Hebrews 4:10

Heb_4:10

He that is entered into His rest

Entrance into Gods rest

We lose much of the meaning of this passage by our superficial habit of transferring it to a future state.

The ground of the mistake is in the misinterpretation of the word remaineth; which is taken to point to the rest, after the sorrows of this life are all done with. Of course there is such a rest; but the truth taught here is that faith, and not death, is the gate to participation in Christs rest; that the rest remained over after Moses and Judaism, but came into possession under and by Christ.

I. THE DIVINE REST. It is the deep tranquillity of a nature self-sufficing in its infinite beauty, calm in its everlasting strength, placid in its deepest joy, still in its mightiest energy, loving without passion, willing without decision or change, acting without effort, quiet, and moving everything; making all things new, and itself everlasting; creating, and knowing no diminution by the act; annihilating, and knowing no loss though the universe were barren and unpeopled. God is, God is everywhere, God is everywhere the same, God is everywhere the same infinite, God is everywhere the same infinite love and the same infinite self-sufficiency; therefore His very Being is rest. And yet that image that rises before us, statuesque, still in its placid tranquillity, is not repellent nor cold, is no dead marble likeness of life. God is changeless and ever tranquil, and yet He loves--wills--acts. Mystery of mysteries, passing all understanding! Then there is the other thought which perhaps comes more markedly out in the passage before us--that of a rest which is Gods tranquil ceasing from His work, because God has perfected His work. Still further: this Divine tranquillity--inseparable from the Divine nature, the token of the sufficiency and completeness of the Divine work--is also a rest that is full of work. God rests, and in His rest, up to the present hour and for ever, God works. And, in like manner, Christs work of redemption, finished upon the Cross, is perpetually going on. Christs glorious repose is full of energy for His people. He intercedes above. He works on them. He works through them, He works for them.

II. THE REST OF GOD AND OF CHRIST IS THE PATTERN OF WHAT OUR EARTHLY LIFE MAY BECOME. We cannot possess that changeless tranquillity which knows no variations of purpose or of desire, but we can possess the stable repose of that fixed nature which knows one object, and one alone. We cannot possess that energy which, after all work, is fresh and unbroken; but we can possess that tranquillity which in all toil is not troubled, and after all work is ready for double service. We cannot possess that unwavering fire of a Divine nature which burns in love without flickering, which knows without learning, which wills without irresolution and without the act of decision; but we can come to love deeply, tranquilly, perpetually, we can come to know without questioning, without doubts, without darkness, in firm confidence of stable assurance, and so know with something like the knowledge of Him who knows things as they are; and we can come to will and resolve so strongly, so fixedly, so wisely, that there shall be no change of purpose, nor any vacillation of desire. In these ways, in shadow and copy, we can be like even the apparently incommunicable tranquillity which, like an atmosphere that knows no tempests, belongs to and encircles the throne of God. But, still further: Faith, which is the means of entering into rest, will--if only you cherish it--make your life no unworthy resemblance of His who, triumphant above,works for us, and, working for us, rests from all His toil. Trust Christi is the teaching here.

III. THIS DIVINE REST IS A PROPHECY OF WHAT OUR HEAVENLY LIFE SHALL SURELY BE. There is a basis of likeness between the Christian life on earth and the Christian life in heaven, so great as that the blessings which are predicated of the one belong to the other. Only here they are in blossom, sickly, often, putting out very feeble shoots and tendrils; and yonder transplanted into their right soil, and in their native air with heavens sun upon them, they burst into richer beauty, and bring forth fruits of immortal life. The heaven of all spiritual natures is not idleness, Mans delight is activity. The loving hearts delight is obedience. The saved hearts delight is grateful service. The joys of heaven are not the joys of passive contemplation, of dreamy remembrance, of perfect repose; but they are described thus, They rest not day nor night. His servants serve Him, and see His face. Yes, heaven is perfect rest. God be thanked for all the depth of unspeakable sweetness which lies in that one little word, to the ears of all the weary and the heavy laden. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The Christians rest

I. THE PERSONS--The people of God.

1. He purchased them.

2. He has prepared them.

3. He has watched over and guarded them.

4. They have been enlightened.

II. THE PROMISE--There remaineth a rest.

1. Already in existence.

2. Not yet manifested.

III. THE EXPECTATION--Rest.

1. Chiefly negative. Denoting an absence of what is painful, laborious, disagreeable.

2. Not necessarily inaction. The brain-toiler rests in taking manual exercise. The muscle-worker rests in reading and writing. The teacher rests in games, such as cricket, &c. So the Christian shall not fear the toils of earth in the occupation of heaven.

3. Blessed. The absence of all evil will give opportunity for the exercise of all that is good. (Homilist.)

Rest in the rest of God

The one want of our nature is rest. We want it in each part of our nature. The body wants rest. Toil, toil of hand and foot and brain, demands alternations of rest, if it is not to kill. The mind wants rest. The thinking, understanding, reasoning, reflecting mind. And certainly the soul wants it. That wonderful, that immortal thing within each of us--which we can distinguish not only from the material body, but even from the thinking mind--that soul which comes straight to each man from his God, and (strange to add) must return straight out of this life to the God who gave it--the soul has its toils and its journeyings and its wearinesses--distinguishable easily from a mere earthly solicitude on the one side, andfrom a mere intellectual unrest on the other. The soul is worn and weary for want of some rest of its own in a strong, delightful, imperishable heart of Love! In their different ways all are seeking rest. Oh, it is a sorrowful thought, when you are thrown into the midst of a multitude, gathered for business, for amusement, even for worship, how few, how very few, of all these have yet found their rest! One is heaping up riches, ignorant who shall gather, knowing only this, that he can carry nothing away with him when he dieth! But he wants rest, and partly he puts out of sight the sordidness and the shortlivedness of this particular rest; and partly, with his eyes open, he says, Twenty years, or twenty hours, or even so base a rest, are better than none! And so he goes after this. Another, far higher and nobler in his aspiration, cannot live without affection. That, he sees, is rest, could he but have it--could he but know indeed what it is! And then, eluded and baffled, at last desperate, in this pursuit of his rest, he falls into evil courses, and would fain fill himself with such husks of love as swine scarcely eat! Rest in the rest of God. My rest, God says in the 95th Psalm, and speaks of man entering it. This rest, the context tells us, is partly present, partly future.

1. There is a present rest in the rest of God. That can only be found in an entire, absolute trust in the atonement, made once for all upon the cross of Jesus. Once apprehend that, and then there will enter your soul a peace and a rest indeed passing all understanding. You will work afterwards as never before, because you will work from, not for acceptance, because in working you will be resting. You will count all your work as needing, yet having, forgiveness.

2. From this souls rest there is but one step into the saints rest--into that calm, that reposeful existence which lies beyond death for such as shall be counted worthy. Not entirely separate, as some would represent, from the life that is now, and from the stage of present action; for if we rest not now, in Gods sense of resting, from sin, from self, from vanity, from feverish haste, from human praise, in the sense of our littleness and of Gods might, of our sinfulness and of Christs atonement, we shall never rest then where God is all in all: not entirely separate from earth--for, after all, heaven is but the Spirits presence, is bur the consciousness of God as our God, is but the love of Christ filling and constraining; and where these are below, there is heaven begun--not entirely separate, yet severed from the life that now is, even for the chief of saints, by two definite differences--by the removal of this body of earth now enchaining the soul, and by the experience of that nearer, more direct communion, of which it is written that there they shall see God. (Dean Vaughan.)

Ceasing from self

The writer makes a distinction between soul and spirit in Heb_4:12. Your soul is you, the part that thinks, wills, reasons, loves, forms plans, purposes, the age, the I life. Beyond that, deeper, deeper down, is the spirit, the part that holds fellowship with God. God consciousness. Good people, converted people, regenerated people, live too much from the soul centre, self-consciousness, and in proportion to our doing this we lose Gods rest. As I comes in, rest goes out and restlessness enters. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 4:10. For that rest of which we were speaking, may properly be called a sabbatical rest, or the celebration of a sabbath; for he that hath entered into this his final and complete rest, hath ceased from his own works — From all his labours and toils; as God did from his — In that first seventh- day, which, in commemoration of it, was appointed to be kept holy in all future ages. Probably God appointed men to rest on the seventh day, not only in commemoration of his having rested on that day, but to teach them that their happiness in a future state will consist in resting from their work of trial, and in reviewing it after it is finished, as God, when he rested from the work of creation, surveyed the whole, and pronounced it good. From this account of the rest which remaineth for the people of God, namely, that they do not enter into it till their works of trial and suffering are finished, it is evident that the rest which is here said to remain to them is the rest of heaven, of which the seventh-day rest is only an imperfect emblem.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:10 have rested from their labors: See Exod 20:8-11. • just as God did: Gen 2:2.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 4:10. Γὰρ, for) Verse 9 is proved thus: He who has entered into the rest of God, rests from his labours; but the people of GOD do not yet rest: therefore they have not yet entered in. It remains, that they enter in.—ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ) from his works, even from those that were good and suitable to the time of doing work. Labour precedes rest; and that would have doubtless been the case, even in paradise, Gen 2:15.—ὥστερ, as) The work and rest of GOD are that archetype to which we ought to be conformed.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_4:10. There is not an establishing of the reasoning in Heb_4:9 by a reference to the essence of the Sabbatic rest (Delitzsch and Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 804), but justification of the expression σαββατισμός, employed Heb_4:9. For not that which constitutes the nature of the Sabbath is here brought out, but the fact that in the case supposed a καταπαύειν can be ascribed to man, even as to God. Wrongly (because at least εἰσελθὼν γὰρ εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ κ.τ.λ. must have been written) does Schulz refer ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθών to ὁ λαός: and when it has entered, etc. And just as wrongly, because the context affords no point of support for the same, do Owen, Alting, Starck, Valckenaer, and more recently Ebrard and Alford, find in ὁ εἰσελθών a designation of Christ, in connection with which the ἔργα are then understood of the redemption completed, or also of the sufferings and death undergone. On the contrary, Heb_4:10 contains a universal proposition: for whoever has entered into His (namely, Gods) rest, has also on his part attained to rest from his works (the burdens and toils of the earthly life;[66] comp. LXX. Gen_3:17 : ἐπικατάρατος ἡ γῆ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις σου; Gen_5:29 : ΟὟΤΟς ΔΙΑΝΑΠΑΎΣΕΙ ἩΜᾶς ἈΠῸ ΤῶΝ ἜΡΓΩΝ ἩΜῶΝ ΚΑῚ ἈΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΛΥΠῶΝ ΤῶΝ ΧΕΙΡῶΝ ἩΜῶΝ ΚΑῚ ἈΠῸ Τῆς Γῆς, Ἧς ΚΑΤΗΡΆΣΑΤΟ ΚΎΡΙΟς Ὁ ΘΕΌς. Comp. also Rev_14:13): even as God from His own (works, the works of creation); for him has thus the Sabbath of everlasting blessedness set in.

[66] What is meant is not the works or labour of sanctitication (Tholuek, Grimm, Theol. Literaturbl. to the Darmst. A. K. Z. 1857, No. 29, p. 664); and still less the ritual ordinances of Judaism (Braun, Akersloot, Cramer, Semler, and Griesbach).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As God rested the seventh day, so must we rest from our works, that is, from such as proceed from our corrupt nature.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For--justifying and explaining the word "rest," or "Sabbatism," just used (see on Heb 4:9).

he that is entered--whosoever once enters.

his rest--God's rest: the rest prepared by God for His people [ESTIUS]. Rather, "His rest": the man's rest: that assigned to him by God as his. The Greek is the same as that for "his own" immediately after.

hath ceased--The Greek aorist is used of indefinite time, "is wont to cease," or rather, "rest": rests. The past tense implies at the same time the certainty of it, as also that in this life a kind of foretaste in Christ is already given [GROTIUS] (Jer 6:16; Mat 11:28-29). Our highest happiness shall, according to this verse, consist in our being united in one with God, and moulded into conformity with Him as our archetype [CALVIN].

from his own works--even from those that were good and suitable to the time of doing work. Labor was followed by rest even in Paradise (Gen 2:3, Gen 2:15). The work and subsequent rest of God are the archetype to which we should be conformed. The argument is: He who once enters rest, rests from labors; but God's people have not yet rested from them, therefore they have not yet entered the rest, and so it must be still future. ALFORD translates, "He that entered into his (or else God's, but rather 'his'; Isa 11:10, 'His rest': 'the joy of the Lord,' Mat 25:21, Mat 25:23) rest (namely, Jesus, our Forerunner, Heb 4:14; Heb 6:20, 'The Son of God that is passed through the heavens': in contrast to Joshua the type, who did not bring God's people into the heavenly rest), he himself (emphatical) rested from his works (Heb 4:4), as God (did) from His own" (so the Greek, "works"). The argument, though generally applying to anyone who has entered his rest, probably alludes to Jesus in particular, the antitypical Joshua, who, having entered His rest at the Ascension, has ceased or rested from His work of the new creation, as God on the seventh day rested from the work of physical creation. Not that He has ceased to carry on the work of redemption, nay, He upholds it by His mediation; but He has ceased from those portions of the work which constitute the foundation; the sacrifice has been once for all accomplished. Compare as to God's creation rest, once for all completed, and rested from, but now still upheld (see on Heb 4:4).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. For he that is entered into his rest] The man who has believed in Christ Jesus has entered into his rest; the state of happiness which he has provided, and which is the forerunner of eternal glory.

Hath ceased from his own works] No longer depends on the observance of Mosaic rites and ceremonies for his justification and final happiness. He rests from all these works of the law as fully as God has rested from his works of creation.

Those who restrain the word rest to the signification of eternal glory, say, that ceasing from our own works relates to the sufferings, tribulations, afflictions, c., of this life as in Re 14:13. I understand it as including both.

In speaking of the Sabbath, as typifying a state of blessedness in the other world, the apostle follows the opinions of the Jews of his own and after times. The phrase שבת עלאה ושבת התאה shabbath illaah, veshabbath tethaah, the sabbath above, and the sabbath below, is common among the Jewish writers; and they think that where the plural number is used, as in Le 19:30: Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, that the lower and higher sabbaths are intended, and that the one is prefigured by the other. See many examples in Schoettgen.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. For he that is entered into his rest, or, For he who has rested, etc. This is a definition of that perpetual Sabbath in which there is the highest felicity, when there will be a likeness between men and God, to whom they will be united. For whatever the philosophers may have ever said of the chief good, it was nothing but cold and vain, for they confined man to himself, while it is necessary for us to go out of ourselves to find happiness. The chief good of man is nothing else but union with God; this is attained when we are formed according to him as our exemplar.

Now this conformation the Apostle teaches us takes place when we rest from our works. It hence at length follows, that man becomes happy by self-denial. For what else is to cease from our works, but to mortify our flesh, when a man renounces himself that he may live to God? For here we must always begin, when we speak of a godly and holy life, that man being in a manner dead to himself, should allow God to live in him, that he should abstain from his own works, so as to give place to God to work. We must indeed confess, that then only is our life rightly formed when it becomes subject to God. But through inbred corruption this is never the case, until we rest from our own works; nay, such is the opposition between God’s government and our corrupt affections, that he cannot work in us until we rest. But though the completion of this rest cannot be attained in this life, yet we ought ever to strive for it. Thus believers enter it but on this condition, — that by running they may continually go forward.

But I doubt not but that the Apostle designedly alluded to the Sabbath in order to reclaim the Jews from its external observances; for in no other way could its abrogation be understood, except by the knowledge of its spiritual design. He then treats of two things together; for by extolling the excellency of grace, he stimulates us to receive it by faith, and in the meantime he shows us in passing what is the true design of the Sabbath, lest the Jews should be foolishly attached to the outward rite. Of its abrogation indeed he does expressly speak, for this is not his subject, but by teaching them that the rite had a reference to something else, he gradually withdraws them from their superstitious notions. For he who understands that the main object of the precept was not external rest or earthly worship, immediately perceives, by looking on Christ, that the external rite was abolished by his coming; for when the body appears, the shadows immediately vanish away. Then our first business always is, to teach that Christ is the end of the Law.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) Into his rest.—That is, into God’s rest.

Hath ceased.—Rather, hath rested from his works as God did from His own (works). This verse is added to explain and justify the reference to a “sabbath” in Heb_4:9. Man’s sabbath-rest begins when he enters into God’s rest (Gen_2:2); as that was the goal of the creative work, so to the people of God this rest is the goal of their life of “works.”

As the whole argument is reviewed, the question may naturally be asked, To what extent is this wide meaning present in the Psalm itself? Where must the line be drawn between the direct teaching of the words and the application here made? The apparent expansion of the meaning of the Psalm relates to Heb_4:11 alone. There, in the first instance, an historical fact is mentioned—the exclusion of the rebels from the promised land. But though the mention of the oath of God is derived from Num_14:28-30, the language of the historian is significantly changed; for “ye shall not come into the land,” we read, “they shall not enter into My rest.” True, the land could be spoken of as their “rest and inheritance” (Deu_12:9); but the language which the Psalmist chooses is at all events susceptible of a much higher and wider meaning, and (as some of the passages quoted in the Note on Heb_3:11 serve to prove) may have been used in this extended sense long before the Psalmist’s age. That Heb_4:8, when placed by the side of Heb_4:11, shows the higher meaning of the words to have been in the Psalmist’s thought, and implies that the offer of admission to the rest of God was still made, it seems unreasonable to doubt. As the people learnt through ages of experience and training (see Heb_1:5) to discern the deeper and more spiritual meaning that lay in the promises of the King and the Son of David, so was it with other promises which at first might seem to have no more than a temporal significance. If these considerations are well founded, it follows that we have no right to look on the argument of this section as an “accommodation” or a mere application of Scripture: the Christian preacher does but fill up the outline which the prophet had drawn.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. For he that is entered into his rest] This is not a special reference to Christ, but to any faithful Christian who rests from his labours. The verse is merely an explanation of the newly-introduced term “Sabbath-rest.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,.... Not eternal rest; this is not to be entered into now; nor is an entrance into it to be obtained by labour; salvation is not by works; eternal life is a free gift; good works do not go before to prepare heaven for the saints, but follow after: nor is the saints' entrance into it a precarious thing; God has promised it, and provided it for his people; Christ is in the possession of it, and is preparing it for them; and the Spirit of God is working them up for the self same thing, and Christ will give them an abundant entrance into it: but the Gospel rest is here meant, that rest which believers now enter into, and is at this present time for them, Heb 4:3 and though true believers are entered into it, yet their rest, peace, and joy in Christ, is not full; they enter by degrees into it, and by believing enjoy more of it: and this is to be laboured for by prayer, hearing the word, and attendance on ordinances; and this requires strength, diligence, and industry; and supposes difficulties and discouragements, through the corruptions of the heart, and the temptations of Satan; and this is designed to quicken and awaken a godly jealousy in God's people, over themselves:

lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief; into the sin of unbelief, and into punishment through it, as the Israelites did; who sinning, their carcasses fell in the wilderness, and they entered not into God's rest, as he swore they should not: true believers may fall into sin, and from a degree of the exercise of grace, and of the steadfastness of the Gospel; but they cannot finally and totally fall away, because they are kept by the power of God; yet they may so fall, as to come short, or at least seem to come short of enjoying the rest and peace of the Gospel state: external professors may fall from the Gospel, and the religion they have professed, and come short of the glory they expected; and fall into just and deserved punishment, in like manner as the unbelieving Israelites did.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Ver. 10. From his own works] From the servile works of sin, Psa 18:23. These are our own works. As a lie is the devil’s own, Joh 8:44, "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own;" so when we do evil, we work de nostro et secundum hominem, 1Co 3:3. It is as impossible for us naturally to do good as for a toad to spit cordials.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For he that is entered into rest - That is, the man who is so happy as to reach heaven, will enjoy a rest similar to what God had when he finished the work of creation. It will be:

(1)A cessation from toil; and,

(2)It will be a rest similar to that of God - the same kind of enjoyment, the same freedom from care, anxiety, and labor.

How happy then are they who have entered into heaven! Their toils are over. Their labors are done. Never again will they know fatigue. Never more will they feel anxious care. Let us learn then:

(1) Not to mourn improperly for those who have left us and gone to heaven. Happy in the rest of God, why should not we rejoice? Why wish them back again in a world of toil!

(2) Let us in our toils look forward to the world of rest. Our labors will all be over. The weary man will lay down his burden; the exhausted frame will know fatigue no more. Rest is sweet at night after the toils of day; how much more sweet will it be in heaven after the toils of life! Let us.

(3) Labor while is is called today. Soon we shall cease from our work. All that we have to do is to be done soon. We shall soon cease from “our” work as God did from his. What we have to do for the salvation of children, brothers, sisters, friends, and for the world, is to be done soon. From the abodes of bliss we shall not be sent forth to speak to our kindred of the blessedness of that world, or to admonish our friends to escape from the place of despair. The pastor will not come again to warn and invite his people; the parent will not come again to tell his children of the Saviour and of heaven; the neighbor will not come to admonish his neighbor; compare Luk 16:24-29. We shall all have ceased from our work as God did from his; and never again shall we speak to a living friend to invite him to heaven.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This proveth the foregoing consequence of a rest remaining, from the nature of a true rest, which is a resting from all labours, which the Israelites did not in Canaan, therefore it is yet to come. For every true believer who hath full possession of God’s rest, where God is satisfying of them in bliss, they rest in his loves, of which the sabbath and Canaan were but types.

He also hath ceased from his own works; such true Christians have ceased and rested from all their sinful works and labours, as works of callings, miseries, anxieties, and sufferings of any kind, resting from them perfectly and perpetually, having finished all his work of evangelical obedience through them.

As God did from his; they have rested not in a parity of rest, or work in kind, but as God from his own in likeness of order, his work going before rest, and of rest fitted for believers by him conformable to his own. Some refer these words and the relative he to our Lord Jesus Christ, as Head of his body, the church of true believers; and that the parallel runs between God the Father and him in the works of the old and new creation, which works were good and complete in their different kinds, in their cessation from them, and their rest in their respective sabbaths, both days being founded thereon; and that believers shall be conformable to their Head, treading in his steps in doing and suffering, and then in rest.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. Showing the true identity between God’s rest and the believer’s rest. Man is in God’s image, and as God passed through his great week and then came to an ever-blessed repose, so man passes through his probationary work and goes to his eternal salvation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For he that is entered into his rest (God"s, as before) hath himself also rested from his works, as from his own God. There are two ways of understanding this verse. Its general intention is, indeed, clear. It accounts for the use of the word sabbatismov which precedes, expressing that the true meaning of "God"s rest" is not satisfied by any earthly rest, but only by one like his. The question is whether the verse is to be taken as a general proposition or as referring specifically to Christ. In favor of the latter view is the aorist katepausen . The literal translation would be "He that entered... himself also rested. " Ebrard, on this ground, strenuously defends the reference to Christ; and also on the ground of parallelism with Heb_2:9 in the first division of the general argument. In the first division (Hebrews 2) the course of thought was Dominion over creation has been assigned to man: man has not attained it: Jesus has; and in Jesus man fulfills his destiny. In this second division the corresponding course of drought is God"s rest has been offered to man: man has not attained it: Jesus has; and in Jesus man may enter it. And thus (as has been explained above) the conclusion that Jesus is the High Priest of humanity is led up to by two parallel lines of argument. But the third of the propositions of the second line of argument (corresponding to Heb_2:9 in the first) is not distinctly expressed unless it be in the verse before us; and therefore this verse, on this ground as well as that of the use of the aorist, is taken to refer to Christ. On the other hand, it is argued (Bleek, Do Wette, Delitzsch, etc.) that, if a specific reference to Christ had been intended, he would have been mentioned, so as to make the meaning clear; and secondly, that the aorist katepause is legitimate, though the proposition be a general one. Delitzsch explains it thus: "The author might have written katapauei or (more classically) katapepautai : but he has taken up into the main proposition the katepausen , which properly belongs (according to Gen_2:2) to the clause of comparison: whosoever has entered God"s rest, of him the katepausen apo twn ergwn autou holds good in the same manner as of God." And, further, it is to be observed that the Greek aorist may sometimes be put for the present, "to express an action completely determined, every doubt as to its truth and unalterableness being removed" (Matthiae, "Gr. Gram.," In this instance the idea might be he that has entered into God"s rest rested, when he so entered, from all his works, etc. On the whole, it appears that specific reference to Christ is not apparent from the immediate context, or required by the mere language used. Still, in consideration of the general argument, we may take the writer to have meant his readers to understand that it was Christ who had so entered the rest of God, so as to lead God"s people into it. That this is so appears from ver. 14, Econtev oun arcierea megan dielhuyota touv , which seems to require that preceding link of thought. Among man"s deepest feelings is a longing for rest. Haply in the freshness and ardor of early life not deeply felt, it recurs from time to time, and grows stronger with advancing years. Nothing in life fully satisfies this longing. Labors, distresses, disappointments, anxieties, never allow the desired repose. Few there are whose hearts have not sometimes echoed the psalmist"s words, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I flee away, and be at rest!" Many since Job have felt something of his longing to be where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." Is there to be no satisfaction ever of this deep human craving? Holy Scripture meets it as it meets all others. It spoke of a rest of God above creation from the beginning of time; it intimated man"s part and interest in it by the weekly sabbath which he was to keep with God. But this was, after all, but a symbol and earnest of something unattained. At length a fuller realization of the longed-for rest was held out to the chosen people, and the Promised Land was pictured beforehand in the colors of an earthly Paradise. Forfeited, when first offered, through the people"s unworthiness (representing by a historical parable the bar to man"s entrance into the eternal rest), it was attained at last. But the true rest still came not. Canaan, like the sabbath, proved but a symbol of something unattained. Yet the old longing for rest went on, and inspired men went on proclaiming it as attainable and still to come. The irrepressible craving, the suggestive symbols, the prophetic anticipations, are all fulfilled in Christ. He, when he had passed with us through this earthly scene of labor, entered, with our nature, into that eternal rest of God, to prepare a place for us, having by his atonement removed the bar to human entrance. Through our faith in him we are assured that our deep-seated craving for satisfaction unattained as yet, which we express by the term rest," is a true inward prophecy, and that, though we find it not here, we may through him, if we are faithful, confidently expect it there, where beyond these voices there is peace.

There now follows (vers. 11-14) a renewal of the warning of Heb_3:7-19; Heb_4:1, urged now with increased force in view of the danger of slighting such a revelation as the gospel has been shown to be; after which (ver. 14, etc.) come words of encouragement, based on the view, now a second time arrived at, of Christ being our great High Priest. And thus the exposition of his priesthood, which follows in Heb 5, is led up to.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For they do not yet so rest. Therefore a fuller rest remains for them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Into the spiritual heavenly rest, mentioned in the foregoing verse, the believer is said to have entered, in this verse; and this is done two ways, initially, inchoatively, and imperfectly in this life; fully finally, perfectly, and completely in the next. They have now a present title and right to enter into this rest; the actual enjoyment and full possession of it is to come.

Observe, 1. Believers have already entered initially into this rest whilst here on earth, and accordingly have ceased from their own works; that is, the works of the flesh, the service of sin; these they have discarded by repentance and mortification.

Here note, That before conversion a person is doing his own works, fulfilling his own will, and not God’s; but after he ceases from all sinful works, inchoatively, though not perfectly: He that hath entered into his rest, hath ceased from his own works.

Observe, 2. That when believers have finished all their works of evangelical obedience, they shall then, and not till then, fully and finally enter into God’s rest, and be forever happy in the enjoyment of it. All men desire rest, but it is not to be found on earth, but in heaven; not in the creature, but in God.

O happy they, which believing the excellency and glory of this rest, do work, wait, and wish for it, and with diligence and constancy use all holy endeavours for the attaining and securing of it.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. For he that is entered into his rest. When God rested on the Sabbath, the type of the true rest, his works ceased. So when our rest comes, weary toil, trials and sufferings will be over.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

10. ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθὼν κ.τ.λ. This is not a special reference to Christ, but to any faithful Christian who rests from his labours. The verse is merely an explanation of the newly-introduced term “Sabbath-rest.” κατέπαυσεν is a gnomic and general aorist.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Only in such a Sabbath - rest is found the counterpart of God 's rest on the seventh day.

For he that is entered into his rest [ο γαρ εισελθων εις την καταπαυσιν αυτου] . Whoever has once entered. 183 His God 's. The aorist marks the completeness of the appropriation - once and for all. He also hath ceased from his own works [και αυτος κατεπαυσεν απο των εργων αυτου] . Omit own. The statement is a general proposition : any one who has entered into God 's rest has ceased from his works.

As God did from his [ωσπερ απο των ιδιων ο θεος] . Rend. as God (did) from his own. jIdiwn own signifies more than mere possession. Rather, works peculiarly his own, thus hinting at the perfect nature of the original works of creation as corresponding with God 's nature and bearing his impress. The blessing of the Sabbath - rest is thus put as a cessation from labors. The basis of the conception is Jewish, the rest of the Sabbath being conceived as mere abstinence from labor, and not according to Christ 's conception of the Sabbath, as a season of refreshment and beneficent activity, Mr 2:27; Joh 5:17. Our writer's conception is not the rabbinical conception of cessation of work, but rather of the cessation of the weariness and pain which accompany human labor. Comp. Rev 14:13; Rev 21:4; Luk 11:7; Luk 18:5; Gal 6:17.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. ὁ γὰρ elo.) for he that te entered (enters), whoever has once entered, into Ifte rest, the rest of God (iif. 18; iv. 1)... The gonoral statemont givon tho reason for the romarkablo title which has boon now givon to tho rost (σαββατισμόε) by roforonco ἴο Ὁ. 4.

Tho words may also bo undorstood (though this seems to be less likely) as unfolding the nature of the promised rest.

The form of construction (εἰσελθών, κατέπαυσεν) marks the perfoctness of

tho issue. Tho cntrance and the reat:

are coincident and complete. Comp. Matt. xxv. 21, 23.

κατ. ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων] Comp. Apoc. Xiv. 13.

ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων ὁ 6.) as God did from His oon works, from tho works which, as far as man can conceive, correspond with His Nature, and which are spoken of as works, though Wrought without toil. Comp. 1 Cor.

fit. 8 κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον κόπον.

(b) The responsibility of such as have received the promise of the rest of God (11—13).

11—13. Since the promise remains for Christians they must also heed the warning (v. 11). The Gospel must be received with a devotion which answors to the character of the Power by which it is offered (vv. 12, 13).

" Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no one fall after the same example of disobedience. " For the word of God és living, and active, and sharper than any tteo-cdged moord, and piercing ecen to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and quick to judge the feelings and thoughts of the heart. *3 And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and laid open to the eyes of Him to whom we have to give acenunt.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.