Originally posted by JIMNSC:
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
My comment:
There are 3 different Greek words used in the Hebrews 4 passage. A key one is in this 9th verse.
Strong's Greek Definition for # 4520
4520//sabbatismov//sabbatismos//sab-bat-is-mos' //
from a derivative of 4521 ; TDNT - 7:34,989; n m
AV - rest 1; 1
1) a keeping sabbath
2) the blessed rest from toils and troubles looked for in the age to come by the true worshippers of God and true Christians
Notice note#2. This doesn't say "Jews" that you referenced in your post, DHK. Strong's 4521 is "sabbaton" which I know that you know means seventh day sabbath.
This rest was figured in the Sabbath and anyone who learns to live out of rest is keeping the Sabbath as God meant it to be kept.
It was also prefigured in the land of Canaan, yet in Verse 8, it says,
...if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. {Heb 4:8 RSV}
If the figure had been enough God would not, later on in the Scriptures, have recorded the words,
...there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. {Heb 4:9 RSV}
Obviously, Canaan, too, was nothing but a figure, nothing but a picture, a shadow. Then what is the real rest?
We come to it in Verse 10; it is most clearly stated:
...for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. {Heb 4:10 RSV}
Here is a revolutionary new principle of human behavior, on which God intends man to operate, and it was his intention from the beginning. It is from this that man fell, and it is to this, now, in Jesus Christ, he is to be restored. Unless this principle is operative in our life, we can have no assurance that we belong to the body of Christ. This is the clear declaration of this writer throughout the whole of the book.
We all have been brainwashed since birth with a false concept of the basis of human activity. We have been sold on the satanic lie that we have in ourselves what it takes to be what we want to be, to be a man, a woman, to achieve whatever we desire to be. We are sure we have what it takes, or, if we do not have it now, we know where we can get it. We can educate ourselves, we can acquire more information, we can develop new skills, and when we get this done we shall have what it takes to be what we want to be.
For three and a half years, the Apostle Peter tried his level best to please the Lord Jesus by dedicated, earnest, sincere efforts to serve him out of his own will, and he failed dismally because he could not be convinced that he did not have what it takes. When the Lord Jesus told him, "You will never have what it takes until the cross comes into your life," he would not receive it. He said, "Lord, don't talk to me about a cross. I don't want to hear anything about that." And the Lord Jesus said, "Get behind me Satan, you are an offense unto me. You do not understand the things of God, but only the things of men," {cf, Mat 16:21-23}. And it was not until that wonderful day, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to the full meaning of the cross, and all the Lord Jesus had made available to him by his indwelling life became part of Peter's experience, that he realized what the Lord had meant. Not till then did he realize what it took to be a Christian.
We repeat: It takes Christ to be a Christian, and it takes God to be a man. When you put Christ back in the Christian, you put God back in the man. This is God's design for living, this is the new principle of human activity -- to stop our own efforts.
We do not have what it takes, and we never did have. The only one who can live the Christian life is Jesus Christ. He proposes to reproduce his life in us. Our part is to expose every situation to his life in us, and, by that means, depending upon him and not upon us, we are to meet every situation, enter into every circumstance, and perform every activity. We cease from our own labors.
This is the way you began the Christian life, if you are a Christian.
* You came to the place where you stopped trying to save yourself, did you not?
* You quit trying to be good enough to get into heaven.
* You said, "I'll never make it, I'll never make it."
* You looked to the Lord Jesus, and said, "If he has taken my place, then that is all I need."
* Thus, receiving him, and resting on that fact by faith, you stopped your own efforts, you ceased from your own work, and rested on his.
Now, Paul says in Colossians, "As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him," {Col 2:6 RSV}. As ... so -- in the same way. As you have received him, so live in dependence upon him to do all things through you. Step out upon that, and what is the result? Rest! Wonderful rest! Relief, release, no longer worrying, fretting, straining, for you are resting upon One who is wholly adequate to do through you everything that needs to be done. He does not make automatons of us, he does not turn us into robots. He works through our thinking, our feeling and our reasoning, but our dependence must be upon him. (Ray Steadman)
