11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11-13 ESV)
True rest in Christ is striving to enter into that rest – earlier in this chapter, we are given the results of continued lack of belief; that is, a profession of being of God yet proving such is not the case by continuing, unrepentant, willful sinning against His holy commands, which is to say, against His very character of holiness.
Scripture is full of these admonitions – these warning passages – not because it means that the promises of God to His elect are rendered null and void by those who do not obey Him, but to show that line of separation between those who are the elect and those who have made false profession of being of those who are the children of God through the adoption that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This passage warns us that, if we go on sinning, habitually, willfully, disobediently – and this is not the occasional sin that all who are yet in these bodies of flesh commit, yet are pardoned, by His great grace, and confess and repent of such; no, this is acting in the very manner of those who perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief – it was the equivalent of saying “we shall not have this (God) to reign over us,” which is the essence of idolatry, for it covets those things of the fleshly passions and the world in a manner that is always present, ongoing, without any true repentance and confession – so this type of sinning is of an unredeemed nature which will surely, eternally, die.
Such may sorrow that they have sinned, but they do not sorrow that they have sinned against God by that “new life imparted,” for they yet walk after that nature which has, presently, and as its inheritance, the wrath of God abiding upon it, which shall end in their death finally, spiritually, eternally.
As great as God’s mercy is towards us who are His, so is His wrath against those who are not, which includes those among the congregation of the saints who are indeed “tares” – weeds which may superficially look like the real “wheat” of our Lord, but will be harvested at the judgment only for the purpose of showing the extent to which our holy God hates all that are evil, which is as eternal as is the life He has given to those who are His.
Often, these verses are quoted from Hebrews, in part, as references regarding the written Word of God, and such may be taken in application, to a very small degree, by the reading of v. 12; however, once one continues the context, it is impossible to not understand that this is speaking of the eternal Logos, the Word made flesh, God the Son – it does not start a new context, but simply continues that which it is a part of in the first place.
While Hebrews is a book that must be studied (as all Scripture) to maturely understand the truths of God which it speaks of, these three verses refer to that which is true of believers (we strive to enter into that rest, resisting and persevering in God’s truth, that none of us may be shown to possess that same attitude of the children of wrath that ultimately denies God in many varied ways, from the obvious to that which is insidiously masquerading as light when, in fact, it is darkness of the worst sort); we acknowledge that the written Word is but representative of that eternal Word of God who was charged with our sins, that we, undeservingly, might be accounted with what Luther called “a foreign righteousness,” meaning the same as the apostle Paul when he states “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – (Philippians 3:9); in v. 13, we see that there is nothing that He does not see, and that He is the One who will judge not just the world, but the church, and each member must give an account before Him.
For the Christian, this is a solemn reminder of their responsibility before God, as well as a joyous reminder that, though we must give account to the One who “is a consuming fire,” that final judgment fire is quenched in the water of eternal life given us in Christ Jesus, and we are able to see the truth of His grace and love towards “those who love Him, those who are the called according to His purpose.”
However, we must remember that as strong as God’s love for us is, in the Beloved, so is His hatred of sin; as wondrously favorable as He is to us in the Beloved, He is just as unfavorable towards every sort of evil, and if we think He does not see those sins we commit, from that which we would consider the smallest – perhaps, a sin in formation as a thought (yet our Lord showed that which is hidden is as much a sin as that which is carried out) – to those we do carry out in physical actions.
Nothing escapes His notice – our God sees that which we consider even before we consider it, and this should be both fearful, sobering, and causing that pursuit of “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”
Much has been written on “Him to whom we must give account,” in many and various ways, but at this point, it is enough to dwell upon the fact that we must give account to Him, without going into expositions of supposition on this writer’s part. Certainly, these words should stir up fear, if we consider ourselves to have even scratched the surface of His wisdom (Proverbs 1:7), and it is more than “reverential awe;” if one does not fear the consequent discipline of the Lord, they will not learn when they receive it.
Let us, therefore, remember that those who strive to enter into His rest are those who love Him and therefore keep His commandments (John 14:21), and learn from His chastening as true children of God; let us remember that this is a struggle we could not even enter into, were it not for His grace to us in Jesus Christ our Lord, and let us “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called,” for He sees all, always.
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