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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.+