Hebrews 4:9

‘There remains therefore a sabbath-rest for the people of God.’

That being so there therefore remains for God’s people a ‘sabbath-rest’ (sabbatismos). This is a late word from sabbatiz“ (Exodus 16:30) and means here a ‘keeping of the rest as described in Genesis 2:0 and later symbolised in the Sabbath’. It may have been coined by the author. Here it is paralleled with katapausis (‘rest’ - compare Hebrews 4:1; Hebrews 4:3-4 etc. and Acts 7:49). In Revelation 14:13 a similar verb (anapauo) refers to the Christian’s ‘rest’ after death, as they leave the tribulation of the world, which is the final fulfilment of the present rest, the same verb in fact as is used in Matthew 11:28-29 where it refers to present rest.

But what is this sabbath-rest (shabath means ‘to stop working’). It is another way of speaking of God’s rest on the seventh day when He ceased activity in creation, a rest also intended originally to be enjoyed by man, illustrated from the Sabbath which was based on it, which in itself was a foretaste of that rest and a guarantee that one day it would be man’s again (Exodus 20:11). It is the rest of One for whom all that He wanted to do has been satisfactorily completed so that only a glorious future remains of watching over what He has made. No further works would be needed to put it right. It is the rest into which Adam entered when the world was ‘very good’ and which was marred by his disobedience. But once he had disobeyed no longer was everything ‘very good’. He was now destined to work. Works were the sign of fallen man. It is the rest now made available by the One Who became the true restored Man, the ‘second man’ (Hebrews 2:6-9) for those who are in Him. For with Him we are seated in heavenly places ‘in Christ’ and enjoy His triumph (Ephesians 2:6). We have entered into rest. We have ceased from ‘works’ (Ephesians 2:9). Rather do we live out His life (Galatians 2:20).

Here the present tense together with ‘sabbath-rest’ clearly does mean the present, probably suggesting a present experience, although it could admittedly here be seen as simply referring to its present availability on death.