God’s Rest
In Hebrews 3, the author is encouraging believers to enter into the rest of God. He references Israel leaving Egypt and heading to the promise land as a type referring to salvation in Christ as the ultimate rest God gives to his people. Along with that comes the warning of those who “will not enter my rest”.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
Hebrews 3:7-11
“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.’”
During the Exodus, Israel repeatedly turned from God, refusing to trust him despite all of the miraculous deliverances they had already experienced. It wasn’t just that they didn’t perfectly adhere to his commands. They openly and repeatedly claimed they would have been better off back in Egypt!
Deceitfulness of Sin
So to, the body of believers had those among them who were not only falling to temptations but were actively pursuing a life of sin believing that they were still resting in Christ.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Hebrews 3:12-14
Just as captivity in Egypt looked pretty good compared to following God for the rebellious in Israel, the rebellious in the church were deceived into believing their former sins from which a believer would be saved were still superior to a new life in Christ.
Dead in the Wilderness
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Hebrews 3:16-19
Those living in rebellion to Christ’s commands within the church may agree with a number of doctrinal statements. They may believe themselves to be “in Christ” and heaven-bound. However, to truly trust in Christ means to accept that his ways are better than those invented by man. Instead of excusing our sins, we confess them as evil. Instead of trying to justify the pet sins of the world, we expose them.
There is no distinction made here between disobedience and unbelief. It is because of the lack of belief that one considers they can invent a better way of interpreting scripture, a more just way of dealing with sin, a more fair way of ordering society, a more loving way of resisting evil than God’s revealed will.
This issue is as timely today as when Hebrews was written. There are many today who would argue that we must ignore the clear commands of God if we’re going to properly follow other commands (“judge not”, “love your neighbor”, etc…), either claiming we ought to deny that sin is sin outright or treating it differently than we would treat other sins and even calling for the church to “repent” of our behavior in calling sin evil.
To affirm certain creeds or confessions is not what makes one Christian, however. Believing in Christ means trusting him, and those in active rebellion must be reminded not to be deceived into believing that a life lived contrary to the commands of Christ is a life worth living. To labor to obfuscate and confuse the clear teachings of Christ is to believe there is a “better way” than his way. This is unbelief.
If you find yourself always trying to explain what the Bible doesn’t say rather than trying to discern and teach what it does say, the day is today to put off all of your own moralizing and take on the lighter burden of Christ. Enter his rest by trusting that his ways are better than the ways of the wisest men of the age. Trust in him alone.
