‭1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Abraham is the father of the faithful; that is, he is the leading specimen of the kind of people with whom God is well pleased. We also look forward; we see, and we are glad; but our rejoicing is only in hope, and is mixed with weakness and with fear.

We are told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Why with fear? The question is answered:

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

That is an apostolic reply to the question. With all our joy in looking forward to the rest before us, our rejoicing is moderated by the apprehension that possibly we may fail to enter in. Christ said, when Peter asked him upon the point, that many should seek to enter in but should not be able. Why not able? Because they are not in earnest about it; they do not give enough energy to it.

"We ought to give the more earnest heed," says Paul, "to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

Many fail to attend to the things in this earnest way; they lay hold of the kingdom of God, but, at the same time, keep hold of twenty other things. They devote their best faculties and their principal time to the promotion of objects unconnected with Christ entirely, and which are not even necessary for them in the provision of their livelihood.

A man, of course, must labour for his daily bread, and, in fact, that may be made a service of God; for it is one of the teachings of Paul that whatever a man doeth, he is to do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. He says that to servants; so we have it in our hands to turn everything to spiritual account if we are wise.

I am referring, however, to people who are under no obligation to attend to things they have in hand, but who choose them as a matter of special taste, as a matter of honour, or as a matter of respectability. These things engross all their energies, run away with their time, and steal their hearts, so that the things of God have little hold upon them, and, therefore, they fail.

Our rejoicing therefore is mixed with fear, and ought to be so. No one should slacken his hand until his course is run. Never put off the day of wisdom. If we reject wisdom for our own convenience, wisdom will reject us.

Bro Roberts - Present suffering, Seasons 1: 32.

‭His rest.

This practical application of the matter,‭ ‬which is utterly unintelligible on the immortal soul hypothesis of the popular religionism of the day,‭ ‬is perfectly apparent on the principles of the truth—the gospel of the kingdom founded on the promises made to the fathers.‭ ‬Instructed by the prophets,‭ ‬as expounded by Jesus and the apostles,‭ ‬we learn that the‭ "‬rest‭" ‬which was not attained under the law in the hands of the typical Joshua will be reached under the new covenant in the hands of Jesus,‭ ‬the mediator thereof,‭ ‬at his coming,‭ ‬when‭ "‬His rest,‭" ‬as we read in‭ Isaiah xi. 10‬,‭ "‬shall be glorious.‭"

‭"‬In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious,‭ ‬and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.‭"

‭ "‬Thou shalt weep no more:‭ ‬the Lord shall be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound.‭"

‭ "‬Your soul shall be as a watered garden:‭ ‬thou shalt not sorrow any more at all.‭"

‭"‬Ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace:‭ ‬the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,‭ ‬and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.‭"

‭"‬For I have satiated the weary soul,‭ ‬and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.‭"

These are the great and precious promises—the‭ "‬fat things full of marrow‭"—‬which the Spirit of God invites men to partake of instead of the empty notions and enterprises that men create for themselves.‭

The question will press to the very last:

‭ "‬Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread,‭ ‬and your labour for that which satisfieth not‭? ‬Hearken diligently unto me,‭ ‬and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness.‭ ‬Incline your ear,‭ ‬come unto me:‭ ‬hear,‭ ‬and your soul shall live.‭"

Be it ours,‭ ‬brethren and sisters,‭ ‬to respond to this reasonable and loving challenge,‭ ‬and to be found among those who at the last shall enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

Editor.

‭

11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The apostle here assumes that he and those to whom he was writing had not then entered into the promised rest, by exhorting them to labour that they might not be excluded from it, after the manner in which the unbelieving Israelites were allowed to die in the wilderness, and so prevented crossing Jordan with Joshua.

There is a sense in which the seventh day rest after the creation should be imitated by believers now. On the seventh day God rested from His works, which were of an earthly and material character. In like manner, believers at their immersion, should thenceforth rest from all their own works—the works of the flesh.

Bro J. J. Andrew.

The Christadelphian, July 1872

13 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.

When the Lord God called to Adam, He said in answer to the question,

"Where art thou?" "I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."

This was the truth as far as it went; but it was not the whole truth. Fear, shame, and concealment, are plainly avowed; but why he was ashamed he was not ingenuous enough to confess. The Lord God, however, knowing from the mental constitution He had bestowed upon him, that man could not be ashamed unless his conscience was defiled by transgression of His law in fact or supposition, directed His next inquiry so as at once to elicit a confession of the whole truth.

"Who told thee," said He, "that thou wast naked?"

Did I tell thee, or did any of the Elohim? Or, "hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" Thou hast no cause to be afraid of Me, or ashamed of thine appearance as I have formed thee, unless thou hast sinned against Me by transgressing My law. Thou hast heard My voice, and stood upright and naked in My presence before, and wert not ashamed; what hast thou done? Why, coverest thou thy transgression by hiding thine iniquity in thy bosom? (Job 31:33).

But Adam, still unwilling to be blamed according to his demerits, in confessing reflected upon the Lord God, and turned evidence against Eve

Elpis Israel 1.4.

15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

"It is a first principle of the truth that Jesus, at his first appearing among men, was of the identical flesh of all men—the flesh derived from the condemned transgressor in Eden. His mission required that it should be so, both that he should conquer sin morally by obedience (which he could not have done in 'pure flesh' as Renunciationism teaches), and that he might nullify its hereditary condemnation by offering it up on Calvary as required. They (the rejecters of this truth) intend to honour Christ perhaps: but it is only as Peter honoured him in saying, 'Lord, this shall not be unto thee,' which evoked the Lord's prompt rebuke, 'Get thee behind me, Satan.'"

The Christadelphian, 1894, p. 232.