Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - Hebrews 4:1 - 4:10
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The promise of entering into the rest of God not only still remains in force, but applies specially to us Christians
Heb_4:1-10
[Heb_4:1.— öéâçèῶìåí ïὖí , Aor. Pass., in middle sense. Let us fear, therefore,— ìÞ ðïôå , lest perchance, test haply,— êáôáëåéð . ἐðáã , there remaining a promise, not ἀðïëåéð , “there remaining as a logical consequence,” but “there remaining being left, as a historical fact, the promise riot having been exhausted with the ancients—as the author proceeds to develop from the Psalm.
Heb_4:2.— êáὶ ãὰñ ἐóìåí åὐ ., the emphasis rests on the verb, not, as in Eng. ver., on the pronoun. For we have had the glad tidings, etc. The rendering, “unto us was the Gospel preached,” is unfortunate, marring, and even obscuring the thought.— êáèÜðåñ êÜêåῖíïé , just according as also they.— ὁ ëüãïò ôῆò ἀêïῆò , the word of their hearing=the word which they heard.— ìὴ óõãêåê , not having mixed itself, i.e., united itself.
Heb_4:3.— êáèὼò åἴñçêåí , according as he hath said,— åἰ ἐëåýóïíôáé , should be rendered, as Heb_3:11, “they shall not enter,” a familiar Hebraism=if they shall enter then my word will fall to the ground, or some such suppressed clause.— êáß ôïé ôῶí ἔñãùí ãåí .—gen. absolute, and that you see his [viz., God’s] works being accomplished=although his works were accomplished, and thus his rest established.
Heb_4:6.— ïἰ ðñüôåñïí åὐáããåëéóè . they who formerly received the glad tidings, viz., the promise of the rest.— ἀðåßèåéáí , disobedience, not unbelief ( ἀðéóôßáí ).
Heb_4:7.— ðÜëéí ὁñßæåé , dependent on ἐðåß , since it remains, etc., he again fixes, appoints, not as Eng. ver. beginning a new sentence— ëÝãùí ìåôὰ ôüí ÷ñïíïí =saying so long a time after— êáèὼò ðñïåßñçôáé , as has been said before, viz., in the former chapter.
Heb_4:8.— Éçóïῦò , Joshua (not Jesus),— ïὐê ἄí — ἐëÜëåé , he would not be speaking, not, “he would not have spoken.”
Heb_4:9.— óáââáôéóìüò , not merely a rest (as Eng. ver.), but with reference to the rest of God on the seventh day, at the close of creation, a Sabbath rest, a Sabbatism.—K.].
Against what, therefore, are we now to be on our guard? What are we to fear? and to what are we, in true fear, to direct our anxious care, in order that that which we fear may be averted and not come upon us? We are to beware of resembling the Israelites by our unbelief in the Word of God, which is proclaimed to us. We are to fear the wrath of God, which within the sphere of even the chosen people has still displayed its judicial terrors upon all unbelievers. And our common fear should direct itself to the point ( öïâçèῶìåí ïὗí ) that, while there exists a promise of entering into His rest, no individual one among you may be found to have come too late ( ìÞðïôå äïêῇ ôéò ἐî ὑìῶí ὑóôåñçêÝíáé ). Äïêῇ is so conspicuous in its position, that it cannot possibly be regarded as superfluous, (Mich., Carpz., Abresch), and the gravity and earnestness of the connection, which presently calls out the most solemn exhortations, and startling pictures of the fate of apostates, demands a very cautious admission of the view which resolves it into the softening videatur (=may seem) of elegant discourse (Oec., Theoph., Thol., Lün.). On the other hand, we can scarcely regard it as of intensifying import=lest there be even an appearance that this or that one has remained behind (Pareus, regarded approvingly by Del.). We must regard it as expressing the appearance of an actual condition, as it presents itself to the opinion and estimate of others, and must conceive the condition as that of that substantial lingering behind, which results in inevitable exclusion. It is doubtless grammatically possible to take äïêῇ as the leading term, expressing the individual’s personal opinion, and ὑóôåñçêÝíáé as denoting a too late arrival in respect of time, the whole then=may think he has arrived too late—(Schöttg., Baumg., Schultz, Wahl, Bretschn., Steng., Paul., Ebrard). But with this accords neither the moral condition of the readers, nor the connection of the passage, which, attached by öïâçèῶìåí ïὖí to the preceding chapter, cannot possibly be introducing a consolatory address to persons troubled by an extraordinary illusion regarding their salvation, or a warning against their indulgence of this illusion, (as if we had the comforting words ìÞ ïὖí öïâçèῶìåí , let us not then fear, instead of the words of warning, let us therefore fear lest). The passage rather opens with the admonition and summons, based on the preceding glance at the fate of ancient Israel, that they should resolutely and earnestly avoid the threatening danger that any member of the church—while God’s invitation, full of gracious promises, is addressed to him—should by guilty delay, springing from unbelief in the word of invitation, make it necessary that he be regarded as having been left behind on his way to the promised goal. The rendering of Grotius, ne cui vestrum libeat (that it may not seem best to any one, may not be the pleasure of any one of you), is inconsistent with the Inf. Perf., and with the construction, which would have required the Dat.
Heb_4:2. For we have had the joyful message—in them that heard it. ÊáèÜðåñ (precisely according as) found elsewhere in the New Testament only with Paul, denotes, in its classical use, relations of entire equality. Åὐáããåëßæåóèáé is also used, Luk_7:22; Luk_16:16, passively, as here, of those to whom glad tidings are announced. The Subst. åὐáããÝëéïí is not found in our epistle, and with Luke only Act_15:7; Act_20:24. The ëüãïò ôῆò ἀêïῆò , which at Sir_41:23, denotes what is received by tradition, and at 1Th_2:3, is applied to the New Testament preached word, is very significant for the Word of God made known by proclamation to the people of God of all times, Exo_19:5; Isa_28:9; Jer_49:14, and corresponds particularly to the Heb. ùְׁîåָּòä Isa_52:7; Isa_53:1 (Rom_10:14-17)=that which is announced, news, tidings, connected sometimes with the Gen. of the subject matter, 2Sa_4:4, sometines with that of the bearer of the tidings, Isa_53:1, The Dat. ôïῖò ἀêïýóáóéí is expressly employed to indicate that the ðßóôéò indispensable to the right and efficient influence of the word was wanting to them that had heard the word, and that for this reason it had not united itself with those for whom it was otherwise adapted, and for whom it was destined of God. This Dat. would be with the very old and well attested reading of the Acc. Plur. of óõãêåê ., totally unintelligible. For to put upon ἀêïýåéí the sense of obey is a purely desperate make-shift, and the rendering “because they did not associate themselves by faith with those who obeyed,” viz: Joshua and Caleb (Œc., Phot., Hammond, Cram., etc.), is totally alien from the use made of this history in the previous chapter. Bleek, therefore, reads ἀêïὑóìáóéí after Theodoret, with whom, however, ἀêïõóèåῖáóéí is probably to be read, as conjectured by his teacher Theodore of Mops., on the authority of the Vulg.=“since they did not unite themselves by faith with the words which they had heard.” The Nom., as indicated by the Peshito—the oldest version of the New Testament—is thus to be preferred with Erasm., Böhme, De W., Thol., Lun., Del. The opinion of Ebr., however, which I followed in my comment., that the passage contains no repetition of the truth previously dwelt upon, viz., that the word was proclaimed in vain to the Jews on account of their subjective unbelief, but presents rather the reverse side of the truth, viz: the impotence of the Old Testament word itself, and thus shows the word proclaimed by Moses as declaring the promise, indeed, along with the conditions of its fulfilment, yet possessing no power, like the word of the New Testament (Heb_4:12) to penetrate into the marrow and core of the inner life, and by such admixture identify itself thoroughly with the hearer—this assumption, I say, anticipates the following discussion, introduces a meaning into the words outside of their obvious and natural import, and depends also on Ebrard’s false interpretation of Heb_4:1. If we construct ôῇ ðßóôåé with the nom. óõãêåêñáìÝíïò , mixed with faith, then it were better to regard ôïῖò ἀêïýóáóéí as Dat. of reference=in respect to, as often in cases where the Gen. would be liable to misconception (Win., Lun.), than with De Wette, as Dativus commodi, or as the Dat. of the agent for ὑðü with Gen. (as by Luther until 1527)=“not being blended with faith by them (= ὑðὸ ôῶí ) that heard it.” It accords better, however, with the actual relations of faith alike to the word and to the hearers to connect ôïῖò ἀêïýóáóéí closely with óõãêåêñ . and take ôῇ ðßóôåé as Dat. of means (Schlicht., Thol.,) etc.
Heb_4:3. For we are entering into rest as they that have believed, etc.—The ãÜñ for stands in logical connection, not with a part, but with the entire statements of the preceding verse. It is best explained by taking åἰóåñ÷üìåèá , not as present for a somewhat general and indeterminate future”=“we are to enter,” (Bl., De W., Thol.); or as marking that which we may with certainty anticipate (Lun.), and the Aor. Part. ïἱ ðéóôåýóáíôåò (with the majority) of those who have established the genuineness of their faith; but rather by explaining the Part of those simply who have believed, who have exercised faith, and of course have thus far attested it, Act_4:32; Act_11:21; Act_19:2; Rom_13:11, and the verb åἰóåñ . therefore, in its proper present sense of those who are actually entering into rest, (Del). We, the church of the believers, the author would say, are as such travelling on the way to the rest which God has established since the foundation of the world, but which the Israelites did not attain. Ebrard erroneously takes the ἔñãá “works finished” of Heb_4:3, as contrasted with faith, and as denoting human performances, the works of the law, in contrast with which the true way of salvation, that of faith, was to be revealed. But the term can refer only to the works of God (Heb_4:4; Heb_4:10), which stand as accomplished since the foundation of the world, and since which, therefore, there is existing a Rest of God. Although ( êáßôïé ) this is the case, still, according to the declaration of God, Psa_95:11, the Israelites who were called thereto, did not enter into it. Luther, following the erroneous rendering of the Vulgate et quidem (and indeed), connected the clause commencing with êáßôïé with the following åἴñçêåí , leaving the ãÜñ after åἴñçêåí wholly, unregarded. Schlicht., Carpz., etc., make the Gen. also depend on êáôÜðáõóéí =the rest of works which were accomplished, etc., a construction which would require ôῶí repeated after ἔñãùí ( ôῶí ἔñãùí ôῶí ἀðü , etc.). And Calv., Bez., Limb., Cram., Böhm., Bisp., explain thus; “namely,” (or perhaps although) into a rest which followed upon the completion of the works of creation: a thought that would certainly have been expressed in different phraseology.
Heb_4:4. For he hath said in a certain place.—And in this place again.—We are not to supply, as subject of åἴñçêåí , ἡ ãñáöÞ (Böhm., Bisp., etc.), notwithstanding that in the citation itself God is spoken of in the third person. For the same subject must be supplied to both citations, and in the latter (Heb_4:5) the ìïõ shows that God must be regarded as the subject. Here also it again becomes evident that God is He who is conceived as the one who speaks in Scripture. [I doubt if Moll’s reason for rejecting ἡ ãñáöÞ as subject of åἴñçêåí , drawn from the citation Heb_4:4, or the implied one for making God the subject, as drawn from the citation of Heb_4:5, is, either of them, decisive. They are both given as simple citations, and would both, therefore, naturally stand in precisely their present form, whether we were to conceive “The Scripture,” or “God” speaking in the Scripture, as the subject of the verb. And the application of the passage to the author’s purpose would, I conceive, be equally answered, whichever subject we assume. Still, with Moll, I prefer ὁ èåüò as subject.—K.].—Since the passage, Gen_2:2, is so entirely familiar, ðïõ cannot possibly imply any uncertainty on the part of the author regarding the source of the citation; and from this we may draw a certain inference regarding the ðïõ in Heb_2:6. The two passages of Scripture thus quoted in connection, bring out the idea that there is from the commencement of things a Rest of God, into which men could and were to enter, but into which the Israelites have not entered; yet that by this the entrance into the Rest of God cannot be sealed and made impossible for all times and all men, since the exclusion of the Israelites was but a manifestation of the wrath of God upon the unbelieving.
Heb_4:6. Since, therefore, it remains open that some are to enter in, etc.—The comparison of the two passages leads to the conclusion, not precisely, that the entrance is still remaining and reserved for some persons—which would have demanded êáôáëåßðåôáé —but that such an entrance is left free, left over, remains open ( ἀðïëåßðåôáé , Heb_10:26), [“not having been previously exhausted.” Alf.], and that, on account of this state of the case, God in His grace and faithfulness, after the well-known falling away of those who were called in the time of Moses, again characteristically fixes ( ὁñßæåé ) a day, ‘to-day,’ in which, after the lapse of so long a period, He, through David, repeats the summons of invitation, which had formerly been proclaimed by Moses. As the Sept. ascribes the Psalm in question to David, and here we have not ἑí ôῷ Äáõßä , but ἐí Äáõßä (taking David personally), we are not here, although the Book of Psalms may, as a whole, be regarded as belonging to David (Act_4:25), to take the words as applying to the book. For ἐí Äáõßä would properly, in referring to a passage of Holy Scripture, mean “in the passage of Scripture that treats of David,” as ἐí . Ἠëßᾳ , Rom_11:2.—Schlicht., Stengel, etc., connect the first óÞìåñïí with ëÝãùí . Others, more recently Lün. and Del., regard it as a part of the quotation, which, commencing emphatically, for this reason, after an interposed clause, repeats the same word. The majority, with Calv., Bez., Grot., take it as in apposition with ἡìÝñáí .
Heb_4:8. For if Joshua had brought them to their rest, etc.—The ìåôÜ ôáῦôá , corresponding to ìåôὰ ôïóïῦôïí ÷ñüíïí of the preceding verse, belongs to ἐëÜëåé scil. ὁ èåüò . But the Imperf. with ἄí is not to be rendered, “He would have spoken” (Luth., Bez.), which would have required ἐëÜëçóåí ἄí , but “he would be speaking.” The fact that God, after the introduction of the people into the Promised Land, speaks of a day in which His voice summons to an entrance into His rest, proves not only that the Rest of God, which has existed since the creation, is not identical with the rest proclaimed to the people by Moses, and secured for them under Joshua, but that this entire proceeding with the Israelites is simply to be regarded as figurative, and as having its fulfilment through Christ in the New Testament economy. In the later books of Scripture, Ezra, Nehem., Chron., Joshua, instead of the earlier åְäåֹùׁåּòַ , is named éֵùׁåּòַ whence the writing Ἰçóïῦò of the Sept., of Joseph., and the Act_7:45.— Êáôáðáýåéí here in its classical transitive sense to cause to rest, to bring to rest, as Exo_33:14; Deu_3:20; Deu_5:33; Psa_85:3; Act_14:18.
Heb_4:9. There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest, etc.—The particle ἅñá (rarely commencing a, sentence in prose), now introduces the conclusion to which the preceding statements have led the way; not only is there a Rest of God existing from the close of the creation, and reaching on to eternity, and not only is a participation in this rest appointed to the people of God, but the entrance into it is actually secured to the people of God. This rest is a óáââáôéóìüò = á Sabbath festal celebration (from óáââáôßæåéí , Exo_16:30, as ἑïñôáóìüò from ἑïñôÜæåéí ). The term (found also in Plut. de superstitione, 3) is all the more natural, inasmuch as already at Heb_4:4, reference is made to that rest of God after the creation of the world, which lay at the basis of the institution of the Sabbath, as the rest of humanity, and in that, apart from any Rabbinical explanations, even at 2Ma_15:1, the Sabbath is called ἡ ôῆò êáôáðáýóåùò ἡìÝñá . The ὁ åἰóåëèþí , he who entered in, is certainly not the people (Schultz), but either Christ, as indicated by the Aor., êáôÝðáõóåõ , rested (Alting, Starck. Owen, Valck., Ebr., Alf.), or (with the majority of expositors, among them Bleek, Lün., Del.), inasmuch as nothing in the context points immediately and personally to Christ, the person, whoever he may be, that has reached the goal. It thus assigns the reason why the rest in question is called a Sabbatism. The Aor. is then explained as a reminiscence from the citation in Heb_4:4. [The question is a difficult one to settle. On the one hand, the historical êáôÝðáõóåí , rested, more naturally points back to some single historical event, as the entrance of Christ into His rest, and the emphatic êáὶ áὐôüò , also he himself, giving, as Alford remarks, dignity to the subject which we should scarcely expect if it refer to any individual man, would suggest the same idea, while it is certainly pertinent to introduce Christ as the great Leader and Institutor of the rest of the New Testament people of God, by finishing and resting from His own works. But, on the other hand, there does not seem, as supposed by Alford, any antithesis in this passage between Christ and Joshua; the specific object of the verse seems to be simply to explain why the writer has changed the term êáôÜðáõóéò into óáââáôéóìüò , and the êáὶ áὐôüò , therefore seems entirely natural as explaining why the rest of the people of God is like the rest of God Himself, a Sabbatism; and the reference also of the subsequent ἐêåßíç ἡ êáôÜðáõóéò , that rest, is entirely pertinent, in view of the author’s declaration that a Sabbatic rest awaits the people of God, and equally so in whichever way we understand the present verse. And as a positive argument against Alford’s interpretation, we may urge Moll’s suggestion, that nothing in the context points directly to Christ. The passage seems simply thrown in to account for the substitution of the term óáââáôéóìüò for êáôÜðáõóéò ; for this there is no need of any reference to Christ, and had the author intended it, it would seem almost certain that he would have made his intention more obvious. I incline to the opinion of the majority, which refers it to individual members of the Church. The Part. åἰóåëèþí , is then used like ἀðïèáíþí , Rom_6:7, although for the fin. verb we should certainly here, as there, prefer the Perf. But the Aor. may be explained partly as by De Wette, as a reminiscence from Heb_4:4, partly, perhaps, from the preference of the Greeks for the form of the Aor., whenever they could use it, to the clumsier and less euphonious Perfect.—K.].
2. The Rest which God promises and gives to His people, is no other than the rest which God Himself has and enjoys. The creation and destination of man to be the image of God, contains the ground of the fact, that man can find rest only in God, and the grace of God renders possible even to fallen man the fulfilment of his destination. But the condition of entering into the rest of God, is faith; and this condition is the same for the different degrees of man’s participation in that rest which God, since the creation of the world, until the completion of the world’s history, repeatedly proffers to man, and holds open for his entrance.
3. “At every stage of the revelation of His grace to sinners, God proffers to them His whole salvation. Under every veil which He has thrown over His truth in the years of childhood, it lay entire, and even at that time believers could receive every thing from God. But since God does not perfect individuals apart from the whole, the general unbelief of those to whom He had proffered His salvation (notwithstanding that some few believed) at every successive stage, held back perfection. But no rejection of Divine grace, on the part of men, can hinder or restrain its ever increasingly glorious unfolding; but rather, as the sun from the bosom of night, so from the unbelief of men does it shine forth all the more clearly to the honor and praise of God. Thus also, of necessity, their spurning of the true rest of God, which had been proffered to the Israelites, led to the fact that they, under Joshua in Canaan, only entered into an earthly rest, in every respect unsatisfactory, perpetually interrupted, by which their longing after the true rest was rather awakened than satisfied. And thus the entrance into the rest of God, still awaits the people of the Lord; the celebration of the eternal Sabbath, after the second creation, of which that of the earthly Sabbath is but the type.” Von Gerlach.
4. The labor from which the believer is yet to rest cannot, on account of the constitution of the world, and on account of the nature of actual human life, be separated from the idea of the pain and toil of our earthly pilgrimage; yet it is by no means to be limited to this. We must rather extend our thought to the labor of the Christian vocation, since this is designated in the text as that which is peculiar to Him, standing in the relation of an image and copy to the creative activity of God. “The struggle against sin, the pursuit of holiness, the striving after perfection ( ôåëåéüôçò ), constancy in sufferings, all vigorous endeavor in holding fast to faith and hope, even under the most adverse circumstances; all the toilsome activity of self-denying, self-sacrificing love; all the labors, connected not unfrequently with great disquiet and anxiety, for the spiritual welfare of the entire Church and of its individual members; all these are the ‘works’ ( ἔñãá ) of believers, from which they are yet to rest in the heavenly city of God” (Riehm).
5. As an eternal and blessed Sabbath celebration, this rest cannot be a cessation of all activity. This would correspond neither to the idea involved in the rest of God, nor to the promise of a personal progressive life of the children of the resurrection in the kingdom of glory. Moreover, the perfect consciousness of blessedness in the certainty of personal perfection in no way excludes an active attestation of this consciousness. The same holds true of the participation of the blessed in the approval and pleasure with which God looks upon the world of perfection as brought into a state of perfect conformity to His will. At all events, there is such an activity of the perfected in eternity as that which Thom. Aquinas designates as videre, amare et laudare, and August. (de Civit. Dei, 20, 30) thus describes: “Ipse (Deus) finis erit desideriorum nostrorum qui sine fine videbitur, sine fastidio amabitur, sine defatigatione laudabitur.” But is God to be the sole object of this activity? and is this activity itself to be regarded as susceptible of no development and advancement for the reason that it is an activity of those who are perfected? This would by no means essentially follow from Augustine’s answer to the question, What the blessed will do in their eternal life: In sæcula sæculorum laudabunt te (in Psalms 83). For praise, if it is not to be a mere empty sound, must consist in real acts of praise, with a definite meaning and substance. But this concrete substance, if it is not to degenerate into tautology and battology, must be susceptible of a development, and appear as the product of an activity of definite persons, whose inward feelings, experiences and thoughts it expresses. And in the case of these persons, again, we can conceive of the removal neither of that creaturely element by which they stand distinguished from God, nor of that special human quality that distinguishes them from angels; nor any more of that individuality which produces those special characteristics in the actual personal life of the perfected which involve alike the continuity of consciousness, the identity of the person that had died with the person that has risen; the possibility of reunion, and the possibility of retribution. On this double foundation of the permanent creatureliness, and of the individual personality of the glorified and perfected, we may base a well-founded conviction that there is in the life of the blessed an infinitude of relations and points of contact, which, in ceaseless and reciprocal influence, enlarge and enrich their common bliss and perfection. For we may with just as little propriety assume, on the part of the glorified, an activity without result, as a round of empty and unsubstantial adoration, or a mere idle and fruitless contemplation of God. Also, Rothe, in his Ethics (II. § 474) has admirably shown how we may conceive of work without the attendant idea of labor, i.e, work accompanied by strenuous exertion; and Tholuck, in some weighty and suggestive intimations, has shown the mixture of truth and falsehood in the declaration of Lessing: “If the eternal Father held Truth in His right hand, and the search for it in His left, and I were required to choose, I would clasp His knee and say: Father, the left!” Inasmuch, however, as we have on this point no positive statements of Scripture, and are liable to transfer our human conceptions to the scenes and relations of the future world, it will be well to heed the warning of Stier (1, 85): “If thus deeply looking into eternity, we are blinded by the overpowering splendor, and turn back again to the thought that such Sabbath rest is surely not to be conceived as devoid of working and activity, we are undoubtedly right to this extent, that the rest of God is indeed at the same time an eternal life of infinite power. But we must still be on our guard against allowing our weakness to mingle the earthly with the heavenly, and even in the attained city of God itself, to open a long-extended chaussee-prospect of ‘infinite perfection;’ rather will we strive with all the power of the spirit for a presentiment of that true rest, of that perfected satisfaction and completeness which has inherited all in God, and for which nothing more remains to be attained in eternity.” This is all the more advisable as the feeling of a real satisfaction in our true rest in God must exist in the most diverse stages of creaturely development. Only we must not, with the earlier ecclesiastical teachers (e. g., John Gerhard, Loci Theol., T. XX., p. 408), allow ourselves to infer from this that that deficiency in extent of the saints’ knowledge of God, which, along with its perfection in quality, the very finiteness of their nature imposes upon the blessed, will, by the final judgment, be fixed and bound down to a definite limit, which will forever preclude all further development. For the unbounded and unrestricted activity of a creature within the limits that belong to and determine its peculiar organization—an activity that can never be conceived as without result—is something entirely different from a striving and aspiring beyond these limits. This, Dante himself, in the words cited by Tholuck (Paradiso, 3, 73 ff.), has not sufficiently regarded:
“For if we yielded to our higher wish,
Then should we come in conflict with that will
Which destined us to this our lower sphere.”
6. It is a confused and perplexing use of language that speaks of gradations of blessedness. The idea of blessedness excludes distinctions of degree and relations of quantity. But doubtless there are degrees of participation in the rest of God. For, first, there is the peace, which the believer, as being justified, on the ground of his reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ possesses and tastes (Rom_5:1), and which includes a devotion—constant and unvexed by the vicissitudes of life—to the will of God in His dispensations, and a confident hope of future blessedness and glory. Then, from this, we are to distinguish the rest of those who, as having fallen asleep in Christ, freed from the toils and sorrows of this earthly life (Rev_14:13; Rev_21:4), are with Christ (Php_1:23); and from this again we distinguish that Sabbatic rest which commences only at the second coming of Christ, and the accompanying renovation of the world, and which is realized only when the whole people of God have entered into eternal rest in and with God, and in which all the ransomed are at home forever-more (1Th_4:17). Within each of these three grades, however, is preserved inviolate not merely the specific quality of humanity as such, in contradistinction from the angelic nature and relation, but also the concrete individuality, previously referred to, of each person. This has been sometimes erroneously conceived as forming an intrinsic distinction in the degree of blessedness itself. The opinion of Swedenborg, that men may once have been angels, has no where the slightest support.
7. From the nature of the rest of God it follows that for the people of God, so long as they are still on their pilgrimage to the final goal, it must of necessity be in the future; for he who has entered into this, rests from his works in like manner as God did from His. In behalf of the view that a day which is entirely Sabbath will close the world’s work, Del. adduces from Sanhedrin 97 a, the following passage: “As the seventh year furnishes a festal time of a year’s duration for a period of seven years, so the world enjoys, for a period of seven thousand years, a festal season of a thousand years;” but remarks, then, that, as shown by Rev_20:7 ff., this final temporal millennium is not as yet the final Sabbath, although it has become customary in the Church to regard this temporal season of triumph and rest to the Church as ἡ ἑâäüìç (the seventh day), and the blessed eternity as ἡ ὀãäüç (the eighth); that this octave of the blissful eternity is nothing else than the eternal duration of the final Sabbath, which realizes itself only at the point where the history of time is merged into a blissful eternity. Similarly it is said in a Rabb. treatise on Psa_92:1 (Elijahu Rabba, c. 2): “We mean the Sabbath which puts a stop to the sin reigning in the world—the seventh day of the world, upon which, as post-Sabbatic, follows the future world, in which forever and ever there is no more death, no more sin, and no more punishment of sin; but pure delight in the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
8. Into this future Sabbath rest, however, they alone enter who believe in the word of invitation which has reached them, and livingly unite themselves with this, by faith. “Faith is, as it were, the dynamical medium by which objective truth assimilates itself to the believing man” (Thol.). “As food it must nourish, must go into the blood and unite itself with the body. If the word is to benefit, it must, like the nutritive element of food, be transformed by faith, into the spirit, sense and will of man, that the whole man may become as the word is, and requires, i.e, holy, upright, chaste and pious” (Hedinger, Ed. of the N. Test., with explanatory remarks, 1704).—“There are two sorts of words in the Scripture; the one affects me not, concerns me not; the other concerns me; and upon that which appertains to me I can boldly venture, and plant myself upon it, as on a solid rock.—Of this none may be in doubt, that to him also the Gospel is preached. Thus, then, I believe the word, i.e, that it concerns me also—that I also have a share in the Gospel, and in the New Testament, and I venture my all upon the word, even though it were to cost a hundred thousand lives” (Luther’s Sermons on the First Book of Moses, Walch, Part 3, p. 9).
Luther (Pref. to John Spangenberg’s coll. of Sermons, Walch XI 4:376):—In truth thou canst not read the Scripture too much: and what thou readest, thou canst not read too well; and what thou readest well, thou canst not too well understand; and what thou understandest well, thou canst not too well teach; and what thou teachest well, thou canst not too well live (Domestic Sermons, Walch XIII. 1336).—The preaching of faith is such a preaching as demands ever to be exercised and put in practice.—That I may come to the point of rising above every thing, of contemning sin and death, and of gladly venturing myself in all confidence upon the promise of God, I must have the Spirit and power of God, as also perpetual exercise and experience.
Starke:—Away slavish fear! but filial fear must be present, that we walk therein, and so work out our salvation (Php_2:12).—Not only must none remain behind for himself, but each one must also see to it, so far as the grace of God shall render it possible for him, that if others remain behind, he, by hearty exhortation, and his own good example, incite them to the course, and thus take them along with him.—Pilgrim, it is high time, if thou wouldst yet enter into the rest of God. Therefore hasten, and see to it, that thou do not come short of this blessedness.—Were there on the part of God an unconditional decree of human salvation, and were men, by virtue of this decree, unable to fall from the state of grace, and incur the loss of salvation, the holy men of God would not have been so zealous to warn believers against backsliding, and to exhort them to perseverance (2Pe_3:17).—What avails it to listen to so many hundred sermons when we believe not, and receive no benefit? Mark! the word of God which thou hearest must flow into thine inmost soul, and must there give thee the full sap and nourishment of life, if it is to avail to thee for salvation (1Th_2:13).—The promises of God avail nothing to unbelievers. These must die without consolation, and perish eternally (Isa_40:1).—The Gospel is, indeed, the power of God unto salvation, but it compels none to believe; but man retains his free-will to give place or not to the grace which knocks at the door of his heart.—Thou thinkest that it is very easy to come into heaven; but believe me, nothing common or unclean can enter thither. Unless thou art cleansed by faith, and art become a new creature, thou wilt not enter therein.—The repose of believers consists in this, 1, that we find all the works of God good, and are satisfied with these in the kingdom of nature and of grace; 2, that to that which God has devoted to us for our salvation, we desire to add nothing of our own, neither works of sin, nor even works of the law.—O how often are the first last, and the last first! Lord, Thy judgments are incomprehensible, and unsearchable Thy ways.—How highly should we respect the Psalms of David, since the Spirit of God has spoken by him!—To-day, since we hear the voice of Christ, let us obediently follow it; else we deserve that He withdraw from us His grace (Joh_12:35).—God would at all times, have all men enter into His rest.—Nothing of all which the holy men of God have written is in vain; what we do not understand, testifies of our weakness and imperfection.—Beloved, let us not be impatient over the turmoil of sin, the assaults of the devil, the pains of our vocation, and our other burdens. For such is the character of our present life. In heaven we shall have peace from all these (Psa_90:10; Rev_14:13).—O how deep is our concern, not only in the eternal rest itself, but also in that constant faith and obedience, without which that rest can never be attained.
Berlenburger Bible:—Promise is God’s passport, which He gives us for our journey. He who throws away the promise, robs himself of aid.—We would fain be saved without employing the means.—The seed of all errors lies by nature in every one.—Because thou doest nothing, thou doest abundance of evil, and failest to accomplish thy duty.—The word in itself depends, indeed, in its power not upon my acceptance, since it is still powerful, but outside of me it avails me nothing.—All the works of God tend toward rest. But the time which is previously to elapse must not appear too long to us; but we must be assured that as God has brought us upon this way, He will also aid us to the end.—The work of creation is an image and foreshadowing of all the ways of God, clear to the end. The long extended time shows the long-suffering of God, and is given by God that we may recognize His goodness; but men readily abuse it to the indulgence of their sloth.—If God works in thee, thou art in rest; but if thou workest thyself, and in selfishness, thou hast nothing but disquietude.
Laurentius:—The life of believers is nothing but a journey into eternal rest.—We may hear much of eternal life, and still be excluded from it.—The rest of believers in this life is imperfect.—To the times which are noted in the sacred Scripture we must give special heed.
Rambach:—Each person of the sacred Trinity has, as it were, his special Sabbath and day of rest. The Father rested on the seventh day from the work of creation. The Son rested in the sepulchre from the work of redemption. The Holy Spirit will rest at last from the work of sanctification, viz., then, when He shall have no more sin to do away.
Steinhofer:—Glory is reserved for us until our entrance into His eternal kingdom. It beams upon us from His throne, and will become manifest to us in His coming. In the meantime if we yield ourselves to His guidance, and hasten to the goal, He will infallibly bring us thither. We look merely to His heart and His hand; we remain tranquil; we let our Leader care for us, and willingly follow Him, upon that way in which He has not only preceded us and opened the path, but on which He is now also leading us, from step to step, by His power and grace, and will continue to lead us, until, at the last step, attaining complete deliverance and salvation, we also pass into the same glory, where we shall behold the brightness of God in the face of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and be invested with this glory.
Rieger:—Every one should stand in fear and just distrust of his own heart, in order that to him the visible and eternal may not speedily sink into insignificance, the way that leads to it become disagreeable, his striving after the treasure be enfeebled, and he be tempted to turn back into Egypt. That must be and become true in my heart, which is true, and as it is true in the Word of God.—The promise on the part of God is so sincere, the faith which trusts to it is something so tenacious, that we may with these venture boldly forth for an entrance into rest.—Who is there whom God cannot, by a thousand means, make to feel that he has been driven from the place of rest?—Who is there who has yielded to the heavenly calling, that does not find himself, after his abandonment of the world, in a wilderness of temptation? In whom arises not the sigh: Lord Jesus may I soon inquire for my rest?—No man’s progress is stopped by a previously formed decree of God; but it was the unbelief that showed itself on the way, that woke the wrath of God, and led Him to swear that they should not enter into His rest.—The purpose of God extends far. All ages, all nations that are successively born, are comprehended in it. Thus it bears with patience many a generation, and lo, that which was not accomplished in the fathers is to be attained in the children. God has prepared nothing in vain. It is His will that His house be full. No period of the world but contributes to the assemblage of His elect.
Von Bogatzky:—Labor, works and suffering belong to the divine arrangement, or to the way upon which we enter into rest. But it is faith alone, which lays hold of Christ, and in Him already here, and thus also yonder, finds eternal rest. Although eternal rest and blessedness are a gift of grace, they still demand all industry and diligence, power and strength, in order to our attaining them, because there are many enemies that would circumvent us of this rest, and hinder our entrance into it.—We evince our industry in entering into His rest, 1, if we studiously hear His voice, and are obedient to Him; 2, if we accompany the word with prayer; 3, if we actively prove ou