Our "great salvation" far exceeds the elementary aspects of salvation, as wonderful as they are. It continues until we are a mature son of God, in charge of the creation.

It is no wonder the writer of the Book of Hebrews threatened the Jewish believers with Divine punishment if they did not get back up on their feet and being to press toward the goal set before them.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26,27)

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14)

In today's humanistic evangelism we will receive neither the threat of punishment nor the fact that there is more of salvation beyond the atonement and the Holy Spirit. We are deeply in love with ourselves. The truth is, the warnings of Hebrews are not directed toward the people of the world but toward God's elect. Also, there is much, much more included in the plan of salvation than most of us in America have experienced.

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. but solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,  and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 5:13-6:2)

We are unacquainted with the doctrines of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment, having substituted an unscriptural "rapture" for the teachings of the Scripture. Yet, these two doctrines are presented as being elementary aspects of the new covenant.

But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. (Hebrews 3:6)

Notice that we are God's house on the condition that we "hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast." This is in stark contrast to the repeated assurances we hear today that no matter how we behave God could never find it possible to bar us from His Kingdom.

We are terribly backslidden in America and are heaping to ourselves teachers who tell us what we desire to hear, not the truth of the Scriptures.

The writer proceeds with his warnings (above). The author is telling us that we have made the correct start into the Kingdom of God, but now we must keep on with our discipleship if we are to inherit Christ. How different from much of today's teaching and preaching!

Now we come to the goal of salvation.

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (Hebrews 4:1)

"His rest." God's rest.

What in the world is God's rest?

I have never heard teaching or preaching about God's rest. Have you?

Let's think about God's rest for a moment.

In the fourth chapter we find three aspects of God's rest.

First, God's rest has to do with the fact that God's work has been finished since the creation of the world. God completed all His work in six days. Everything was finished through to the new Jerusalem, including an office or role for every member of the elect.

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'"  And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3)

To be continued.