Present and Future Rest in Christ

As the writer to the Hebrews highlights how the Lord Jesus Christ is greater than past revelation, angels, Moses, and Joshua, he makes the point that the rest which evaded God’s people before the coming of Christ is now available to those who have faith in Jesus. One question that has been much debated by Bible scholars is the timing of the rest which is promised in Hebrews 4. The relevant text is Heb 4:1-3 (ESV): “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest,”’ although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

In these verses, scholars debate the significance of the words, “for we who have believed enter that rest.” Some argue that this has to do with a present experience of rest in which the fullness of that rest is entered into by those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, William Lane comments, “[T]he bold assertion [that we do enter that rest], implies more than proleptic enjoyment of what God has promised. The present tense of the verb is to be regarded as a true present and not simply viewed as future in reference. God's promise is predicated upon reality, and believers are already to enjoy the rest referred to [in Ps 95:11].”[1] This position appears to be consistent with Paul’s words when he says that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3) and that God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6). In this case, rest is a spiritual blessing which we presently possess and striving to enter that rest is an encouragement to keep the faith, a matter of maintaining our commitment to Christ.

Alternatively, G. K. Beale notes that “an exclusively futuristic orientation is pointed to by the surrounding context of 3:7-4:11, where everything else in this passage is about a future-oriented rest.”[2] This view takes the exhortation to strive to enter that rest as motivation to realize something more than a spiritual reality. This is not to deny that we possess aspects of rest, especially spiritual aspects of it. Rather, this position affirms that participation in Christ yields tangible benefits and blessings, among which are physical rest from the weariness and heavy burdens of life in a fallen world. This view maintains the material aspects of the rest that was typified and shadowed in the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Finally, this view reflects the larger Scriptural testimony regarding the realization of rest. For example, Paul exhorts the Philippians to continue working in the present: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (2:12 ESV). When the material aspects of rest are factored in, it becomes clearer that complete rest is a future thing if we continue to work in the present. Moreover, in Rev 14:13 (ESV), the future rest of believers, who in their lives "strive to enter that rest" (Heb 4:11), includes the idea of resting from work: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from the labors, for their deeds follow them!’” Part of running the race of faith is finding rest at the finish line, an end to the process of working out your salvation with fear and trembling.

How, then, does this text and teaching relate to what I said about rest in relation to 2 Corinthians 12? Hebrews 4 teaches us that even though we can find rest where we are in the sense of a settled disposition to put our hand to the plow and serve God faithfully even through weakness, hardship, and calamity and with a certainty that there is formative value, a perfecting value, in resting in the power of Christ where we are, there is still so much more for which the believer may hope. We may hope for the end of our labors, our striving, our suffering for the sake of Christ when we enter his rest, his joy, even eternal communion with him. Hebrews 4, therefore, motivates us to cast off anxiety today because complete and full rest is certain for us tomorrow.

[1] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, WBC 47A (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 99.

[2] G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 786.