How To Finish Well Series

I was listening to one of our secular news and talk radio stations one morning this past week. And there was an innocent joke, of all things, about our subject this morning.

A married couple was having a debate about who should get out of bed in the mornings to brew the coffee. Finally, the wife told her husband that it was his responsibility according to the Bible. The husband wanted to know where it said that. So she opened to a part of the New Testament where, across the top of the page it said, “He brews.”

I figured a little levity has been needed as we continue in this book which has such a sobering theme.

And I found it interesting that on a secular station there would even be the memory that at one time the Bible was considered to be a guide to how we might behave. Even among born again Christians in Bible churches it seems that there has come to be a rather casual attitude toward the Word of God. We seem to be trending toward an obedience-optional form of the Christian faith so often in the U.S. these days.

And maybe that’s because many have eliminated the concept of fear from our personal relationship to God. We have gotten so used to emphasizing the love, grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus that I would imagine a number of Christians might believe that the need to also fear the Lord is strictly an Old Testament concept.

However, a careful examination of Hebrews 4 will quickly dispel that notion. The writer to the Hebrews strongly suggests that a good ol’ dose of fear of the Lord is exactly what any true believer needs to finish well as a believer. In fact, I believe a good summary of chapter 4 is this: Fear God Today to Finish Well Tomorrow.

That certainly seems to be theme of the first 10 verses of chapter 4.

Remember, the Book of Hebrews was written to encourage Jewish Christians in the first century who had experienced years, even decades of persecution, to continue in their faith. The concern was that in order to find some relief this side of eternity these believers would abandon faith in Christ and return to Judaism in order to avoid the continuing persecution they were experiencing.

In chapter 3 we were introduced to Psalm 95 which recalled the wilderness wanderings of Israel under Moses for 40 years. And we were told to take heed of Psalm 95’s warning, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me in the wilderness.” And Hebrews 4 continues with that theme this morning.

Based on that warning from Psalm 95, Hebrews 4:1 encourages even New Testament believers, you and me, to fear, of all things.

“Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it”

The writer is clearly drawing a parallel between what happened to the Jews in the wilderness physically and what can happen to believers under the New Covenant spiritually. The warning at the end of chapter 3 was that not a few, but nearly all of Israel, because of their persistent unbelief and disobedience, because they hardened their hearts against God’s Word, had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, had died physically, and had never entered what had been promised—the Promised Land.

And he’s telling us that it could happen to any of us who grow weary of following Christ to the point of abandoning our faith.

Now clearly the Promised Land was clearly the “rest” that had been promised to the Jews under Moses. However, as we’ve read, it becomes clear that the ultimate “rest” for Jews and believers goes beyond the Promised Land. Because here in chapter four, while speaking to Jewish Christians who were now living in the Promised Land, the statement is made that a promise still remains of entering His (God’s) rest once again.

Now this provides us with one of the major interpretive problems with understanding Hebrews 4. What is this “rest” that goes beyond the Promised Land for believers consist of? Exactly what is the writer of the Hebrews warning that we may lose if we abandon Christ?

There are a significant number of respected scholars who insist that this “rest,” which is later called a Sabbath-rest for God’s people, a “faith-rest,” an experience that a true believer may come to have in his spiritual life in which because of his maturity and faith, he comes to experience a greater level of assurance and peace in his walk here on earth.

With all due respect to those who teach this, I disagree. I believe throughout this book that the issue has to do with salvation. And although it is not possible for true believers to lose their salvation, it is possible for folks who abandon Christ to demonstrate that they were never saved in the first place. And that this is what this book is warning those of us who are believers against.