this without realising it. The accumulation of wealth, possessions, power, positions, status and meaningfulness are all ways that men try to enter rest. We all want to climb our particular pile, to reach a point when we can say that we have achieved, we have arrived, we are complete. Few manage this, the majority spend the whole of their lives scrabbling to make something of themselves. God says, to us, “Stop this. Stop your striving. I have done it all for you, what you have received in Christ Jesus far surpasses anything you can achieve in the world. Enter my rest. Be content with all that I have for you. Be at peace with yourselves and with me, there is nothing better.” 

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