FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 4:1-13

God’s Word Will Reveal the Problem (verses 12–13).  The subtlety of the temptation in self-dependence is highlighted by these next verses. The opening word, “For,” strongly ties them to the previous verse since they explain what the Israelites who fell in the wilderness failed to heed. David asks, in Psalm 19:12, “Who can understand his errors?” The answer he gives in the psalm and that of the writer of Hebrews is the same. Only the “Word of God,” which “is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” is capable of exposing the thoughts and attitudes of a single human heart! We do not know ourselves. The prophet Jeremiah stated the human heart was a wicked and deceitful thing, and he asks the same question David did (Jeremiah 17:9). We do not even know how to distinguish, by feelings or rationale, between that which comes from our souls (psyches) and from our spirits (pneumas). Even our bodily functions (symbolized here by “joints and marrow”) are beyond our full knowledge. Only the all-seeing eye of God knows us thoroughly and totally (Psalm 139:1–18), and before Him we will stand and ultimately give account.

The images the author employs in this marvelous passage are effective ones. Like a sharp sword which can lay open the human body with one slashing blow, so the sword of the Scripture can open our inner life and expose it to ourselves and others. Once the ugly thoughts and hidden rebellions are out in the open, we stand like criminals before a judge, ineffectually trying to explain what we have done. Yet such honest revelation is what we need to humble our stubborn pride and render us willing to look to God for forgiveness and His unlimited gracious supply.

Plainly, Scripture is the only reliable guide we have to function properly as a human in a broken world. Philosophy and psychology give partial insights, based on human experience, but they fall far short of what the Word of God can do for they are in themselves flawed. God never intended them to replace human knowledge or effort, but rather they are designed only to supplement and correct them. Surely the most hurtful thing pastors and leaders of churches can do to their people is to deprive them of firsthand knowledge of the Bible. The exposition of both Old and New Testaments from the pulpit, in class rooms and small group meetings is the first responsibility of church leaders. They are “stewards of the mysteries and oracles of God” and must be found faithful to the task they were called to perform. This uniqueness of Scripture is the reason that all true human discovery in any relevant situation must fit within the limits of divine disclosure. Human knowledge can never outstrip divine revelation.

In going back through Hebrews we can read that Jesus is far greater than any angel, eclipses Moses as the spokesman of God, and leads believers into a far superior rest than Joshua led Israel into. All these things we read about are but mere shadows of the ultimate, eternal and life-giving plan that God the Father wanted to share with human-kind through His Son, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 4:1-13

The Rest Obtained Is New-Creation Rest (verses 8–11) – Continued. In the light of the last lesson, it becomes very clear that truly keeping the sabbath is not merely observing a special day (that is but the shadow of the real sabbath), but sabbath keeping is achieved when the heart rests on the great promise of God to be working through a believer in the normal affairs of living. We cannot depend on our own efforts to please God, though we do make decisions and exert efforts. We cease from our own works and look to His working within us to achieve the results that please Him. Let us never forget that, “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). As Jesus put it to the apostles, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We must all learn to work, but always with the thought that He is the One working through us and with us, adding His power to our effort. We are the vessels through which He pours out His will to others. That is keeping the sabbath as it was meant to be kept!

Learning to function from a position of true rest is the way to avoid burnout in ministry or any other labor. We are to become “co-laborers with God,” to use Paul’s wonderful phrase. This does not mean that we cannot learn many helpful lessons on rest by studying the regulations for keeping the sabbath day as found in the Old Testament. Nor that we no longer need time for quiet meditation and cessation from physical labor. Our bodies are yet unredeemed and we need rest and restoration at frequent intervals. But we are no longer bound by heavy limitations to keep a precise day of the week.

Then we read next the writer’s exhortation to “therefore be diligent to enter that rest.” So of course, effort is needed to resist self-dependence. If we think that we have what it takes in ourselves to do all that needs to be done, we shall find ourselves rest-less and ultimately ineffective. Also, with the attitude of self-dependence comes the pitfalls and dangers of pride. Yet decision is still required of us and some exertion is needed; but results can only be expected from the realization that God is the One working through us and He will accomplish the needed ends. This is also the clear teaching of Psalm 127:1, “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” Human effort is needed, God uses His chosen vessels, but human effort is never enough in and of itself in doing the Lord’s work whatever that may be.

Failure to expect God to act caused the disobedience of Israel in the wilderness, many times over, and a similar failure destroys thousands in the wilderness of today. It may be called overachieving in our day, but it is the cause for most of the breakdowns experienced by Christians under the pressure of stress or responsibility. Pastors and teachers particularly have often been taught that they are personally responsible to meet the emotional needs and to solve the relational problems of all in their congregations. Many sincerely attempt this but soon find themselves overwhelmed with unending demands and a growing sense of their own failure. Relief can come only by learning to operate out of rest and by sharing responsibility with others in the congregation whom God has also equipped with the various gifts of ministry.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 4:1-13

The Rest Obtained Is New-Creation Rest (verses 8–11).  Though Jesus is not compared here with Joshua in terms of relative greatness, it is apparent from these verses that the work of Joshua in leading Israel into the rest symbolized by the Promised Land was far inferior to the work of Jesus. Joshua and his accomplishments were only a shadow of Christ’s work. Jesus provides eternal rest to all who believe in Him. The fact that God repeats His promise of rest through David in Psalm 95, centuries after Israel had entered Canaan, is used to indicate that Sabbath-rest is the substance and Canaan-rest is but the shadow. There was an experience of rest for Israel in Canaan (from armed invasion, natural disasters, failure of crops, etc.) when they were faithful to God and their covenant with Him. But even at best that rest was outward and essentially physical, and could not satisfy the promise of rest to the human race which was the intention from the beginning. The author specifically states, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.”

Finally, in verse 10, we learn at last the nature of that rest. It means to cease from one’s own work, and so, by implication, to trust in the working of God instead. In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul asserts, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” In other words, we are to rest from our own works!

The use of the term sabbatismos (“rest” – literally, “Sabbath-rest”) suggests that the weekly sabbath given and commanded by God to Israel is only a shadow of the true rest that God intends for His chosen. Paul also declares in Colossians 2:16-17 where he lumps religious festivals, New Moon celebrations and sabbath days together as “a shadow of things to come, but the substance [the reality] is of Christ.” Thus, we can surmise that “rest” has three meanings: (1) the Promised Land; (2) the weekly sabbath; and (3) that which these two foreshadow, that cessation from labor which God enjoys and which He invites believers to share. This third rest not only describes the introduction of believers into eternal life, but also depicts the process by which we will continue to work and live, namely, dependence on God to be at work through us. “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

This is in many ways the lost secret of Christianity. Along with seeking to do things for God, we are also encouraged to expect God to be at work through us. It is the key to the apostle’s labors: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Also, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Note, “It is no longer I who live,” that is, I do not look for any achievement by my own efforts. Rather “Christ lives in me” and the life I live and the things that I do are “by faith,” that is, done in dependence on the Son of God working in and through me.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.