One Step Further

God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. [Hebrews 4.1]

Really, it is impossible to discuss this verse without discussing the entire chapter (Hebrews 4). The hard thing about understanding what is said in Hebrews 4 is that is contains some popular passages that are most often quoted out of the context of the entire chapter and therefore grossly misunderstood. 

In a broad but Biblically accurate generalization, Hebrews 4 begins by speaking of God's rest (verse 1) and completes the thought in verses 14-16 with "Jesus" and the boldness He give us to come before God. The writer's use of conjunctions from sentence to sentence segues the entire chapter from "rest" to "Christ" to "boldly approaching God."

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. [Hebrews 4.14-16]

What lies between verse 1 (the promise of rest) and verse 16 (coming boldly to God's throne) can be summed up in verse 11:

So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. [Hebrews 4.11]

In amazing continuity, Hebrews offers clear definition of how one gets from entering [God's] rest and advancing into God's throne (notice the use of a conjunction that signals what follows with what was previously said):

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. [Hebrews 4.12-13]

God's Word reveals what is the "natural" (joint and marrow) and what is the "spiritual" (soul and spirit) in man -  it exposes ...innermost thoughts and desires. Everything in God's Word works to this end. The world entices man to focus on the natural and the Spirit draws man in the opposite direction:

From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? [Matthew 16.21-26]

Again, the world entices man to focus on the natural (seeing things merely from a human point of view) but the Spirit, through the Word of God, draws man in the opposite direction (seeing things ...from God’s point of view). 

While every human being is called to the life of rest, those who are chosen as "believers" spend their lives transitioning from one point of view to the other.

“For many are called, but few are chosen.” [Matthew 22.14]

The human point of view Jesus scolded Peter about had (and has) everything to do with "human effort," not "rest." The writer of Hebrews guides us to first enter that rest in order that we might boldly enter God's throne. There IS a progression. There is no way to enter God's throne without ceasing from human effort or point of view and instead "resting" in Christ and all His fulness (faith that pleases God). It is God's Word that teaches us how that is done. In fact, Jesus, being God's Word embodied in flesh, gave us not only verbal instruction of what to do, but more clearly a living example of what it looks like! Jesus IS and DOES everything Hebrews 4.12-13 says God's Word does!

A true believer spends his or her life seeking God's rest in every circumstance. God's Word and the Spirit instructs and guides them. A true believer consciously purposes to look at every circumstance from God's point of view, not a human point of view. They "do [their] best to enter that rest" from human effort and strive to be an extension of Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection in their time on earth.

While Hebrews 4 lays out the goal of "rest" at first, it must be seen that the goal of that rest is to get to God's throne in boldness!

Let's take this just one step further as the progression of Hebrews 4 goes... Hang on...

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. [Hebrews 4.16]

Hebrews 4.16 has been popularly employed to encourage people who need mercy and grace in their need. The context of Hebrews 4 however, including Christ's role in "rest," might more accurately lead us to see that the mercy and grace we need is mercy and grace to do God's will as it pertains to others (from God's point of view - taking up our cross and following Jesus)!

Father, help us to "rest" from our insatiable appetite to look out for ourselves but to look out instead for others as Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated. So be it.