And what about the following?
And what about the following?
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, (Hebrews 12:22—NIV)
If we are a true Christian we already have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. Notice the tense of the verb: we have come. Not we will come, but we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem.
"Heaven" is not the entire spirit world; it is a city in Heaven where the Lord Jesus and His Church reside. And we are there already, according to the Book of Hebrews.
Perhaps Paradise is a part of the city in Heaven, the new Jerusalem. Or maybe the term refers to the entire city. "Paradise" often refers to a garden or park, and sometimes is associated with the Garden of Eden.
So we have to think again about the tradition of going to Heaven when we die to live there for eternity, since we are there already in our reborn spiritual nature.
Let us return now to the statement in Hebrews:
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (Hebrews 4:1—NIV)
Entering God's rest.
It appears from what I have written thus far that while our spiritual nature can be in Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem, we have to address ourselves today to the problem of entering and remaining in God's rest. These apparently are two different concerns.
Now, let us think for a moment about the Christian people to whom the Book of Hebrews was written.
It appears they were Jewish. But according to the Apostle Paul, himself a Jew, once we are part of Christ there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. So we can apply the exhortations of the Book of Hebrews to ourselves, whether we are Jewish or Gentile by physical birth.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, (Ephesians 2:14—NIV)
Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ, and this is how we will regard them in this essay.
Those believers being addressed in the Book of Hebrews were mature saints—more advanced in Christ than many of us today may be.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age (Hebrews 6:4,5—NIV)
What do most of us know about the "powers of the coming age?
In addition they had been persecuted and their material goods confiscated..
You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. (Hebrews 10:34—NIV)
If these Jewish Christians were mature by the standard we employ today, then what is the meaning of the following exhortation:
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (Hebrews 4:1—NIV)
Exactly what is the rest of God that the experienced, mature Jewish Christians needed to be concerned about? Is it a condition that we of today need to be concerned about?
Notice that "going to Heaven is not at issue here. These believers were not being instructed that even though they were not attaining to God's rest it did not really matter, because they were going to enter Heaven, at their death, by grace.
The rest of God is based on the following statement:
Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3—NIV)
God's works have been finished since the creation of the world.
Since this is true, you and I have a choice. We can plan our lives the way we want them, or we can spend our time on the earth seeking every day to discover what God's will for us is for that day.
I have to insert a caution at this point.
The fact that God's will concerning us, our destiny, has been decided upon since the creation of the world does not mean that no matter what we do, our life will follow the pattern that God has determined in advance.
If that were the case, if we were to do nothing, or if we decided to pursue our self-will with all our might even though we are not behaving according to God's plan for us, the destiny God has planned for us would come into being regardless.
If such were the case, the writer of the Book of Hebrews would not be exhorting us fervently to be careful that we enter God's rest. Evidently to enter God's rest we must cease from our own works and press at all times into the will of God for us.
We do not end up doing what God has chosen for us apart from some effort on our part.
Notice the example the Apostle Paul set for us:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14—NIV)
It sounds at first glance as though Paul was endeavoring to enter Heaven, doesn't it?
The rest of God comes to us from Heaven, but it is not Heaven itself, unless we view Christ as "Heaven"—and that is not far from the truth! Every good thing that we associate with Heaven is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Paul protested that he had not already arrived at his goal, we know He is not speaking of residence in Heaven, since he was on the earth when he was writing these words. He was not speaking foolishly.
Also, the preceding verses in Philippians reveal that Paul was seeking the resurrection life which is in Christ, and the knowledge of Christ. Paul was not striving to return to Paradise and hear "unspeakable words"!
The rest of God, which is our goal, occurs when we are joyously doing God's will in every aspect of our being and behavior. This is our objective.
The land of Canaan is a type of the rest of God. The Israelites were not determined enough to fully possess their land, their rest.
But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. (Judges 1:27—NIV)
Next Part And so forth.