The apostle Peter’s final words urged Christians to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). Growing in grace requires abandoning our own methods of seeking forgiveness, acceptance, and blessings from God and instead trusting in what Jesus has done for us. We must unlearn legalistic rules and man-made traditions we relied on and relearn what God truly expects of us.
Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for us to make us right with God (Hebrews 10:14). As he died, he cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30 [WEB]) and “sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12 [WEB]) because the work was finished. The way we honor that sacrifice is by trusting and resting. When we invent our own means of attaining righteousness and stand up to continue the work, we disregard what he did and insult the quality of his work. That’s why God commands us to cease our “dead works” and enter his rest.
Hebrews 4:8-11 (WEB) For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. 9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. 11 Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
Isaiah 30:15 (WEB) For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.”
Hebrews 6:1 (English Standard Version) Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God
Hebrews 9:13-14 (WEB) For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Dead works refer to the invalidated rituals of the Old Covenant, such as animal sacrifices, which unbelieving Jews relied on instead of trusting in Christ for righteousness before God. We are called to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ (Galatians 3:27; Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3:3-4). Instead of depending on self-righteous fig leaves to cover our nakedness (Genesis 3:7), we should wear the garments prepared by God (Genesis 3:21; Matthew 22:11-12; Luke 15:22). God favored Abel’s offering because it foreshadowed Christ’s sacrifice, while Cain’s offering was disapproved as it represented our righteousness based on works (Genesis 4:2-5; Hebrews 11:4).
Continuing our dead works insults Christ’s work and shows our unbelief in who he is and what he did for us. That’s why the Book of Hebrews contains dire warnings against the unbelieving Jews who disregarded the New Covenant and insulted the Spirit of grace by continuing to offer animal sacrifices, despite Jesus’ finished work (Hebrews 10:28-29). Galatians 5:4 also warns Gentiles not to seek justification through the law because they would be alienated from Christ and fall from grace.
God promised the Israelites a land full of blessings during Moses’ time. It was a land of rest where everything was ready for them – food, cities, houses, wells, and vineyards (Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 6:10-12). However, they didn’t enter this land because they trusted in themselves instead of God’s power. Although God had delivered them mightily from Egypt, the Israelites were afraid of the giants in the land and as a result, they were cursed and never able to enter God’s rest (Deuteronomy 1:25-35). The author of Hebrews warns first-century Jews not to make the same mistake as the disobedient Israelites and miss the opportunity to enter God’s rest through the New Covenant (Hebrews 3:7-19).
The unbelieving Jews in Moses’ day and the unbelieving Jews of the first century both missed God’s rest and serve as a reminder of the ways we today may fail to enter God’s rest in our thinking. Today, no Christian offers animal sacrifices, but we struggle with the same mentality.
We walk around with a guilty conscience, making ourselves miserable, assuming God doesn’t want to bless or help us. Or we might make a ritual out of something good and depend on it instead of Jesus to make us right with God, like going to church, tithing, confessing, spending time in prayer, or reading our Bibles religiously. We might try to get rid of good things in our life that God means for us to enjoy in an attempt to prove that we love God more than those things. We might worry that if we forget to confess our sins the day we die we won’t be saved. Believers participate in dead works by trying to balance the undeserved grace of God with law-based works, undermining the effectiveness of Jesus’ sacrifice by supposing it will run out or fail if we don’t continue to please God.
If a husband wants to make his wife happy on their anniversary, he won’t take her to a restaurant she doesn’t like. Similarly, instead of wasting our time on meaningless rituals, traditions, and rules that we assume please God, we should let the Holy Spirit guide us in discovering what truly pleases him. Like Peter, we should allow the Holy Spirit to train our consciences to leave dead works and follow his lead. In Acts 10:13-15 (WEB), Peter initially refused to eat “common or unclean” food, but God’s voice urged him to eat what he had declared clean.
The Christian’s challenge today, the challenge that is so simple it’s hard to carry out, is to remind ourselves to look at what Jesus did for us and remember that Jesus and Jesus alone makes us right with God. Hebrews 10 emphasizes the significance of finding rest from the rituals and legalistic practices of the Old Testament law. Instead, it encourages believers to approach God with faith, assurance, and confidence in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which has made us righteous before him.
Hebrews 10:1-24 (NIV) The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds
God wants us to enjoy his presence without shame, guilt, or cowardice and have confidence that he wants to bless us. We should accept this grace with gratitude, leading us to love others in meaningful ways. We are encouraged to love and serve from a place of awe, reverence, and gratefulness that point to the finished work on the cross.
Hebrews 12:28 (ESV) Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV) And without faith it is impossible to please him
Hebrews 6:10 (ESV) For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
Hebrews 10:24 (ESV) And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works
In summary, we must trust in what Jesus did for us, rest from our own efforts, and avoid the dead works of legalism and man-made traditions. As Galatians 2:21 (WEB) concludes, “I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”