Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

                                                                                                                        Hebrews 4:1-2 

As Christians, we are not to live in fear. But there is a healthy fear that we are told about in today’s passage. It is the fear that we have heard the gospel but have not responded to it by faith.

The promise remains of entering the rest of God. There is not anything wrong with God’s love, His forgiveness, or His provision of salvation for mankind through faith in Jesus. But while that promise remains for anyone who will receive, it is possible for us to come short of it. Again, it is not the promises of God that fall short rather we come short of those promises when we fail to receive them.

The writer refers to another group that had heard good news but that news did not profit them because “it was not united by faith in those who heard.” Who were these people, what was the good news that they heard, and why did it not profit them? In order to answer those questions, we need to back up and read the passage preceding the one we are examining today. Consider the following: 

For who provoked Him (God) when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He (God) angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He (God) swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

                                                                                                               Hebrews 3:16-19 

God had delivered the people of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. God had led this people directly to the land that He had promised would be theirs. That was the good news. But when the people were at the threshold of entering this lush, green, and fertile land, they failed to enjoy the promise of God because they would not enter.

The problem began when the men who had spied out this land came back to report to the people the condition of the territory (Numbers 13-14). The land was everything that God had said that it was. It was lush, green, fertile, and perfect for the people to go and settle. But there were other people groups in this land as well and it was the presence of these people that intimidated the people of Israel. Ten of the twelve men who spied out the land voted not to enter because of the size of these other people. Only two men (Joshua and Caleb) believed God and desired to enter the land by faith. But the people did not follow this leadership rather they decided that it was too risky to enter and they refused to go into the land. This refusal to enter the land led to a forty-year wilderness wandering in which the people of that generation would die off in order for God to give that land to those who would receive it by faith. That is why the writer describes that generation by saying, “So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”

The promise of God to give this land to the people of Israel was not the problem. They could have gone in and enjoyed that land if they had only believed God and entered by faith with the recognition that God would protect them from the other people groups living in the land. But the reality is that they did not. The problem was that they simply did not receive the promises of God by faith.

The same is true for us under the new covenant. When the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, it demands a response. This response is either one of acceptance or one of rejection. The problem is not that Jesus’ obedience on the cross cannot save, it most certainly can (John 3:16-18, Romans 5:18, 1 John 2:2). The problem is that many people who hear the gospel choose to reject it. The promise of God to enter into His rest both now and for all eternity still remains for “everyone who will call on the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13). But the hearing of this good news must be united by our faith in receiving it.

Imagine taking the left hand (that will represent the promise of God) and the right hand (that will represent our faith in what God says), merging the two together by interlocking the fingers. This is what it means for there to be a response to the gospel. We have to believe what God says about salvation and receive it by faith in Jesus Christ. When we fail to do so, we are acting like the people of Israel when they failed to enter the land. At that point, the good news does not profit us because it is not united by faith. That is the fear that the writer is telling us about.

But for everyone who will believe what the Bible says about salvation and receive it by faith in Jesus, there is salvation, deliverance, forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and redemption. This leads to abundant life on earth (John 10:10) and eternal life with God (John 3:16). Let’s be a people who profit from the good news by responding to it by faith!

…nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

                                                                                                               Galatians 2:16