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“Let Us Hold Fast to What We Profess”
1 In light of these things, as long as the promise of “entering his rest” is still open, let us tremble with fear, lest any of you ever be judged to have fallen short of it.
2 We likewise have heard the gospel, you see, just as those people themselves did. Yet the message they heard didn’t help those people, because they didn’t share in the faith and loyalty of those who obeyed;
3 indeed, it is we who have believed who enter his rest. As God has said,
“I swore a solemn oath in my wrath:
‘Only if I am not God will they enter my rest.’ ”+
When God said this, he did so despite the fact that “his work” had been finished since the very foundation of the world.4 For these are the words he has used somewhere in the Scriptures regarding the seventh day:
“And God rested on the seventh day from all his work.”+
5 And yet, to repeat the passage above:
‘Only if I am not God will they enter my rest.’ ”
6 From the above it is clear—since it remains open for some to enter God’s rest, and given that those to whom the gospel was proclaimed previously did not enter it because of their refusal to obey—
7 that God is again appointing a certain day, namely “Today,” when he speaks many years later, in the words already quoted, through David:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts.”
8 If the people had already inherited the promised rest, you see, under Joshua, God would not have spoken later in David’s time about another day.
9 So then, a Sabbath rest remains open for the people of God.
10 If someone enters God’s rest, that person, too, will himself rest from his work, just as God did from his.
11 Therefore, let us do everything we can to enter that rest, lest anyone be struck down by following the example, yes, of those who refused to obey.
12 The word of God is alive, you see, and powerful and sharper than any double-edged sword, cutting so deeply as to separate soul from spirit and bones from marrow, and able to discern one’s innermost thoughts and motives.
13 There is nothing in all creation that is hidden from God’s sight. Everything, rather, is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to what we profess.
15 For we don’t have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every respect just as we are, and yet did not sin.
16 Let us keep on coming without fear before the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and obtain in our time of need God’s gracious gift of help.