Chapter Four
We are MADE to believe.
“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.”
Hebrews 4:14
Re-read Chapter 3:7-19
Read Chapter 4
Four Types of Rest
Mommas normally know when their babies need a nap. Unfortunately, however, babies don’t always agree. I remember when the boys were little, and they would fight sleep. Sometimes, I would wrap my arms and legs around them and hold them tightly until they quit wiggling and crying. Finally, their little bodies would relax, and they would doze off. Rest is important, not just for babies, but for adults as well.
In addition to physical rest, the Bible talks about several different types of rest: the Sabbath rest, the Promised Land rest, Eternal rest and Salvation rest.
The Sabbath rest is modeled upon the seventh day of creation. On the seventh day, God rested from His work. Of course, God rested not because He was tired but because His work was complete. When God instituted the Sabbath rest, He did so because He knew that we, as humans, would need a day to rejuvenate from our labors. Therefore, He set aside one day for us to physically rest and spend time refreshing ourselves with praise and worship. For the Jewish people, the weekly Sabbath was on Saturday. However, there were other Sabbaths that were observed in conjunction with holidays, feasts, and festivals. New Testament Christians and many Christians today worship on Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection and the day of Pentecost. While the Sabbath constitutes a physical day of the week that we set aside for rest and worship, it also symbolizes our completion in Christ. When we come to faith in Christ, we cease to work for salvation through good deeds. We “rest” in the work that Christ did for us on the cross.
The Promised Land rest refers to the land God promised the Israelites. God called Abraham from his original homeland and promised that He would give Abraham and his descendants a land of “milk and honey.” In other words, God promised him a special place to live, a land to call his very own. However, at the time, the land was occupied, and the Lord did not immediately turn it over to Abraham and his small family. Many years later, after Abraham’s family had grown into a great nation called Israel, God used Moses to rescue them from Egyptian slavery. God led them to the Promised Land and told them to take it. However, as a result of their unbelief and fear, they disobeyed. Because of that choice, that generation forfeited their Promised Land rest. For us, the Promised Land rest symbolizes the spiritual peace, comfort, and blessings that we experience on this earth as a result of our relationship with God through Christ.
Eternal rest is exactly what it sounds like--the eternal reward for all those who place their faith in Christ. Eternal rest represents the future life with Christ in Heaven for those who place their trust in him.
Finally, Salvation rest is the spiritual rest believers experience when they place their faith in Christ. It is a result of Christ’s saving work on the cross and is initiated by the Holy Spirit’s calling. God convicts a person of her sins and calls her to a life of faith. She either responds with belief or disbelief. Her response then dictates what happens next. Belief leads to a life of obedience to God’s commands. Disbelief leads to disobedience.
Unbelief and disobedience can impact each of these types of rest. Any person—saved or not—can benefit from a Sabbath rest, but obviously a Sabbath rest will be more meaningful and beneficial for those who participate in it from its original context. A person can believe in Christ and have a relationship with Him but still sin and suffer the natural and negative consequences thereof. Even though eternal rest may be secure, because of sin, some Christians give up a portion of their “Promised Land rest” here on earth. Of course, if a person ignores the prompting of the Holy Spirit and chooses to forgo a relationship with Christ, she will not experience salvation rest with Christ, on this earth or in eternity. The author of Hebrews makes it clear that the more closely our lives align with God’s will, the more hope and rest we will experience.
Our Choice
I think it’s such a shame that children don’t nap in school anymore. I’m not talking about the kids who fall asleep while their teachers are talking. I mean organized napping, laying down for thirty minutes on plastic mats with a comfy blanket stretched over you and lullabies playing in the background. Ahh, I miss those days.
I remember taking naps in first grade. The teacher asked us to lay our heads on the desks for a certain amount of time. I will never forget how we complained. Wise Mrs. Oldham said, “Grown-ups wish they could take naps!” I thought she was crazy then, but boy do I understand now.
Yet how often do we voluntarily forgo rest? Of course, there are times when we don’t have a choice, but many of us will willingly stay up past our bedtime to watch another episode of our favorite television show or read another chapter in our novel. We don’t argue when a friend invites us to a late-night hang-out or protest too much when a sporting event goes into overtime.
The adult me knows that rest is important, but like the first-grade me, I still don’t take it seriously. And, here’s what’s really bothersome. As important as physical rest is to our physical bodies, spiritual rest is even more important to our souls. Yet, many of us don’t take that seriously either.
God gives humans the choice to choose or reject him. The author of Hebrews spends a lot of time in chapters 3 and 4 discussing the Israelites’ decision to reject God. Under the leadership of Moses, God did exactly what he said he would do. He brought them to the brink of the Promised Land. He promised them victory, but they refused to march in and conquer it. Instead, they cowered in fear. As a result, that generation spent the next 40 years wandering around in the wilderness because they didn’t believe God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. They made their choice, but it wasn’t a good one.
Remember the original readers were Jewish, and they knew this story well. In addition, they recognized that the author was not just referring to the Israelites who came out of slavery in Egypt. The author wanted his readers to remember that many of their fellow friends and family members, the Jewish people of their day, had done the very same thing as their ancestors. They had chosen not to believe. While the Jewish people considered themselves very Godly, they had forsaken their Savior. They had rejected Christ.
Just like God called the Israelites out of Egypt, God calls every person to Himself through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Just like God made Himself known to the Israelites through miracles, God makes Himself known to individuals today through His Word. And just like God showed His love by providing for the Israelites in the wilderness, God shows His love to people today through blessings and provision.
Because of their unbelief, the Israelites disregarded God’s blessings—first the Promised Land and then salvation through Christ. Like children who don’t understand the value of napping, they had no idea exactly what they were throwing away. The author of Hebrews reminded readers not to make the same mistake. The Israelites forfeited their “rest” because of their unbelief. We can too.
Belief and Obedience
Have you ever asked a group of children what they wanted to be when they grow up? The answers can be quite funny. Unaware of the laws of gravity or the physical limitations of our human bodies or minds, one child may aspire to be president while another wants to be a bird. As Americans, we like to say that we can be anything or do anything that we set our mind to, but as we age and mature, we realize that’s not always the case. While all options are not on the table, we do have choices—in our spiritual as well as earthly lives.
We don’t have to be a part of God’s family.
Not everyone is.
Not everyone chooses to be.
The Israelites were God’s chosen people, but even they had a choice. God had already freed them from their slavery in Egypt. He parted the Red Sea so they could escape from Pharaoh’s army on dry land. He brought them exactly where He said He would bring them—to the gates of the Promised Land—but they refused to enter. “The people are too big!” they protested. “We don’t have a chance.” They didn’t believe that God was fighting for them, and, as a result, they walked away from the blessings God had in store.
The author of Hebrews used a lot of terms to describe the intentional actions of these Israelites. He described them as rebellious. He said they tested and tried God, always turned away, and refused to do what He told them. The original language indicates that God’s anger was not aroused because of a single incident but as a result of a persistent tendency to go astray. The danger in persistent unbelief is that it culminates into open defiance. The context suggests that many of these people flat-out rejected God and His ways. Of course, we cannot know all of their hearts. For some of the Israelites, this act of disobedience may have been a temporary waiver in their faith. Regardless, they still had to live with the consequences of their actions—40 years in the desert.
Shew! I know this is a lot to process, but it’s really, really important that we don’t misread or misunderstand these verses. The Bible tells us that disobedience is always a result of unbelief. Our actions are very important because they are a reflection of what we believe, but our salvation is not dependent on our obedience because we will all, at some point, mess up.
Ephesians 2:8 says, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.”
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”
In verse 12, the author of Hebrews reminded his readers, “Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.”
Biblical belief is more than just giving mental assent to something. The Bible tells us that even the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). The author of Hebrews understood this and decided to define belief by what it is not instead of what it is. In Hebrews 3:12-14, the author defines four characteristics of those who do not believe:
Their hearts are evil.
They have turned from God.
They are deceived by sin.
They are hardened against God.
Then, the author defines how we can test our own salvation. Those who truly know Christ will be faithful to the end of their lives and continue to trust in Christ just as firmly as when they first believed. Does that mean we will be perfect? Nope, not a chance, but we will believe in the One who is and seek to follow His commands. In that way, we will experience complete rest in Christ.
Not a Club
When I was a girl, I was fascinated with clubs (the kind you belong to, not the kind you hit people/golf balls with). Once I created a sticker club for me and my sisters. As I got older, the clubs to which I belonged became more sophisticated. In my high school years, I was part of the Beta Club, the Spanish Club, and the FBLA Club. Each of those clubs came with their own set of rules and requirements and usually some form of member identification.
Christianity is not like a club. We don’t have membership cards, a pin, certificate, or even a special article of clothing to identify who’s in and who’s not. There isn’t a supernatural brand that appears on your body to alert passersby of your spiritual status. While every believer’s life should provide evidence of her faith, your choice—as it pertains to whether or not to belong in God’s family—is personal and private. Because of that, it’s not always easy to discern between who is lost and who is saved. I think that’s why the author adds verses 12 and 13.
The verses seem almost out of place. The author has been going on and on about the Israelites, Moses, and how we can forfeit our rest. Then, suddenly, he inserts this passage of scripture on the word of God. Remember, the word of God as we know it---the Bible—had not yet been completely written or compiled.
The author may have been referring to the Law (what we know as the Old Testament writings), but that seems unlikely. The Law had been perverted and distorted by the religious elite during this time. God established the Law to point people to Him and to help them live healthy and moral lives. However, because of the addition of rules and regulations and the lack of mercy and grace, the Law had become a burdensome thing in the lives of most Jews. The author wanted his readers to understand how much better Christianity is because of the forgiveness we receive in Christ. Like most New Testament readers, he would have wanted his Jewish readers to feel the freedom that Christ offered them versus the bondage of the Law. Therefore, it seems unlikely that he would bring the Law into this discussion in this way.
While these verses definitely have an application to the written word, I think there is something else that we miss at first glance. In this passage, the original Greek for “word” is “logos.” According to biblehub.com, logos “is preeminently used of Christ (Jn 1:1), expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit.” We see a direct example of this in John 1:1 where John refers to Jesus as the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) In Hebrews 4:12-13, when you substitute the name of Jesus for the phrase “word of God” the passage makes more sense within the context of the chapter.
“For (Jesus) is alive and powerful. (He) is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. (He 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.”
The Bible is clear that if we are followers of Christ, we should have a desire to obey, and, therefore, our lives should provide evidence of our faith. However, some people are really “good” people, but they don’t know Christ. Other people may make some really bad mistakes, but they do know Christ.
In these verses, the author reminds readers that Jesus knows the true status of our hearts. Jesus (the Word in flesh) knows who has made a true commitment to Him and who has not. If there is any doubt within a person’s own mind about her own salvation, she can come to Him in prayer and through the reading of His (written) word, and He will expose her true thoughts and desires.
MADE to Believe
A family went on a hike. All went well until they came to a bluff. In order to continue forward, they had to walk under a rocky overhang, but their young daughter froze. The thought of passing through the area terrified her. She was at an impasse, until her father took her hand. Holding it firmly, he led her confidently to the other side.
The author of Hebrews has spent two whole chapters telling readers about the importance of believing and obeying. His warnings have been stern, and his predictions for unbelief have been dire. For those of us who know our own weaknesses, such admonishment might be discouraging. I imagine it may have left the original readers feeling the same. After all, if the Israelites—who were God’s chosen people—who were eyewitnesses to miracles of epic proportions—who experienced God’s presence in the form of a pillar of smoke and fire—if they failed in their belief, how in the world can we succeed?
So, the author ends this section by bringing everything full circle once again.
It’s all about Christ.
While the Old Testament Israelites looked forward to the Savior, Christ had not yet come to earth during their lifetime. Because Christ came, died, and was resurrected, New Testament believers and those of us who follow Christ today, have something they did not. We have the Holy Spirit living in us. In addition, we have Christ in Heaven interceding on our behalf.
In John 16:7 Jesus said, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.” The Advocate is another name for the Holy Spirit. At the end of Romans 8:34, Paul tells us that Christ “is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”
It’s important for us to recognize that every aspect of our salvation and our life of faith is a result of Christ’s work in us and on our behalf. This can seem confusing in light of the connection between belief and obedience. In fact, a lot of well-meaning Christians spend a lot of time arguing whether our salvation is a result of faith alone or faith plus works. I have already told you what the Bible has to say, but I want to describe it in a different way to help you understand.
Imagine that faith is a campfire. The wood is our belief. The flame is obedience. But here’s the thing, the flame (obedience) is not possible without the wood (belief), and the wood (belief) will not produce a flame (obedience) unless it’s ignited. Christ is the match. Without him, we’d be just a pile of wood. He is the One who comes to us and ignites our belief. He is the One who gives us a desire to burn for (obey) Him. Any warmth or benefit (our salvation and witness to others) that result from our faith is really a result of the work that He has done and continues to do in our lives.
Remember the young hiker? In and of herself, she could not have made it to her destination. Like the Israelites, she balked. She may have turned around and ran the other way. Her father, however, was faithful. He did not abandon her in her time of need. When the girl took her father’s hand, she had the courage to go through the scary place. The author of Hebrews encourages us to hold firmly to what we believe—Jesus! He leads us boldly to the throne of God. There, the Bible tells us, we will receive mercy and grace to help us grow in our belief, to help us obey even better, and to help us get through all the scary situations of this world. Jesus gives us rest; we are MADE to believe.