Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 4:3

"For we who have believed do enter into that rest; even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." — Hebrews 4:3 (ASV)

“We who have believed” (GK 4409) once more stresses the necessity of faith. It is believers who enter God’s rest, not members of physical Israel, and they do so through a right relationship to God, with an attitude of trust. Characteristically, the writer supports his position by an appeal to Scripture. There is nothing in the Greek to correspond to “God” in “God has said.” Yet this is a correct interpretation because the writer habitually regards God as the author of Scripture. The verb tense used in “has said” (GK 3306) emphasizes permanence. What God has spoken stands. The quotation is from Ps 95:11 (see comments). Its point appears to be that those to whom the promise was originally made could not enter the rest because of the divine oath. This does not mean any inadequacy on God’s part, for he had completed his works from the time of Creation. God’s rest was thus available from the time Creation was completed, and his “rest” was the rest he himself enjoyed. The earthly rest in Canaan was no more than a type or symbol of this.