After God created the world, and everything in it, he rested. God had completed his creation, his plan for the world, and “it was good.” Jesus spoke from the cross saying, “It is finished,” and it was then that he gave up his Spirit to God. There is a beginning and an end to all things on earth, but in heaven, all things are eternal.

The author of Hebrews was probably not speaking about heaven when he wrote about the Sabbath rest for the people of God, at least not only about heaven. Instead, God’s rest is available for the people of God now, and ultimately ours in heaven.

Hebrews was written to Christians who had come from the Old Covenant, rule-driven faith of the first-century rabbinic teaching. The Pharisees had written and added hundreds of extra laws to obey, and they taught that the laws were necessary for obedience to God. The end result of all they added was the sense that pleasing God was impossible.

The writer of Hebrews said the “Sabbath rest” belonged to God’s people. It was the chance to rest from our works just as God had rested from his. What did he mean? He was explaining that the path to our salvation was complete. When a person places their faith in Christ as their Lord, there is no more need to “work out” a way for our salvation. When Jesus said, “it is finished” the road to heaven was paved for all who place their faith and trust in the sacrificial offering of his life.

Christians have no need to “work” our way to heaven because we can’t. We can rest knowing that the work has been done, and we have been received into God’s family. We can say, “it is good” and rest from our work. The future of our souls is in the safe hands of Jesus. 

We serve God now, not to earn his love, but in gratitude for his love. We aren’t working for our salvation, we are living our sanctification, the process of being made holy. Scripture says, “Jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus didn’t need to grow, he chose to. 

We don’t need to grow to be certain of our salvation. The work is done, and we can rest in that knowledge. But, we need to model our lives after Jesus. We choose to grow so that we can become more like him each day. One day, we will enjoy our Sabbath rest eternally, in his presence.