The Sabbath and Salvation
The author of Hebrews drew deep spiritual connections between the physical rest of the seventh day Sabbath and the spiritual rest available through faith in Jesus Christ. After reciting the failure of ancient Israel to enter Canaan immediately after their escape from Egypt, the author draws a lesson: “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Hebrews 3:19; 4:1). A few verses later, the spiritual lesson and its connection to the Sabbath is strengthened. “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. …There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:4, 9-10). The Bible, therefore, connects Sabbath rest with the spiritual rest of salvation available through faith in Jesus Christ.