The Gospel According to Hebrews

In a Bible study I attend, we had a good discussion yesterday on Hebrews 4, which draws parallels between the Israelites in the wilderness, the first Century Hebrew recipients of Hebrews, and even us today. The connection is that TODAY they and we were/are invited to enter into God’s rest. Not just His Sabbath rest He took after creating the world, but into His salvation rest Christ took after saving the world. They can share this with us because “good news came to us just as to them” (Hebrews 4:2); that is, the gospel was preached to them just as it has been to us.

We tend to think of the Gospel as being “even though we are sinners deserving God’s wrath, Jesus died for our sins so that we can have eternal life with Him.” And that is true. But the Gospel is presented to us in various ways. And has been presented to the world since the beginning, not just in the New Testament. We can see this is the first two chapters of Genesis which focus on three core presentations of the Gospel: marriage, light, and rest. Here are three passages show this, two that quote from Genesis 1 and 2 and the other from Genesis 2:

Ephesians 5:31–32: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (ESV)

2 Corinthians 4:6: For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Genesis 2:2–3: And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (ESV)

Let’s spend some time this weekend reflecting on the good news of our salvation as explained to us in the context of marriage, light, and rest.