Laboring to Enter the Rest? --Preliminary Explanations

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4: 11)''

The notion of "rest" is a new one for many Christians.

What does it mean, exactly?

The context of the passage makes all the difference, and will bring a lot of sense to the passage, too.

The passage comes from "The Book of Hebrews"

It's not the book of Africans, it's not the book of Texans, or the Book of the Eskimos.

The context is related clearly, even without the title:

"1God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;" (Hebrews 1: 1-2)

"God". . ."the fathers". . ."the prophets": these three words altogether indicate a Jewish audience.

They all lead to one Person: "His Son", Jesus Christ.

The basic tenet of the Book of Hebrews is to convince (and convict) Jewish believers who were thinking about going back to Judaism, or to those Jews who believed that Jesus is the Messiah, but they continued to offer daily animal sacrifices, as well.

There is no mixing of the covenants. Jesus Christ's death on the Cross finished everything, or it did nothing. For this reason, the writer of Hebrews declares:

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost," (Hebrews 6: 4)

and

"For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." (Hebrews 10: 4)

and

"Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10: 29)

The contrast centers between the Old Covenant of animal sacrifices, versus the New Covenant, in which Jesus' death is the final sacrifice:

"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins," (Hebrews 10: 26)

In this passage, "sin wilfully" refers to sacrificing animals, thus ignoring the Blood of Jesus as final, disgracing the Finished Work of grace which God has shown to all men (Titus 2: 11-12)