The rest then is God's rest, made by Him, and suited to Him, which He will enjoy in perfected glory with those who believe in Christ, Who alone by His work could fit sinful men to share it perfected as they are through His one offering.
“For we that believed enter into the rest, even as He hath said, As I sware in My wrath, If they shall enter into My rest, although the works were done from [the] world's foundation. For He hath said somewhere of the seventh day thus, And God rested on the seventh day from all His works, and in this again, If they shall enter into My rest” (ver. 3-5).
The present tense of Hebrews 4:33For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3) is not historical but absolute, a usage most frequent in scripture and in ordinary speech too, especially as to principles of truth. Believers are the enterers into the rest of glory: not all men, nor yet all Israel, but “we that believed"; for the past participle adds to the definiteness of the class accepted for the blessing, not simply those who believe as if they might later or when they pleased. There is no thought of an actual entrance now, for the whole argument shows the rest here is future, whatever rest may be for faith to apprehend before God shares His rest with all that are His own. This Epistle always regards the believer as on the way. The sabbatism here in view is not yet enjoyed by the saints but “remaineth” (ver. 9). It is for those that believed, and none else. Of those that did not believe, how true it was, as God swore to give it all the greater solemnity and assurance that they should not enter into His rest! Their unbelief of Christ made it conditional on themselves; and they were ungodly, as all such are and must be. For Christ only is the source of life as well as forgiveness, the one strengthener of the weak and guide of the erring, the sole Saviour of poor sinners or of saints. For what would even saints be or do without Him? As unbelievers trust themselves or certainly do not trust Christ, they shall not enter into the rest of God. The “if” is their death-knell. If self is the sinner's condition, it is all over with him; and as with Israel, it is no less sure in Christendom. “If they shall enter into My rest,” practically as in principle for those who know what unbelief is, means that they shall not.
Yet God had revealed His rest from the beginning. Only the Adamic world is spoken of, only those “works” of God which were effected on the six “days". The vast operations of creation in geologic time are outside consideration and have nothing to do directly with His rest. But His works in view of man immediately conduct to it. And so He has said in Gen. 2 “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works,” as He had in Psa. 95 thousands of years after, “If they shall enter into My rest". The first scripture proves that He had a rest Himself; the second, that even His people had not yet entered into it. Sin came in for Adam and his race at the beginning. God could not rest in sin, nor could sinners as such enter into God's rest. God indeed did not then speak of any entering in. But He did, in thus speaking, imply that the unbelievers who provoked Him in the wilderness should not enter. Preferring self to Christ they, as all others, must reap the ruinous consequence. And this He records in a psalm which not only recalls the ruin of the rebellious people in the desert but looks on to the future day of glory when Israel is invited to come with songs of joy and thanksgiving before Jehovah, not only the Creator (as the gods were not, but mere demons and impostors) but their Maker and God. They having believed at length, after ages of judgment because of their unbelief, should enter into His rest—how welcome and sweet for that people, His people, after such a history of sorrow, shame and unrest, through sin and the unbelief that barred all escape or deliverance! For “to-day” will be then, not merely a persevering call of grace (as more preeminently in the gospel), but God's power in salvation; “and so all Israel shall be saved” in that day.
“Since then it remaineth that some should enter into it, and that those that had first good tidings borne did not enter because of disobedience, again He defineth a certain day, saying Today in David after so long a time, even as it hath been said before, Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if Joshua made them rest, He would not have spoken after these things of another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbatism for the people of God. For he that entered into his rest, himself also rested from his works, as God from His own” (ver. 6-10).
The inference is drawn that some would hear and believe, whilst the mass were unbelieving and perished; and both were verified in the type: Israel fell as a whole; Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan. It was a sad issue then with which grace would point the moral to the Jews that professed the name of the Lord, and indeed to any now in Christendom. God's mercy would not, be hindered by human opposition or indifference. If those first appealed to refused the glad tidings, He persists in calling. He again fixes a day, and in David, long after Moses and Joshua, “Today” is the word, (as it has been said) “Today, if ye should hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” He is coming, and Israel will not harden their hearts in that day, but will say Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah; as the Christian and the church now say, Come, for they at least have proved His infinite grace. They dread not but long for His presence. But withal the, call goes on to the unbelieving while He tarries. For He is a Saviour as well as their Bridegroom. (Rev. 22)
It is impossible to maintain that Israel's entry into Canaan was God's rest or man's entrance into it. The failure is as evident in Canaan as in Eden. Neither was His rest. But in that reasoning His word is definitive. Long after Joshua made Israel rest in the land, God by David speaks of His rest not yet realized, as sure to be lost by unbelief as of old, as open to faith as ever—we may say now in the gospel more than ever; but this is scarcely the object in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is a final call to the people, and a solemn warning against unbelief to such of them as called on the Lord Jesus. Whatever measure of rest then Joshua gave Israel, it was not the rest of God, for this in David is still held out prospectively. There remains therefore a sabbath-keeping for the people of God.
So in Rom. 8 we are said to be saved by hope; for the salvation spoken of goes beyond the soul, taking in the body (ver. 11, 23) and creation generally (ver. 19 and seqq.). But hope, says the apostle, that is seen is not hope; for who hopeth for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we see not, we do with patience wait for it. It is thus with the rest God will have, prepared for those that love Him, where even He can see no flaw, and which, when all work is done, He will give us to enjoy with Himself. Hence it is wholly future; it remains for His people, whether for those above or for those below. For Christ is the Heir of all things, and we are joint-heirs with Him. All things in heaven and all things on earth are to be under Him, not in title only by personal exaltation at God's right-hand, but by actual possession in indisputable and acknowledged power when He reigns on His own throne. Such is the rest of God, as His word presents it, but alas! many that bear Christ's name feebly believe if at all. It is as sure as His death; which is the ground of hope as of so much else infinitely precious; and shown carefully in Hebrews 2.
No present rest then is the rest of God; and the futurity of that rest is a grand safeguard against the snare for any Christian, most of all for a Jewish one, to seek it now here below. As God cannot rest in sin or misery, neither ought we to allow it even in our desires, still less make it our life. Now is the time for the labor of love if we know His love, now to seek true worshippers of the Father as He is seeking Himself, as the Son loved to do here below, as the Spirit does now sent down from heaven. Thus should we show that we have fellowship with the Father and the Son downward and all around in grace, as upward in praise and thanksgiving; while we wait for the rest of God to come, and this when it comes is everlasting.
Verse 10 is an added word, very characteristic of the inspired writer. It asserts the general principle, by the case put, that we cannot be working and have rest in the same things and the same sense. When one is entered into his rest; he also has rested from his works. It is not at all the common notion of resting from bad works when a man gets peace with God. However true this may be, it has nothing whatever to do with what is here written. And this is demonstrable, not only from the whole passage treating, not of the soul's spiritual rest by faith of Jesus but of God's future rest in glory, but by the comparison that follows, as God from His own (works). For assuredly His works were never bad but always and perfectly good. Nevertheless He is to rest even from the activity of His love to enjoy the glorious results. So is the case spoken of He that is entered into his rest is no longer busied with his works. It is a necessary principle and a blessed application to the matter in hand, and in no way a moralizing on a sinner, ceasing from his evil works and finding rest in Christ. Now is the time for the saint not to cease from his good works. Soon he will enter the eternal rest of God. The prevalence of sin and misery calls for unremitting labor while it is day; in this too we have communion with the Father and the Son (John 5:1717But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. (John 5:17)). When they rest, so shall we; and eternity, as the active Arnauld d'Andilly said to Nicole, will be long enough to rest in. The A.V. is very faulty in its mistaken emphasis, which helps on the popular misapprehension.