Let us therefore fear

Fear is an interesting thing in the Bible. Perfect love casts out fear. We are told not to fear and yet told to fear. However, there are two sides to fear. The fleshly mind of man, of course, fears God. It fears God because we must die to self. The current battle is for the mind. Satan works through the flesh, the body. The Holy Spirit works through the human spirit. Both are looking for control and conversion of the mind. Satan starts out with a major advantage owning almost all of our mind. The mind, by the way, is the same as the soul, the heart, and the life. The word, repent, means to turn around in English, but in the language of the Bible it means to have a new mind. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. When we die to self, it is in the mind that this happens. When we build Christ up, it is in the mind that this primarily happens, although we can also build up Christ in our spirits as speaking in tongues does. However, in our ministry, that is, Christ in us, there is not that kind of fear of the Father. There is instead a holy awe and reverence.

Now, what is the word, "therefore," referring to? It is referring to what came just before that in verse 17 But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcass fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear, that they should not enter into His rest but to those who obstinately oppose God's will? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

It is possible to come short of entering into His rest. His rest is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest. God has ceased from doing His own work, and He is calling on us to do the same. We were designed and built to be joined in work with God, not to work independently. That's why Paul said that it is not he who does the work but grace working in him that does the work. If we enter into God's rest, every thought, word, and deed is by grace through faith. God speaks. Faith comes. God gives a vision of His hope--what He intends to do, what the Church is and is not, and how we fit into the Church as particular members. Then, Faith gives us access into God's grace. God's grace does the work. You reap what you sow, having holy seed planted by the work that God did through you. That is, your mind is transfigured just a little with each obedience, with each time you yield to the Spirit rather than following your own mind. On the other hand, if we do follow our own minds rather than Christ, which we sometimes do, we fall short of entering into His rest.

(some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

Heb 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

Entering into God's rest is something that takes place by degrees as Christ is built up in us and we are formed into His image. This gradual transfiguration from glory to glory will culminate in the great and terrible day of the Lord. This is the fulfillment of the manifestation (unveiling) of the sons of God. It is the adoption, which is the redemption of our bodies. It will be marked by the Church coming in unity to one totally complete man as Ephesians 4 tells us.

Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

This refers to works by grace through faith as mentioned previously.

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

Interestingly, the word, faith, is the word, belief. The word, believe is simply a verb form of the noun believe. In Greek, these are pistis and pistos. In this case, though, the word is not pistos. It is apeitheia, which means obstinate opposition to God's will.