The unexpected truth about God's rest
Entering God's rest
Hebrews 4:3: "For we who have believed enter that rest." God's rest is not what you may have thought it to be, and that is something we will look at in the next couple of posts. But there is no doubt it is the place you want to be. It is the place of being right in the middle of God's plan and God's will for your life. The word of God had come to previous generations, verse 2 has told us, but because it was not received with faith it did them no good. But for us it is different: we are to enter God's rest. The sin of the Israelites was their refusal to believe the unproven word of God. They were looking for physical evidence to back up what God was telling them to do, but God was requiring them to obey his Word without such evidence -- obey it, in fact, even if the evidence was to the contrary. But an attitude of faith obeys the Word of God even when it has not been outwardly verified by circumstances.
Why? Because the Word of God itself is the only evidence that faith requires. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). The heroes of faith whose stories are unfolded in chapter 11 are men and women who defied everything in the natural world around them, all the evidence of their senses, and came to a place of simply believing what God had said to them and told them to do. That is why faith and obedience cannot be separated. Faith is an action. It is a lifestyle. You cannot truly believe God without doing what He tells you to do.
This becomes clear in this statement: “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?” (Heb. 3:18). The next sentence continues, “And so we see that they were unable to enter because of...” -- and here we expect the word “disobedience,” but instead we get the word “unbelief”. They were disobedient, but they could not enter because of unbelief. In other words, “disobedience” and “unbelief” are one and the same thing. Unbelief leads inevitably to disobedience as much as faith results unswervingly in obedience.
God's rest is presented here as something very desirable to take hold of. It can be entered only one way: by faith. The verb "enter" in verse 3 is in the present tense. It is something in front of us right now. We know that what we have now is only a foretaste of our future inheritance in heaven. Yet this verse tells us we can enter God’s rest, and enter it right away.
Recently I went swimming in the freezing waters of the North Sea off the coast of north-eastern England. The friend I was with was braver than me. He just shouted to me, "Don't think about it - just run in." That's faith! You know where you want to go and you know there's only way to get there. You can't stand around rationalizing it or waiting until the circumstances improve. If God has called you to something, just do it. Through God's grace, you faith will impel you to a place of obedience. You'll begin to do things you never thought you could do.
I did survive the freezing swim, even though I couldn't feel my toes for half an hour after. But I'd done it. And so can you.
At war!
We are at war! Jesus warned us about it: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10a). The question is not whether the attack will come, but when and how. The answer, when the attack does come, is to focus not on the attack or on the enemy, but on the Lord. Isn’t it encouraging that Jesus brought his statement to a triumphant conclusion: “But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b)? A while ago a merchant in Toronto got so tired of shoplifters he took the law into his own hands, apprehended a thief and held him until the police arrived -- then got charged for assault! Fortunately the judge saw things differently and acquitted him. The enemy comes continually into our lives to shoplift -- and worse. We don’t have to wait until the police arrive. We have a hotline to the Lord. This does not mean that everything will always run smoothly for us, but it does mean that we can avoid a lot of unnecessary grief if we learn to follow God’s directions for conducting this war.
We need to learn two things: what the tactics of the enemy are, and how to counteract them. In any warfare, this two-pronged approach is critical to success on the battlefield. It is no different on the spiritual battlefield. And let me underline this: these are not strategies to put in place the moment the attack comes. A successful army has discerned the strategies of the enemy long before any attack and put measures into place to counteract them. What coach goes into a game against an opposing team without studying that team’s strengths and weaknesses and devising a strategy to beat them? We can turn and cry out to God at the last minute, and he will hear us, but we will be much more effective in overcoming the enemy’s attacks if we have prepared our defence -- and our offence -- first.
Let me give you a useful tip how to do this. Paul begins his famous exhortation on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 with the word "finally." This is very significant. The advice on how to conduct spiritual warfare in the following verses is only the last part of a much longer section. Beginning at Ephesians 4:1, Paul gives a total (on my count) of 31 commands on how to live our life for God. Those 31 commands are the foundation for the successful warfare he describes in 6:10-17. If we have put our lives in order, we can be confident of success when the time of battle comes.
And don't be discouraged by the fact you're at war. The enemy only targets those who are a threat to his authority. The thief comes to rob, kill and destroy, but in the midst of the attack Jesus comes with his gift of abundant life.
The Word of God works!
Hebrews 10:19 states an incredible truth: "Therefore, brothers... we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus". The word "therefore" points us back to the entire discussion from Heb. 8:1 through 10:18 concerning the old and new covenants and the old and new priesthoods. In particular, it emphasizes the main statement made in 8:1-2: “Now the point of what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, One who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man." The word "therefore" points us toward the application of what has previously been said. On the basis of the truth stated in the previous chapters, we are now exhorted to do something, and something very important: to enter the very presence of God.
Every theological affirmation in Scripture has a practical application. There is no such thing as the purely theoretical in the kingdom of God. Every statement of Scripture is meant to work in real life. And the flip side is equally true: there is no such thing as merely practical. Every practical application must have a theological foundation to it. The kingdom of God will not advance with people who have a lot of Bible knowledge but have not put it into practice. If that is the case, they don’t have real Bible knowledge! And equally, the kingdom of God will not move forward with people who are out there doing a lot of things only because they had some bright idea, attended the latest church growth conference or read the seven secrets of some spiritual guru. The kingdom of God only moves forward when Biblically minded men and women put their Biblical ideas into practice.
Now let's retrace our steps and go back for a minute to the passage in front of us. Two things are of incredible significance. First, the truth that Jesus, as our High Priest, has entered the presence of God, sat down at God's right hand, and begun to reign. Second, the fact that as a result of this every one of us can now enter God's presence. Jesus has opened the door to the throne room of God. It cost him everything to do that. For us to turn aside from spending time with God and developing our relationship with him is in practicality to waste what Jesus did for us.
The Word of God works. It is designed for real life - your real life to be exact. It works better than anything else in this world. Watch the "therefores" in the Bible. Put them to work in your life and see what happens.