There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. We have not entered into that rest yet.
What rest is God talking about here? He is talking about the Kingdom of God, which still lies before us. The Sabbath points to the past, the Creation; to the present, redemption and sanctification; and to the future, the Kingdom of God.
These three areas are the perimeters within which Sabbath use and obedience fall. There remains yet a keeping of the Sabbath. The Sabbath rest has already begun if we are striving to use it right.
We have already begun to enter into it. If a person works on the Sabbath to earn a living, he has not entered into it. This ties closely to eternal life, which includes not merely extended life but the quality of life being lived.
Eternal life is only good when it is lived as God lives it. If you have begun to live like God, having His attitude and doing the things that He does, then you have begun to enter into eternal life. Therefore, you are already beginning to enter into the rest.
The children of Israel did not enter into God's rest because they did not hear God's Word and obey. The illustration is the Sabbath, for the breaking of which both Israel and Judah went into captivity. This is written to the first-century church as an illustration of what they are to do with their lives.
If the Sabbath had been done away, the illustration would be useless. This is one of the strongest proofs that the first-century church was still keeping the Sabbath. It reinforces keeping the Sabbath by using it as an illustration of the Kingdom of God.
The Sabbath looks forward to a future rest. When Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, He entered His rest. Christ was resurrected on the Sabbath, when the wavesheaf was cut. These events tie together. By a resurrection from the dead, we inherit and fully enter the Kingdom of God, which we could call the World Tomorrow.
