Entering God’s Rest (7)
So, now let’s assume that you have received the gift of faith by God’s grace and you have believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and for your spiritual salvation. Legally, that is, in God’s court room, you have now been justified by faith. What now? Is that it? No, now you begin your walk with God. Now you can start down the “narrow path.” Now you need to begin to “labor” to enter God’s rest.
For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:10-13 KJ2000)
Now we come to the crux of the matter. So far we have learned that to even have a chance of entering into God’s rest we must have true faith in God. Faith is God’s gift to us who believe. This faith marks the beginning point for anyone who would follow after God and who would walk in Jesus’ ways. Yet, as soon as we come to faith, which is not of works, God says, “WORK to enter my rest!” And this is the command that has befuddled Christians since the dawn of time because most then proceed to think that they must perform certain spiritual duties or perfectly obey certain Biblical laws before they can really be accepted by God. In theological terms they link this command to work in Hebrews 4:11 to their “justification.”
Justification, though, is a legal term which states that “based upon Christ’s work and his gift to you of faith in that work, you have been declared “righteous” before God.” It is this legal transaction, one that I can’t even begin to understand, that reconciles us to God. Justification establishes our relationship with God and thus allows us to communicate with him and get to know him. Justification, however, does not literally make anyone righteous. It is the laboring to enter God’s rest which actually transforms us. One term the Bible uses for this labor is “practicing righteousness.”
When we first believe in Jesus we usually remain as bound to certain sins as before. Yes, I know that sometimes Jesus casts out demons and delivers people from addictive bondages when they come into “saving” faith, but this is not the norm. It’s usually not that easy. Justification by faith deals with our spirit and its eternal abode. It does not deal with our soul, the place “where we live,” so to speak. Our soul is our mind, our will, and our emotions. Our soul is what we think of as “you” or “me.” I can’t really know your spirit, but I can know your soul.
The problem of understanding justification versus laboring to enter God’s rest (or, practicing righteousness) has been compounded through the centuries because translators have used various words to translate the Greek word psuche, which means “soul.” On the other hand the Greek word pneuma is usually translated “spirit.” In Hebrews 4:12, quoted above, the Greek word translated “soul” is psuche and the word translated “spirit” is pneuma, which is correct.
Sometimes the word psuche is translated as “life.” For example, when Jesus says, “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it,” (Matthew 16:25) it is the Greek word psuche which is translated “life” here. Jesus is talking about the salvation of the soul, not the spirit in this passage. He is dealing with the spiritual aspect of laboring to enter God’s rest, not justification by initial faith in him.
Because of the various contradictory translations many commentators speak of “saving one’s soul” when they really mean “saving one’s spirit.” Hebrews 4:12 attempts to draw the distinction between soul and spirit as the discussion now moves from mere faith in God to “working out our salvation in fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) The reason for this is because the salvation of our spirits has been accomplished by the one-time work of Christ by shedding his blood on the cross for our sins. It is a done deal. The salvation of our souls, however, has not yet been accomplished, but is an on-going work which is typified by the exodus wilderness journey.
It is precisely because of this confusion, of not distinguishing between the soul and the spirit, that most people utterly miss the meaning of the book of Hebrews. This book contains at least five stern warnings against losing our salvation. One group of Bible scholars, the Calvinists, say that all of these warnings deal with people who were never really saved (spiritually saved, that is). Another group, the Arminians, believe that these warnings indeed do speak to Christians and that all Christians bear the risk of losing their eternal salvation. Calvinists believe in the doctrine “once saved always saved.” Arminians believe that you can lose your spiritual salvation. Both are right to some extent, and both are wrong to a very great extent.
Men can never lose the salvation of their spirits because Christ’s work has accomplished this for us. They can only lose their souls which means that they will miss out on the first resurrection, even if they actually believe in Jesus. This explains the reason for the many warnings in the Bible which apply to Christians. Christians who fail to save their souls will have their part in the Lake of Fire, along with total unbelievers. The Lake of Fire is that place, thing, or process which many mistakenly call “hell.” The Lake of Fire brings about the destruction of carnal, unbelieving souls so that these ones may ultimately enter into the Kingdom of God. For remember, outside the Kingdom “are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.” (Revelation 22:15)
As we continue in the book of Hebrews we find that only the mature, only those who ultimately learn to discern between good and evil and then actually will (choose) to do the good make up this company of believers who enter into God’s rest. See Hebrews 5:14. This company goes by many names in Scripture, for example, the Bride of Christ, the manchild, the two witnesses, the order of Melchizedek, the remnant, Gideon’s 300, and the overcomers.
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