The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (many hold this one to be Apollos) presents a new and expanded picture of what it means to enter the rest of the Lord. In 4.1-3 we read: Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. It is as if resting in the Lord has little to do with relaxing or taking a nap in the afternoon—it’s a positioning.

The position being fostered is to base everything we do in the service of our Lord Jesus on our faith: For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. This has little to do with a right understanding of gospel truth, but rather the accepting of it with the application of our faith in him.

Those of us who choose to follow Jesus by our faith will come to a place of both receiving his teaching as truth, and the ownership of that truth in our own hearts: Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”’ To enter the rest of God is much more of a position of trusting him and everything he teaches us about living life in him.

It is a scriptural fact that God finished his creative work in the beginning, but the implementation of that creative work will only be finalized in us when we come into his rest by faith—until we enter into the full completion of his work: And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. We will make manifest what God means about our entering into his resting when we own his creative work in us.