Hebrews 4:10

_ _ For — justifying and explaining the word “rest,” or “Sabbatism,” just used (see on Hebrews 4:9).

_ _ he that is entered — whosoever once enters.

_ _ his rest — God’s rest: the rest prepared by God for His people [Estius]. Rather, “His rest”: the man’s rest: that assigned to him by God as his. The Greek is the same as that for “his own” immediately after.

_ _ hath ceased — The Greek aorist is used of indefinite time, “is wont to cease,” or rather, “rest”: rests. The past tense implies at the same time the certainty of it, as also that in this life a kind of foretaste in Christ is already given [Grotius] (Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:28, Matthew 11:29). Our highest happiness shall, according to this verse, consist in our being united in one with God, and molded into conformity with Him as our archetype [Calvin].

_ _ from his own works — even from those that were good and suitable to the time of doing work. Labor was followed by rest even in Paradise (Genesis 2:3, Genesis 2:15). The work and subsequent rest of God are the archetype to which we should be conformed. The argument is: He who once enters rest, rests from labors; but God’s people have not yet rested from them, therefore they have not yet entered the rest, and so it must be still future. Alford translates, “He that entered into his (or else God’s, but rather ‘his’; Isaiah 11:10, ‘His rest’: ‘the joy of the Lord,’ Matthew 25:21, Matthew 25:23) rest (namely, Jesus, our Forerunner, Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 6:20, ‘The Son of God that is passed through the heavens’: in contrast to Joshua the type, who did not bring God’s people into the heavenly rest), he himself (emphatical) rested from his works (Hebrews 4:4), as God (did) from His own” (so the Greek, “works”). The argument, though generally applying to anyone who has entered his rest, probably alludes to Jesus in particular, the antitypical Joshua, who, having entered His rest at the Ascension, has ceased or rested from His work of the new creation, as God on the seventh day rested from the work of physical creation. Not that He has ceased to carry on the work of redemption, nay, He upholds it by His mediation; but He has ceased from those portions of the work which constitute the foundation; the sacrifice has been once for all accomplished. Compare as to God’s creation rest, once for all completed, and rested from, but now still upheld (see on Hebrews 4:4).