Fear What?

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Hebrews 4:1

We who have received the perfect atonement of Jesus Christ are forever IN HIM, having been redeemed from slavery to sin. The Jews who came out of Egypt with Moses were redeemed from slavery to sin and the world, which were represented by pagan Egypt. They belonged to almighty God, the sovereign of the universe. They had witnessed great miracles leading up to that exodus experience, and as they continued their journey to the Promised Land, even more miracles were done for them.

Yet they were cynical about God’s provision and fearful of their circumstances. That is not trust. That is not faith. That does not testify to the perfect love and faithfulness of God, to Whom they belonged. They had believed enough to be redeemed (purchased out of the slave market and made free), but did not believe enough to trust God for daily necessities of life.

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Hebrews 4:2-5

God’s rest is the believer’s place of greatest blessing. God rested on the seventh day because His work of creation was done. Nothing needed to be added. He was satisfied with the completeness of His work.

His work of salvation is also completed, in the perfect atonement of the cross, which was clearly represented by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the Children of Israel, purchasing their salvation from Egypt. So, though the method of communication is different in the Church Age, the reality is the same. We are redeemed out of the slave market by His Finished Work! There is nothing we can add to that, and nothing He needs to add to that, and having done that for us, we can be assured of His constant care. Of what, then, should we be afraid? Answer: lack of faith. Failure to trust Him. UNBELIEF! That is an offense to our Lord. It is blasphemous to doubt His perfect love and provision. It makes Him angry (Hebrews 3:11,18-19).

They were still His people, but could not fully experience the blessings He had in store for them, because they had no capacity for blessing. We can talk about our salvation, our spirituality, our love for Jesus Christ all day long, but when we worry and fret over our circumstances we are not trusting Him. He did not bring us out here to kill us! He is leading us to our promised land, our place of greatest blessing; His Rest. Those fretful Jews died in the desert because they could not trust Jesus Christ to know their needs and take care of them, though He was doing just that every step of the way. They died without ever entering into His Rest. That is the one thing we Church Age believers need to fear. We are assured of eternity with Him, but our mission on earth is to represent His character and we cannot do that without total faith in His perfect Word of Truth.

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7

The exodus generation failed the test of faith, but the opportunity is open to us. His Word is still freely available to every generation of mankind, and God's Rest is always potential for those believers who will heed and trust His Word. When? Today. Any day we have exposure to God’s Word, we must not ignore it or scoff at it or misconstrue it. It is our very life. We must listen, learn and apply everything we can comprehend of God’s written Word, in order to achieve the relaxed mental attitude God wants to establish in His people.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Hebrews 4:8-10

“Sabbath:” day-by-day, moment-by-moment, complete trust and relaxation that God’s Word is absolutely true; that everything needed for our salvation is done; that since God saved us and has left us here in the world, He has provided everything we need to navigate this world. Perfect peace of mind, no matter the apparent adversities. Worry warts don’t have peace. They have constant turmoil of soul; for fear that the One Who created and saved them cannot keep them saved, or even provide for their physical needs. They have no concept of Sabbath. They are depending on their own works. Human good is no good. Human viewpoint is bad judgment.

There is one work for the believer:

Let us therefore strive (labor, KJV) to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Hebrews 4:11

Our goal as Church Age believers: Learn God’s Word. Believe God’s Word. Relax. Enter His Rest.

God's Rest

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Hebrews 3:7-11

This is quoted from Psalm 95:7-11 part of which says “do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,” the place of moaning and complaining because there was no water. Because of their adversity, they felt justified in challenging God’s authority over them.

“Therefore,” because we now know that Christ (Whose we are) is greater even than Moses, the Holy Spirit has an important message for us: “do not harden your hearts” against the Word of God (“His voice”).

   

“harden” make stubborn. “hearts” kardia. The thinking part of the soul. The mind. Hardening the heart means to reject truth. Refuse to believe.

“The rebellion” describes the attitude and actions of those who followed Moses out of Egyptian slavery. They believed God enough to obey the instructions to observe the Passover, and were saved by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses. Then, having the freedom to leave the country, they followed the glory of Jesus Christ through the parted sea and into the desert. They had been freed from Egyptian oppression by the miraculous works of God, and were now out of the control of a pagan nation, and even so, they almost immediately began to whine because of their discomforts and fears.

God was put to the test by their unbelief, though they were His people! He had brought them out to redeem them and to establish them as a nation before Himself. He had performed miracles to get the attention of Pharaoh, and to finally overwhelm Pharaoh and his armies. He was leading them to their own land of promise, where all their needs would be met and they could conduct their lives in freedom to worship the One True God, as a people for His Name. He did all this, yet they did not trust Him to provide for them in the wilderness!

They were an arrogant people, driven by their emotions and their lust patterns. They confronted Moses and Aaron at every perceived adversity, as if there were a conspiracy against the Hebrews (“why have you brought us out here to kill us?” Exodus 2:14,16:3,17:3 Numbers 16:13). They didn’t miss a chance to revert to the paganism of Egypt when they became frightened in unfamiliar territory (the golden calf incident).

These were baby believers. They had received the atonement and had begun the journey with Moses’ leadership, but quickly cooled toward Moses and God when the going got tough. God called it rebellion and was provoked to wrath by their faithlessness. They were His, but they didn’t know Him. They always “went astray” in their hearts, rather than believing God’s Word for assurance. 

Why didn’t He just destroy them? Because they were His People. He had a plan and purpose for them, from eternity past. They would represent Him in the world as the descendants of Abraham, the man of faith. Well, not that Exodus generation, but their children would, after 40 years of training in the desert as they buried their parents and learned to Whom they belonged. Their parents were dying the sin unto death. Still saved, but not capable of earthly life as God’s people.

Deuteronomy 8:3-5: And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.

God’s “rest” is the total peace we have as believers in Him, no matter to what generation we belong. We call it “faith-rest,” because it is a relaxed mental attitude that results from KNOWING and BELIEVING God’s promises to us. You cannot trust what you do not know, so we must learn His Word, His plan and His grace provision. Then we must believe what we’ve learned about Him, no matter what is going on around us. God’s Word is more real than anything we see, hear or feel. With His promises in our souls, we can face whatever the world throws our way. To ignore or reject God’s promises to us is disobedience. God disciplines His children for disobedience.

God’s “rest” is moment-by-moment spiritual Sabbath. Every day. All day. He has done the work for our salvation and He has provided for our every need in this life. That was the lesson of the seventh day Sabbath of the Old Testament. We must relax and reflect on what God has done for us. We must remember Him and appreciate His perfect provision. He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. Indeed, we don’t even know what needs to be done for us, but “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

We in the Church Age are given this example of the Exodus generation as a warning. Their failure to trust in God’s provision cost them their opportunity to enter God’s rest. Faith is what we know about God. They didn’t know Him, not because they lacked opportunity, but because they were stubborn, demanding and unappreciative. They clung to human viewpoint and emotionalism rather than learning divine viewpoint (the mind of Christ). Therefore they remained unstable and infantile in their relationship to God. Experience was their measure of spirituality, so they remained spiritually ignorant. Their hearts were hardened. Such a whiney, childish, negative people could not represent God’s integrity, so they died in the desert without ever entering the land of promise.

They never knew the peace and fulfillment of the abundant life God had purposed for them. We cannot, when we short-circuit our blessings by ignorance of God’s Word and lack of trust in Him. This is clear warning to us who have believed in Jesus Christ for eternal life. As long as we live in the earthly realm, we have Bible Doctrine to learn. The Mind of Christ. To refuse to learn and apply doctrine is disobedience. Furthermore, in the status of spiritual ignorance we can never reach our potential of peace and rest as the Royal Family of God. What a shame, to have all that in our grace package and to go to our graves ignoring it. 

God has a grace package of abundant blessings for each of us believers in this life. A great many of us are flailing about, spinning our wheels and begging God for blessing, when what He wants of us is total trust in what He has already provided. That’s obedience. The things we may be begging for (or demanding) do not compare to the glorious gifts He has for those who will relax and wait for His promises to be fulfilled in our lives.

Better Than Moses

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Hebrews 3:1-6

 

So far in Hebrews we’ve seen the writer’s assurance that with the incarnation of God’s unique Son, God’s plan of grace has advanced beyond the foretelling of the Old Testament Prophets, beyond the realm of angels’ ministry, and now to those who for generations have revered Moses as God’s highest representative, the Son of God is declared to be even better than Moses!

This is not really difficult for us in this latter part of the Church Age to grasp, since Jesus and Him crucified is all we’ve ever really identified with. We know Jesus is God and that whatever He is is better than anything else in the universe. Not so with those first century Hebrew believers. Their lives had been centered in the Law of Moses with its commandments and temple rituals ever since they had become a nation. To those Jews, there was no one higher or better than Moses. Until now.

“holy brothers” fellow believers. Those being addressed here were Jews who had believed in Jesus and were learning to orient to His truth as they endured persecution and severe adversities in Jerusalem. There was intense temptation to just walk away from the Church and back into the religion of the Pharisees. Maintaining one’s Christian testimony could be burdensome, at times, especially for a Jew.  

“you who share” are partakers, participants, companions; “ in a heavenly calling.”  We’re in this together, brethren. If you’ve received His salvation, you are part of the household of God. Your destiny is IN CHRIST. Whatever is His is ours, now and forever. The fact is, you really can’t go back, even though in moments of weakness you may think about it. Once you’ve been sealed by the Spirit of God, you are a new creation (I Corinthians 5:17), who really cannot function fully as an unbeliever anymore. You can act like one, but that carries discomfort and discipline, and you can never again be relaxed in that world.
 

“consider Jesus” (katanoeo): observe Him. Behold Him. Perceive Him. It means to study about Who and What He is; examine all the Holy Spirit has revealed to us about Him; understand the uniqueness of His person and His one-and-only sacrifice to purchase our salvation.

“the apostle” is the one sent into the earth on a specific mission.

“high priest” is the one qualified to understand our sufferings and temptations as He intercedes for us with the Father.

“confession” (homolegia): acknowledgment. Profession of faith. By openly identifying ourselves with Jesus, we confess Him in the world. That is our profession.

This Jesus, our apostle and high priest, was faithful to Him Who sent Him. Faithful (pistos) means trustworthy, sure and true. He never wavered from the plan of the Father. That mission, our salvation, was what He came to accomplish.

Moses was faithful, also, in his execution of the work God had given him to do “in God’s house,” meaning within the structure of the law that had been entrusted to Moses as Israel became a priest nation to God. Jesus was the builder (creator) of this house. The builder is superior to the house. The ultimate builder is God, Who designed and brought into being all things.

Moses, therefore, was a servant in the house of God; a faithful servant, whose life and work contributed mightily to the finished structure. Jesus, though, is the faithful Son over the house. In the culture in which this epistle was written, the Son carries the Father’s authority over the household, and exercises the Father’s responsibilities and privileges. The servant faithfully carries out the instructions of the Father, as ordered by the Son.

The law contained a code of attitudes and behaviors that God expected of His people. Jesus embodied that code. The law also contained ritual which represented God’s righteousness and justice and which provided for the atonement of the sins of mankind. That ritual depicted the person and work of the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world; Jesus Christ.

So, in learning the superiority of the Son, we learn our own privileged position IN HIM, and in “holding fast” what we know about His superiority, we insure our steadfastness in the face of oppression and hardships, which are sure to come to those who have broken with tradition and have embraced truth.

The subject of Hebrews is the BETTER THINGS of JESUS.

What we have with Jesus is always BETTER THAN anything else the universe has to offer…past, present and future. What we will see as we move on through Hebrews is the Sabbath rest we can have IN HIM, not just certain days but every day, every moment, as we learn to place our complete trust in the perfect provision He has made for us, and has expressed to us in His perfect Word of Truth.

He, Himself Likewise

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews 2:14-15 

 

The writer of Hebrews has stated the fact of Jesus’ humanity every way he could state it, because it is of supreme importance that those Hebrew believers and we understand the necessity for Jesus Christ to be born a true human. To purchase our redemption, He must be flesh and blood like us, but without sin. God the Son appeared at special times to Old Testament believers in the form of a man, or sometimes an angel or an inanimate object. That is called a Christophany. It means He, as pre-incarnate God, caused himself to look like a man and communicate with certain humans for a specific purpose. The Christophany was not truly human, though, it was just a convenient method for God to make Himself visible, such as Genesis 32:24-32 when He wrestled with Jacob; Genesis 18 when He talked with Abraham; or Joshua 5:13-15, when He appeared with a sword. He was also the burning bush and the pillar of fire/cloud in Exodus. After His virgin birth into humanity, there have been no more Christophanies. He is now fully human as well as fully God for all eternity.

Since the immaculate conception of God’s uniquely born Son (“only begotten” means the only one born this way; unique), the second person of the trinity has been true humanity. He Who was always truly God was born truly human, lived 33 years without committing any personal sins, went to the cross as a true human without sin, absorbed in His sinless body all the sins of mankind, beginning with Adam’s original sin and down to the last sin of the last human who will ever be born. The only way He could die was to lay aside His deity for that period of time, for God as spirit cannot die. He never ceased to be God, but He spent those years of incarnation without using His Godly powers. Remember, the temptations presented to Him by the devil in the wilderness challenged Him to put His powers to work for His own convenience (Matthew 4). He was prepared to refuse and reject that temptation, by using the written Word of God. That’s why He depended so totally on the Father and the Holy Spirit for support and guidance during those years on earth. Everything He did was in perfect obedience to the plan and purpose of God.

Part of His humiliation was learning obedience as a human. We humans who have all been born with the old sin nature automatically recoil at the idea of obedience. To become a mature believer requires humility, which is acquired by learning obedience. How can we learn obedience without knowing Bible doctrine (the mind of Christ)? Hence, the importance of accurate Bible study under the leadership of a good pastor-teacher. 

We were lifelong slaves to sin because of our fear of death. By becoming a human, receiving death and rising from the dead, God’s uniquely born Son delivered us from our fear; death could not hold Him. Death cannot hold us who are IN HIM! By that same act, He neutralized the devil, who had the power of death, rendering him powerless.

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:16-18

He didn’t do this for the angels, but for Abraham’s seed. The angels are a species that was created before the earth was formed. They have their own dimension and their own hierarchy under God’s authority. He has work for them to do. The fallen angels are in perpetual conflict with God. We humans are somehow a part of the conflict, being subject to the fear of death and the temptations of evil, but the angels do not change or die. We humans do change and we do die, physically. We who have believed in Jesus' finished work are IN CHRIST and are spiritually alive forever. His resurrection from the dead guarantees us that. It means we, too, will be resurrected after death. We will not, however, become angels. Not ever. What we are becoming is far above angels. We are eternal sons of God, brethren of Jesus Christ, members of the Body of Christ. We are Royal Family of God. Please don’t tell your children their dead relatives and friends have become angels. The believers who have died are far above angels! It was for us humans that He came to make propitiation; that is, He became a public display of God’s satisfaction for the judgment of our sins (Romans 3:25, I John 2:2). The propitiation (Father’s satisfaction) enables the expiation (complete removal) of sin, thereby restoring our eternal relationship to God.

“..having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Colossians 2:14

That certificate of debt (IOU) no longer exists. He cancelled it by His atoning sacrifice for us. Paid in full.

In order to minister to us in our temptations, He had to become like us, tempted in His sufferings. Now we have a high priest Who not only loves us, but has complete understanding of all our weaknesses and is eager to attend to us in all our needs.

Because He Himself has suffered…

For a Little While

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.

Not to angels did God subject the future inhabited millennial world, but to His Son, the Perfect Man! This destiny of the God-Man was decreed in eternity past, when He was still Spirit, and not yet Man. In order to receive His inheritance—the world to come—He must become a man. Not an angel. He is infinitely superior to angels. He commands the angels, yet the Plan decreed that He become man, a lower creation than angels, subject to death. God the Son participated in this plan and executed the details.

 It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him, Why does almighty God care about the human race?
or the son of man, that you care for him? Why does God want to bless mankind?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels; Temporarily humiliated as true humanity
you have crowned him with glory and honor, Jesus’ Status quo of perfection
putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Hebrews 2:5-8

The first Adam failed, receiving in his body the corruption of the Old Sin Nature, which he passed on to the whole human race. Christ, the last Adam, born without sin, succeeded by paying the penalty for sin in His own perfect body, thereby neutralizing the curse of death brought on humanity by Satan’s deception. The ultimate outcome of all this has also been decreed:

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. I Corinthians 15:24-25

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Colossians 2:15

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Hebrews 2:8-9

“everything”: all of creation. There is nothing in existence that God the Son did not create, and everything He created belongs to Him. In the current state of earthly corruption, we do not see His total control. We do see Him, however, and we know that His finished work on the cross purchased our own eternal life, as well as the complete restoration of His creation.

Romans 8:21-22 the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Jesus purchased our salvation and the earth’s restoration by His suffering as a true human, in the ordinary inconveniences of human existence as well as His own unique sufferings. He experienced common sufferings and temptations as all of us humans do, and He endured these without sin. He suffered the deeply agonizing pain of being rejected by His own people, the Jews, whom he expressly came to save. We ordinary humans also endure such pain of rejection from people we love, because of Who and What we believe in, just as Jesus warned us would happen (John 15:20-21).

His greatest suffering, though, came in the form of His own spiritual separation (death) from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit as He hung on the cross, absorbing all the sins of the whole human race in His own sinless body. That suffering and spiritual death completed His work on our behalf, providing eternal life to all who will believe in that finished work. Nothing we ever can do will add anything to that work He did for us. Nothing we can ever do will take away from that work. He tasted death for everyone! That is what is meant by “He died for you.” That is what is meant by unlimited atonement. All sins are paid for. There is nothing else we can do about our sins. It is the Work of Christ! We can only receive what was done for us, or we can reject it and face Christ our Judge with our own works, which are declared in scripture to be NO GOOD!

The resurrected Jesus said to the astonished disciples at the empty tomb: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Luke 24:26

To purchase our salvation, our creator had to suffer and die for us. He could not do this as eternal God, because God is spirit and cannot die. He could not do this as an angel, for angels are a whole different species and they also do not die. Whatever relationship Jesus has with the elect angels, it does not involve suffering and death. He had to suffer for us humans and He had to die for us, and to do that He had to become human! That was His humiliation, and for that He has received for Himself and for us eternal GLORY!

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers Hebrews 2:10-11

Everything exists for Him because everything was created by Him. He is the eternal Son, but He is now bringing many sons to glory with Him, by virtue of His own unique human suffering. He sanctified us with His own blood. We, the sanctified, are of the same Father through His atonement. He suffered humiliation for us.

 

He is not ashamed to call us His brothers!