Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 4:10

"For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his." — Hebrews 4:10 (ASV)

We now have a description of at least part of what the rest means. The writer reverts to the word for “rest” that he has been using earlier instead of the “Sabbath-rest” of v.9. To “enter God’s rest” means for a believer to cease from one’s own work, just as God ceased from his. The main question that arises is whether the rest takes place here and now, or after death, as seen in Rev 14:13: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord... they will rest from their labor.” It is best to see this rest as an experience in which they live here and now by faith, but the rest they know here is not the full story. That will be revealed in the hereafter. There is a sense in which to enter Christian salvation means to cease from one’s works and to rest securely on what Christ has done. And there is a sense in which the works of the believer, works done in Christ, have about them that completeness and sense of fulfillment that may fitly be classed with the rest in question.