List of posts

  • Do Not Be Taken Captive- Colossians 2:8

    A persistent teaching of the New Testament is that every human being is a servant of someone or something, that we all have a “master”. So the question arises as to just what form this master takes, and it is here where we find the answer to this question. Our verse at hand begins as

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  • Clinging to the Old- Hebrews 4:11

    In verse 11, we are admonished to “make every effort to enter” this New Covenant rest, this sabbatismos, for if we do not, we will “fall by following their example of disobedience”. To understand this admonition, we must consider precisely who the “example” is here and what their “disobedience” consists of. The example here refers

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  • A Rest Which Requires Work- Hebrews 4:11

    In our previous post, we examined the nature of the New Covenant rest which the believer has in Christ, a rest from the search for meaning and purpose in life. We now find the “means” through which we go about entering this rest in verse 11-13. Verse 11 reads as follows in NIV “Let us,

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  • A New Kind of Rest- Hebrews 4:10

    In our previous post, we examined the duration of the rest provided the New Covenant believer, of its reality as not a temporary pause from work, but as a state or condition of rest. This rest is then further revealed in the continuation of this line of thought in verse ten, being connected in the

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  • The Rest That Remains- Hebrews 4:9

    We have seen, in the preceding verses, that full and final rest for the people of God could not be found in Moses and the law, not in Joshua and the land, nor in David and the prophets. This rest could only be found in the New Covenant in Christ, which David himself prophesied about

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  • A Rest to Come- Hebrews 4:7-8

    In these verses, the writer moves forward in time from the wilderness generation to the time of David, somewhere around 400 years. The OT quotation here is from Psalm 95, in which David referenced what was spoken to the wilderness generation, demonstrating the continuing validity of the principle set forth there. This principle is that

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  • A Rest Remains- Hebrews 4:6

    Hebrews 4:6 reads as follows: “It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience”. This verse begins with “oun epei” in the Greek (left out of the NIV translation), or “so then since”, here continuing on in

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  • New Type of Rest- Hebrews 4:4-5

    As we continue in our study of Hebrews 4, we encounter two Old Testament quotes in verses 4 and 5, The first here, in verse 4, is a quote of Genesis 2:2 and refers to God’s rest in creation. It reads as follows: “And on the seventh day God rested from all His work”. We

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  • A New Sort of Rest- Hebrews 4:3

    As we continue in our study of Hebrews 4, we now come upon what may be referred to as a transitional verse. This verse begins with a statement of fact regarding the “believing”, here as the definite article and the aorist participle of pisteuo- to believe. This refers to those who both by nature and

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  • How to Fall Short- Hebrews 4:2

    As we continue in our examination of the rest which remains available for the New Covenant people of God, we now return to an illustration from the Old Covenant people of God which sets forth for us the means by which we may fall short of entering that rest. We begin with an assertion again

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  • Promise of Rest Still Stands- Hebrews 4:1

    In our previous post, we examined the concept of sabbath in terms of the primary purpose of the letter to the Hebrews, the superiority of the New Covenant sabbath in Jesus to the sabbath of the Old Covenant in terms of its permanence as opposed to the temporary nature of the Old Covenant sabbath. In

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