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"Things that accompany salvation" (9).
"The full assurance of hope unto the end" (11).
"Followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (12).
"And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise" (15).
In 4: 3 we read of works that were done since the overthrow of the world, and in
9: 25, 26 we read that Christ did not offer Himself often as the High Priest who entered
the most Holy Place yearly with the blood of another, for in that case He must have
suffered often since the overthrow of the world.
The work of the six days' creation is brought into line with the work of redemption, as
indeed it was a part. The rest that remaineth unto the people of God is a rest which
follows completed work. The epistle will go on to develop the twofold character of this
rest. It will first of all show it to be the result of the great finished Work of Christ Whose
one Offering caused the oft-repeated sacrifice of the law to "rest" (pauo = cease) from
being offered (Heb. 10: 2). And secondly it will show it to be the result by grace of that
faith which obtained promises and was the substance of things hoped for. Sabbath
succeeding work is not gospel, it is reward. "Let us labour therefore" while we at the
same time rest in the finished Work of Christ.
It is tolerably certain that in the book of the Revelation the Lord Jesus Christ enters
into His office as the great King-Priest, "after the order of Melchisedec" (see Psa. 110:).
This brings the Apocalypse and the epistle to the Hebrews into line. The fact too that
both books treat of the overcomer and the New Jerusalem will add to this sense of
similarity. We have been considering the "rest that remaineth unto the people of God"
and in Revelation that rest is materialized. There too we have the words:
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Rev. 14: 13).
The concluding verses of Heb. 4: contain a two-fold presentation of Christ: (1) as
He appears to the seven churches (Rev. 2: and 3:); and (2) as the merciful High Priest,
Who can sympathize with His people's weaknesses.
"For the word of God is quick, 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 to
Whom we must give an account" (Heb. 4: 12, 13 not AV JP).
In Rev. 2: 12-16 Christ says:
"These things saith He which hath the sharp sword with two edges . . . . . Repent; or
else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My
mouth."
The words spoken to each of the seven churches are searching indeed. Their works
are known; the One Who speaks is a Judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart. His