Hebrews 4

Notes

Ver. 1. Since therefore God, as a warning to us, dealt so severely with our fathers for their disobedience and unbelief, it ought to be our deep concern to maintain an awful reverence of his greatness, holiness, and justice, and a religious dread of provoking him—not to dismay and dishearten, but to excite us to the most diligent use of all appointed means, in a humble dependence on his grace, for our own and others' preservation from apostasy and its terrible consequences—lest, when God, who is the contriver and author of, and who delights in, this rest, as recorded, exhibited, and given to us in the gospel, a gracious promise of admission to a state of peace and lively fellowship with him through Christ, in truly evangelical worship and obedience in this world, and of a glorious peace in the world to come, ye should, through sloth and unbelief, reject and forsake that promise or rest, o1 seem to faint in your Christian course towards it: 2. For the gospel of salvation has been now preached to us, as it was more obscurely to them; but the precious truth of God did not in the least turn to the real advantage many of them, when they heard it by Moses, or other inspired messengers of God; because they did not closely apply and appropriate the same to their hearts, and feed thereon by faith as the nourishment of their souls, and no more will that which we hear be eventually profitable to us unless we receive and digest it by faith. 3, 4. But as all entrance into God's promised rest is by believing, so those of us who have by a true and lively faith received and rested on Christ alone for salvation, do enter into a state of spiritual and evangelical rest and peace with God through him, according to the light and grace of the New Testament dispensation; and we now, by faith and hope, in gospel worship enter into the heavenly rest, as a pledge and assurance of our personal entrance into the full enjoyment of it in due time; for by comparing the severall passages of Scripture which speak of God's rest, it is plain that there remains for us New Testament believers a rest far more excellent than that of Canaan. Even God's oath, excluding the unbelieving Hebrews from Canaan, supposed that all true believers should enter into his rest; so that here was a rest promised 2500 years after the rest of the creation had taken place, on the seventh day of the week and of time. 5. And, moreover, this oath, as it stands in David's psalm, must not be understood as merely relating to the Hebrews' entrance into Canaan, which had taken place more than 400 years before, but also to a rest which then remained to be entered into. 6. Since, then, God's threatening against them who believed not implied that some should actually enter in, and those to whom that typical rest was first preached, through their unbelief, did not enter; 7. Therefore God, by David, fixes another day of entering into his rest, and calls the Jews carefully to improve it, plainly intimating that what is there said related to a rest which was to be enjoyed long after they were in possession of the promised land: 8. For if Joshua, the son of Nun, that noted type of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, had put the Hebrews into the full possession of the rest ultimately intended in that psalm, the Holy Ghost would not, by David, have mentioned another season in which the Hebrews who dwelt in possession of Canaan were to seek a further rest, which could be no other than that which, being typified by the former, was to be introduced by Jesus Christ the Messiah. 9. Since therefore neither the rest of the seventh-day sabbath, nor the rest of the settlement in Canaan, could be intended by that To-day mentioned by David, it is evident there must still remain, under the gospel state, a more complete and glorious rest, typified by the former, which is to be inherited by the true people of God, and which includes a spiritual rest by faith in Christ from Jewish ceremonies—from the law as a covenant—and the holy and joyful rest of the New Testament sabbath, in commemoration of his resurrection; and principally that heavenly rest of perpetual and immediate communion with Christ, of wnicn au the preceding rests are but types, pledges, or foretastes. 10. For our Lord Jesus, having finished his obedience, sufferings, and death, rose again, and took possession of his heavenly glory, and so rested from his labours of securing our eternal redemption; even as God, when he had finished his work of creation, rested on the seventh day, and formed no more new kinds of creatures. And every believer who has entered into the spiritual rest of the gospel state and New Testament sabbath, ceases from loving or wilfully practising his former works of wickedness, and from resting on his once-beloved works of self-righteousness; and when, after finishing his course of obedience, conflicts, and trials, he enters into the complete and heavenly rest, he will perfectly cease from everything selfish, sinful, or troublesome. 11. Since, then, there remains for us a rest inexpressibly more safe, sweet, glorious, and lasting than that of Canaan, let us, in the use of all appointed means, and in dependence on divine grace, with the utmost diligence labour to overcome all difficulties, and break through all oppositions and discouragements, that we may here enjoy all the refreshing and delightful privileges and blessings of the gospel state, and hereafter arrive at the still more refreshing and delightful heavenly glory; and stir up one another to seek after it—lest, through our slothfulness, carnal fear, and unbelief, we should fall short of it, as the Israelites in the wilderness, notwithstanding their distinguished relation to God, fell short of the rest in Canaan through their unbelief and cowardice. 12. And there is the greatest reason to maintain a godly jealousy over ourselves and one another, and there is noble encouragement for the utmost care and caution; for our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Word of life, has life in himself, and is the author of it to others; and the written Word, by the Spirit, has a quickening virtue to raise dead souls: yea, Christ, who is the almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, and heart-searching God, renders it a powerful mean of convincing the conscience, searching and affecting the whole heart, and subduing every thought and affection to the obedience of himself. 13. Nor can any of us escape his critical observation, or the searching influence of his Word, there being no creature, of whatever rank or kind, that lies concealed from his all-comprehensive view; but all persons and things, even the most secret thoughts, desires, hopes, and fears, tempers and dispositions, are most evidently exposed and clearly manifested to the critical and all-seeing eye of him to whom we must give an exact account of our state, qualities, inclinations, and conduct, in the last judgment. 14. Since therefore it is so dangerous to despise, neglect, or apostatize from the truths of the gospel, and since we have in this Jesus Christ, our present Observer and future Judge, so incomparable a High-priest, inconceivably great, divine, and excellent; thoroughly qualified for and exalted in his office—the most difficult and fundamental part of which he has performed on earth, and the remainder of which he is now executing in heavenly intercession for us,—let us be thereby encouraged in the exercise of faith, love, and holy obedience, and with steadfastness, diligence, and constant perseverance, to maintain a free and open confession of him, and professed subjection to him. 15. Nor is this our glorious High-priest less willing than able to sympathize with and relieve us under all our distresses; nor is he, even in heaven, insensible of or unaffected with our wants and weaknesses, miseries and dangers; but having, in his state of humiliation, experimentally known whatever we undergo in our temptations and troubles, though without sin, he is at once infinitely fitted to be our pattern in bearing them, and to sympathize tenderly with us in them, and to take away the iniquity which we unavoidably fall into by means of them. 16. Let us therefore, in view of his superlatively excellent and efficacious Priesthood, and his execution of it, in offering himself a sacrifice to honour God's justice, and make atonement for our sins, and his continual intercession for us at his right hand, boldly draw near to God by faith, in prayer and every other ordinance of gospel worship—since he is now seated, not on a throne of justice, to execute deserved justice upon us, but on a throne of free and condescending mercy and grace, to commune with and bless us—that, with familiar and holy freedom, and humble confidence in him, as our reconciled God and Father, we may ask of and receive from him the most merciful forgiveness of our sins, and compassionate relief under all our straits and miseries; and, finding favour in his sight, may obtain all gracious assistances and supplies, in every season of want, difficulty, trouble, temptation, or danger, especially the most perplexing.

Ver. 2. For unto us, &c. Rather, 'For we also have received good tidings as well as they'—they of an earthly and typical rest; we of tribulation on earth, Jn. 16. 33, of peace and rest in heaven. C.

Ver. 3. For we who have believed do enter into rest, being read as a parenthesis, the union between ver. 2 and remainder of ver. 3 will be apparent. The Word preached did not profit the unbelievers, 'as he said, I have sworn,' &c.——The dignity of Moses was eminently displayed as the leader of Israel to the rest of Canaan. In this respect Christ is compared with him, and his glory, as antitype, shown to be infinitely greater than the type. Moses was not entirely successful; the rest of Canaan besides, even for those who survived to enter it, was imperfect and temporary. Christ's Leadership, on the other hand, is entirely successful; and the rest into which he conducts his people is perfect and eternal. P.

Ver. 9. There is a sabbatism, a holy rest, yet to come, distinct from the sabbath-rest of creation, which even unbelievers may enjoy, and distinct from the Joshuan rest, from which unbelievers were, by the oath of God, excluded. C.

Ver. 10. He that is entered into his rest, is rendered by Brown and other eminent expositors 'every believer;' and 'his own works' are (ver. 10) understood to signify his 'former works of wickedness, self-righteousness, conflicts and trials.' But surely if 'every believer' were already entered into the rest spoken of, there were no use in exhorting him to 'labour to enter' into it; see ver. 11. Nor can ceasing from 'works of wickedness' or 'self-righteousness' be justly drawn into comparison with God's ceasing from his works of creation! The rest spoken of is, therefore, that rest from labours and troubles into which they 'who die in the Lord' (Re. 14. 13) do immediately enter, 2 Co. 5. 8, and in which they shall be found 'when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of his power, 2 Th. 1. 7; Mat. 25. 32-46. C.

Ver. 12. The word of God. As Paul never calls Jesus 'the Word of God,' though that title is given to him by John (Jn. 1. 1; 1 Jn. 5. 7: Re. 19. 13), and as the phrase is justly applicable to the revealed Word, written or spoken, of the qualities of such revealed Word Paul appears here to speak. Nor is it reasonable, or agreeable to the manner of the Scripture, to interpret it, with Pyle and others, equally of Jesus, the Word incarnate, and of Scripture, the word written or uttered.—Soul, when contrasted with 'spirit,' signifies the living principle, with its appetites, desires, and feelings.—Spirit, when contrasted with 'soul,' signifies the thinking, immaterial part, which is separable from the body, and lives independently of destructible life, Ec. 12. 7; Lu. 24. 39. C.

Reflections.—Graciously has God maintained his gospel in the world all along since Adam's fall, though in different degrees of light. And when it is now set before us in its fulness and clearness, we ought carefully to beware of contemning and rejecting it. Alas! what multitudes hear it without ever being profited by it!—No hearing, without cordial believing, will avail to the salvation of our souls. And unless we immediately receive and digest what we hear, God may quickly swear in his wrath that we shall never enter into his rest.—Greatly preferable to that of Canaan, yea, infinitely excellent, is that spiritual, evangelical, and eternal rest into which true believers enter along with Christ!—Powerful and efficacious is God's written Word in the hand of Christ, the living and life-giving Word. With divine efficacy it penetrates into men's souls, for their conviction, reformation, and comfort; or for their condemnation and confusion. And infinitely awful, almighty, and heart-searching is he himself, to whom we must quickly give an account in the last judgment. But blessed be God, that while he is his Son, he is our great atoning and interceding High-priest and Almighty Saviour; and that, having had a sinless experience of our temptations and troubles, he is qualified with the tenderest compassion towards us, and is ascended into the highest heavens, now to appear in the presence of God for us. His character and work powerfully and delightfully encourage to steadfastness and openness in our Christian profession, and to familiar boldness in our dealings with God. Let then all my requests and hopes of pardon, help, comfort, and glory, depend on Jehovah's grace and Jesus' merits.