2025 Bible Study Group

[Tippy]

Hebrews 4


Literally, we have had the gospel proclaimed to us just as they did. Even those ancient Hebrews had the gospel proclaimed to them. Jesus, the Gospel, justification through faith, none of this was anything new. God has proclaimed the Gospel from the foundation of the world, ever since He promised to send the seed to crush the serpent. Abraham discovered justification through faith long before the Apostle Paul said that is how all Christians are saved. The fact that this comes across as something strange and foreign to the Jews says more about them than it does about Scripture. They had the Gospel proclaimed to them, but they did not hear it in faith. Now there were those who heard in faith and were saved, even before Christ came, but they were the few; God's chosen remnant.


Two things here: believe/faith in Christ = enter that rest. Not entering God's rest = unbelief/disobedience/God's wrath. You ever heard the phrase "there's no rest for the wicked"? It comes from the Bible.


God worked 6 days of the week then rested on the 7th. This was ritualized in the Law as the Sabbath rest. It is a blessing to enter the Sabbath rest with God. But even in the Old Covenant, the Jews were not able to truly enter the Sabbath rest due to their unbelief, though they may have seemed to have kept it on the outside. This is why the Lord says "I hate your sabbaths" in Isaiah. In the New Covenant, a new day is appointed: Today. Not Saturday. Not Sunday. Today.


Here is what the author means. Simply entering into the Promised Land was not good enough. Joshua brought them in, but as you saw in Judges, they turned it into a horror show. So in the days of King David, the Holy Spirit spoke of another day. The Jews could not boast in posessing the land, since they had not Christ, and so the land was eventually taken from them.


The Jews would've been accusing Christians of doing away with the Law, including doing away with the 4th commandment, the Sabbath rest. Yet the author has shown that the Sabbath rest, what it really is, is faith in Christ. Thus, Christians are the only ones who actually keep the Sabbath.


This is what Justification by Faith Alone seeks to safeguard; the Sabbath rest. Just as God rested from His works, you also rest from your works when you believe in Christ and place all your trust in Him. Do you only trust in Christ on Sunday but trust in your works the other six days? Or do you trust in Christ today, day after day? Let your whole life be a life of Sabbath rest.

Hebrews 4

'11;Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

Interesting all the Sabbath talk here. Do you think it's to try to stop workaholism?

Maybe people who never rest start seeing themselves as mini-Gods!

'but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.'

I'll have to thake the Bible's word for it because I can't recall Jesus struggling with sloth or lust or greed.

 

[Iakobos]

OSB Notes Hebrews 3

3:1 Christians are holy brethren; to be in Christ is a heavenly calling, one that separates those in Christ from those who have not heeded His call. As Apostle and High Priest, Christ is both God's representative to man and man's mediator before God. In Him the offices of prophet and priest - of Moses and Aaron - are combined.

3:3-6 The glory of the building goes to the architect rather than to the structure itself. Thus, Moses glorifies Christ, and the Church is consecrated to the glory of God, whose house we are (v6).

3:7-11 This reference is to the rebellion of those who left Egypt during the Exodus. Due to their unbelief, the whole generation was forbidden to enter into Canaan, the promised land, and thus could not enter God's rest. Rest (Greek: sabbatismos) literally means a Sabbath rest or Sabbath observance. There are three types of God's rest known to the Jews: (1) the sabbath rest, the day on which God rested from His works; (2) the rest from Egyptian bondage, which the Israelites coming out of Egypt experienced in Canaan; (3) the rest in the kingdom, the ultimate Sabbath rest in heaven established by Messiah. Hebrews uses this OT quote (Ps 94:7-11) concerning Canaan to refer to the rest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Significantly, we experience this rest now as we ascend to God in worship.

3:12 Those in Christ are not immune to turning away from God. There is a temporary attractiveness in sin, which leads to a hardened heart and ultimately apostasy. We must take constant daily care not to be deceived and thus fall away.

3:14 Union with Christ belongs to those who persevere in their faith to the end, not to those who stop with a one-time profession of faith.

3:16-19 The five questions in this text demonstrate the consequences of Israel's disobedience and her failure to believe God in the wilderness. As the fundamental component of entering God's rest is faith, so the primary cause of failing to enter is unbelief.

4:6 Faith (3:19) and obedience are inseparable. Lack of one is lack of the other. Lack of either bars entrance to rest.

4:8 Joshua and Caleb were the only two men who left Egypt and entered into Canaan. They had not participated in the disobedience of Egypt. The possession of Canaan under Joshua, though, was not the promised rest. Otherwise, David would not have spoken centuries later of a rest still remaining for us.

4:9 Rest here is a reference to the third type of rest, the perfect, final rest of the Kingdom of Heaven.

4:11 Man must labor to enter the rest of God, for rest implies prior work.

4:12-13: The word of God and the sword here are living and powerful. The phrase His sight tells us this reference is not to the written word, Holy Scripture, but to the Word of God Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is able to escape the discernment of Christ, the Word of God.

4:14 Passed through the heavens refers to the Ascension of Christ. It is seen in the context of the Sun sitting "at the right hand of the Majesty of high" (1:3). Christ has accomplished His work on earth and has entered into His Sabbath rest.

4:15 Christ's empathy with sinners rests on His being tempted in every way we are.

4:16 Christ, enthroned at the right hand of the Father, sits on a throne of grace rather than of judgment, granting mercy and grace to help in time of need. The normal position for a priest is standing, not sitting. There is significant power in our enthroned Priest, for He has accomplished and fulfilled the sacrificial offering.

 

[Iakobos]

'but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.'

I'll have to thake the Bible's word for it because I can't recall Jesus struggling with sloth or lust or greed.

Temptation does not necessitate psychologically wrestling with the temptation in the sense of "hmm maybe I should do this, no maybe I shouldn't." So you're right to say that Christ did not psychologically wrestle with those things. They were, however, presented before Him by Satan as an enticement to move away from Godliness, which is the meaning of temptation.

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Interesting all the Sabbath talk here. Do you think it's to try to stop workaholism?

This section in Hebrews 4 on the Sabbath is one of my favorite portions of Scripture. It is incredibly profound. But people miss it's profundity because they too quickly read things into the text that aren't there. They want the text to say "Sunday is the Christian Sabbath so go to church on Sunday." While you should go to church, this text just isn't saying that, it's saying much more.

The main apologetic concern is that the author wants to dissuade any Jewish notion that Christians have abrogated the Sabbath. Christians do keep the Sabbath by resting in Christ. Jews don't keep the Sabbath, since they are faithless, they haven't entered into His rest.

Also, it's another instance of Justification through Faith Alone, which is very Paul like. There is no works-based salvation here in the Sabbath rest. To rest in Christ is to rest from your works. The text isn't so much about what days you should clock in hours, but about what you are resting in spiritually.

Maybe people who never rest start seeing themselves as mini-Gods!

People who never rest in Christ are certainly trusting in another god, or as you say, they are trusting in themselves/trying to become a god through their works.

I'll have to thake the Bible's word for it because I can't recall Jesus struggling with sloth or lust or greed.

The word temptation has some nuances. Sometimes it can mean coveting or concupiscence. Since this kind of temptation is itself sinful, Christ was not tempted in this sense since He is sinless. Yet, the devil tempted him externally if that makes sense.