Rest for God's People (4): New Testament Rest (Hebrews 4:9-11) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. The Scriptural Argument
II. The Messiah's Mission
III. The Christian's Calling
John Gill on Hebrews 4:10: "For he that is entered into his rest, &c. This is to be understood not of believers, nor of their entrance into the Gospel rest, or into eternal rest, but of the Lord Jesus Christ; for a single person is only spoken of, and not many, as in Hebrews 4:3 and the rest entered into is his own, which cannot be said of any other; and besides, a comparison is run between his entrance into rest, and ceasing from his works, and God's resting the seventh day, and ceasing from his, which can only agree with him ... Now he entered into his rest, not when he was laid in the grave, but when he rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God, as having done his work; and this is the ground and foundation of the saints' rest under the Gospel dispensation; for these words are a reason of the former, as appears by the causal particle 'for': and now being at rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his; Christ had works to do, as preaching the Gospel, performing miracles, and obtaining the redemption and salvation of his people: these were given him to do, and he undertook them, and he has finished them; and so ceases from them, as never to repeat them more; they being done effectually, stand in no need of it; and so as to take delight and complacency in them; the pleasure of the Lord prospering in, his hand, the effects of his labour answering his designs; just as God ceased from the works of creation, when he had finished them."
A. W. Pink on Hebrews 4:10: "The reference to Christ in v. 10 (remember the section begins at 3:1 and concludes with 4:14-16) completes the positive side of the apostle's proof of His superiority over Joshua. In v. 8 he had pointed out that Joshua did not lead Israel into the perfect rest of God; now he affirms that Christ, our Apostle, has entered it, and His entrance is the pledge and proof that His people shall—'whither the Forerunner is for us entered' (Heb. 6:20). But more: what is said of Christ in v. 10 clinches our interpretation of v. 9 and gives beautiful completeness to what is there said: 'There remaineth therefore a sabbath-keeping to the people of God. For He that is entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from his own works, as God from His.' Thus, the Holy Spirit here teaches us to view Christ's rest from his work of Redemption as parallel with God's work in creation. They are spoken of as parallel in this respect: the relation which each 'work' has to the keeping of a sabbath! The opening 'for' of v. 10 shows that what follows furnishes a reason why God's people, now, must keep the sabbath. That reason invests the sabbath with a fuller meaning than it had in O.T. times. It is now not only a memorial of God's work of creation, and a recognition of the Creator as our Proprietor, but it is also an emblem of the rest which Christ entered as an eternal memorial of His finished work; and inasmuch as Christ ended His work and entered upon His 'rest' by rising again on the first day of the week, we are thereby notified that the Christian's six work-days must run from Monday to Saturday, and that his sabbath must be observed on Sunday. This is confirmed by the additional fact that the N.T. shows that after the crucifixion of Christ the first day of the week was the one set apart for Divine worship" (Exposition of Hebrews, pp. 210-211).
John Owen: "He had proved before that there could be no such rest but what was founded in the works of God, and his rest that ensued thereon. Such a foundation therefore, he saith, this new rest must have; and it hath it. Now this is, and must be, in the works and rest of him by whom the church was built, that is Christ, who is God, as it is expressly argued (3:3-4). For as that rest which all the world was to observe was founded in his works and rest who built or made the world and all things in it; so the rest of the church of the gospel is to be founded in his works and rest by whom the church itself was built, that is Jesus Christ; for he, on the account of his works and rest, is also Lord of the Sabbath, to abrogate one day of rest and to institute another" (Hebrews, vol. 4, pp. 332-333).
Francis Nigel Lee: "The Son of man entered into His glory after cessation from His earthly life's work and death on Calvary, so that now He 'entered into His rest (and) He also hath ceased from His own works as God did from His.' And He entered into His glory and His rest on that first Lord's day of Resurrection Sunday ... even after the Son of man has entered His rest, His glory, His children are to follow Him and to do the same. 'There remaineth therefore a keeping of a sabbath to the people of God' who must therefore strive to enter into that rest" (The Covenantal Sabbath, p. 235).