Hebrews: Be Diligent to Enter that Rest
Hebrews 4:8-11; Colossians 3:1-7 - For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
“For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.”
Hebrews 4:8-11 NASB1995
If the promised land delivered the true rest that the people of Israel needed through Joshua, then God would not have spoken of that rest in the future, to King David in Psalm 95. Canaan was an imperfect rest, but it is a foretelling of the perfect rest of Jesus.
I thought this table was quite revealing for verse 8 in this passage, found in Precept Austin:
Moses had no rest. Joshua and those who came with him had rest from war and victory over physical enemies (that often didn’t last for long). Jesus promises rest for our souls, victory over spiritual enemies, and a promised life. The author of Precept Austin (Bruce Hurt) calls this type of comparative analysis of OT events and fulfillment in Jesus a typology. Here is a link to an article by Hurt on typology: https://www.preceptaustin.org/typology-study_of_types. Typologies can be misused, as Bruce Hurt cautiously advises his readers. However, this table is a decent representation of how true rest comes only through Christ.
Let’s look at those verses in Colossians (I’m actually starting at verse 1 in Colossians 3):
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.”
Colossians 3:1-7 NASB1995
Our earthly lives have died and now become life in Christ. This passage also addresses the “sons of disobedience” and the wrath that will be coming to them. This links Paul’s letter to Colossians to the concerns for disobedience (and not rest) identified in Hebrews 4.
So verse 9 talks about that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. I must admit that this verse was perplexing to me. I think perhaps this means that the rest that is promised is open to us today. John Piper explains this rather well, I believe:
From this, the writer draws the all-important conclusion about God’s Sabbath rest of salvation — and this is his fifth period of history, namely, today — verse 9: “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” In other words, today, the rest is still open.
And that is the foundation of God’s message to you today: There is a rest open to you today. God offers rest. The door is not shut. The time is not past. You have not missed your last opportunity. Hear the words of verse 9: “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” The door is open. The time is now.
Ah, but someone says, “Yes, a rest remains for the people of God — but not for me.” But I answer, do not rule yourself out. Look at Hebrews 4:3 — our last word — “We who have believed enter that rest.” There is one door to the safe, peaceful, happy rest of God — the door of faith. Anyone who puts faith in God’s promises bought for us by the blood of Jesus, and is diligent not to throw that faith away, is a part of the people of God.
The door closes when the curtain comes down on this creation at the Second Coming and judgment. That hasn’t happened yet! BUT, we can achieve this only if we are diligent to enter into that rest through faith! Here’s more from the Piper sermon:
That’s the main point of the paragraph: fear unbelief. In the last sentence of the paragraph, he says the same thing in different words. Hebrews 4:11: “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.” In other words, Israel fell from the promised joy of God because of the disobedience of unbelief. And the same thing can happen to any professing Christian. To keep it from happening — and to show that we are more than mere professing Christians — he says, “Be diligent to enter God’s rest” — God’s heaven. Be diligent! Pay close attention to what you’ve heard (Hebrews 2:1); don’t neglect your great salvation (Hebrews 2:3); consider Jesus (Hebrews 3:1); do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 3:8); take care against an unbelieving heart (Hebrews 3:12); exhort one another every day against the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:14); and fear the unbelief that will keep you from your promised rest (Hebrews 4:1).
Do you see the great lesson here? The Christian life is a life of day-by-day, hour-by-hour trust in the promises of God to help us and guide us and take care of us and forgive us and bring us into a future of holiness and joy that will satisfy our hearts infinitely more than if we forsake him and put our trust in ourselves or in the promises of this world. And that day-by-day, hour-by-hour trust in God’s promises is not automatic. It is the result of daily diligence and it’s the result of proper fear.
So does this mean we are crouching in terror every moment of our lives worried that we are losing faith? Once again, John Piper comes to the rescue:
So there is only one thing to fear: faithlessness. Fear unbelief in the promises of God. Because as long as you are trusting in the promises of God you can be utterly fearless in the face of anything, even death, even God (see Hebrews 4:16).
Now what is this like? Your children know what it is like. When you were really little, your mother and father said, very firmly, “Don’t ever run out in the street. Always hold my hand.” Why? It is dangerous in the street. You could be killed by a car. In other words, fear running out in the street. But did that mean that you could not have fun in the backyard and on the sidewalk and in the parks? No. In fact, most of the time you never even thought about how fearful the street was. Only when you got near the street and maybe when your ball rolled out in the street, or maybe somebody tempted you to run across the street when you weren’t supposed to. Only then did you feel the fear of the street. The rest of the time the fear kept you playing in places where you didn’t have to feel any fear at all.
That’s the way it is with the fear of unbelief. You don’t live with a constant bad feeling. You only experience the bad feeling when there are temptations to distrust God’s promises. And even then, you use the bad feeling of fear to send you running into the safe yard of God’s goodness and promises. So normal Christian life is aware of the fearful danger of unbelief, but does not live paralyzed or terrorized by it. It lives in faith. Fear only rises where faith starts to weaken. And it only rises long enough to get us back into the peaceful fearlessness of faith.
I love that analogy! The “busy street” fear stays with us our entire lives, if we are diligent. We come to an intersection, we look both ways, we hesitate to step out in case there is a red light runner and we look out for each other. In London and other British cities, they have gone so far as to remind pedestrians which way to look at intersections, because so many visitors come from locations that drive on the right. But we don’t stay awake at night thinking about being diligent in traffic. We also don’t think about the fear of unbelief all of the time, but only when our faith starts to weaken. Weak faith leads to disobedience, which leads to disbelief. We must live in faith!
So is this a contradiction in terms, in verse 11? Being diligent to enter that rest seems like we have to work and work at this. But as John Piper noted it is simply being diligent in faith. I like one more commentary from Precept Austin, quoting David Wilkerson:
God is a promise maker and a promise keeper, and He has spoken to my heart about four things His people are to trust Him for. These expectations are based on God’s promises.
1. Expect to be rewarded as you diligently seek the Lord. “[God] is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
God is always on time, and He knows you need a ray of hope and good news in your testing time. Expect Him to keep His promise to reward you when you are in greatest need. God says He rewards those who diligently seek Him—and He cannot lie.
2. Expect to see evidence of a progressive miracle in your life. “With God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).
I believe in instantaneous and progressive miracles. Progressive miracles start in unseen, quiet ways and unfold little by little, one small mercy at a time. Expect to see God working in mysterious ways, unseen to the human eye.
3. Expect to enter into God’s promised place of rest. “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God … enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:9, 11).
In the last few years the world has seen an outpouring of incredible calamities, problems and trials. In the midst of this, the Lord desires that you believe Him to bring you into His promised rest. God never intended that His children live in fear and despair.
4. Expect the Holy Spirit to be always in His temple. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
The Holy Spirit abides in the heart of every believer. Face each day knowing He is in His temple to comfort you, guide you, encourage you, anoint you and reveal the glory of Jesus Christ in you. He wants to bring you into unshakable faith. Believe these promises! Lay hold of these expectations and you will see God do marvelous things.
Diligence in our pursuit of Him and keeping the faith pays off in eternal rest (now and forever)!
My next devotional examines Hebrews 4:12-13 - The word of God is like a two-edged sword.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Help me in my diligence so that I can expect to be rewarded, see progressive miracles in my life, enter into the place of rest, and honor the Holy Spirit that resides in my heart. Amen.
Credits and Citations:
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org
Precept Austin was accessed on 11/09/2025 to review commentary for Hebrews 4:8-11.
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For more than thirty years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He is author of more than fifty books, and his sermons, articles, books, and more are available free of charge at desiringGod.org. By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org