1. “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God...Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest”; “Let us fear therefore, lest, a promise of being left of entering into His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it” (Heb. 4:9, 11, 1).
There is a rest that we must be diligent to enter into. This rest is the blessing of the coming kingdom. The Holy Spirit in Hebrews 3 and 4 compares the Israelites’ entering into Canaan with the believers’ entering into the coming kingdom. Although the Israelites received the redemption of the passover and escaped from slavery under Pharaoh, they still needed to enter into Canaan to enjoy its blessings. This is a type showing that even though believers have received redemption by the Lord’s blood and escaped from slavery under Satan, they still need to enter into the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens to enjoy its blessings. This requires believers to strive to overcome so that they may enter at the Lord’s return. Since believers will fully enjoy glory, blessing, and joy in the coming kingdom, the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 4 calls this coming kingdom—the millennial kingdom—a rest. Those who enter the coming kingdom will enter into rest since they will be freed from the feeling of suffering and will feel joyful and wholly satisfied. Thus, the believers’ entering into the coming kingdom will be their entering into the rest of the coming age.
1. “A royal priesthood”; “Purchased for God by Your blood...and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign on the earth” (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 5:9-10).
These two portions show God’s complete salvation which causes us not only to be redeemed by the Lord’s blood but also to become priests and kings to God. If we only have salvation but are not priests and kings to God, we have not experienced God’s complete salvation. Although we can be priests to God and serve Him today and also reign with Him with heavenly authority over our environment today, we must wait to enter the kingdom of the heavens in order to be fully manifested as priests and kings to God. Despite the fact that we have received God’s complete salvation, we have not yet fully enjoyed His complete salvation. Today we are enjoying a part of God’s salvation, not all of it; we have not enjoyed the highest part of His salvation. Not until we enter the kingdom can we ascend to the highest peak of God’s salvation and enjoy its highest part. Thus, entering the coming kingdom of the heavens is for our enjoyment of God’s complete salvation.
2. “The Lord...will save me into His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18).
The apostle Paul spoke this word immediately before his death. It expresses his faith and reveals his hope. Paul was redeemed by the Lord and enjoyed many spiritual blessings, but at the end of his life he still had a deep aspiration that the Lord would save him into His heavenly kingdom. This is because the completion of God’s salvation, the highest part of God’s salvation, involved his entrance into the kingdom of the heavens to fully enjoy all the aspects of God’s salvation, which he had had a foretaste of on earth. Thus, to enter into the kingdom of the heavens is to enjoy the Lord’s complete salvation.
In conclusion, entering into the kingdom of the heavens involves more than simply receiving life for our eternal salvation, as most Christians think. Entering the kingdom of the heavens is different from being saved and receiving eternal life. Entering the kingdom of the heavens is more than being saved and more than receiving eternal life. Salvation and eternal life are obtained when one believes in the Lord. Entering the kingdom of the heavens will be obtained in the future when the Lord returns. Salvation involves the forgiveness of sins and justification by God today; entering into the kingdom of the heavens is to escape from all sufferings in the future and to enjoy God’s glory. Salvation enlivens our spirit today; entering into the kingdom of the heavens gains our soul in the future. Receiving salvation is by grace through faith; entering the kingdom of the heavens is a reward for work. Obtaining eternal life is to obtain the life of God and to be children in the household of God today; entering the kingdom of the heavens is to enter the kingdom of eternal life and to be kings in the kingdom of God in the future. Obtaining eternal life is to have the eternal life enter our spirit; entering the kingdom of the heavens is our entrance into the realm of the eternal life. In the future everyone who enters into the kingdom of the heavens will be saved and have eternal life; however, not all who are saved and have obtained eternal life will enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Therefore, we must not think that all our problems are solved simply because we are saved. After our salvation we must face the matters related to entering the kingdom of the heavens. Whether or not we will obtain the reward, enjoy eternal life in the coming age, enjoy the birthright of the church, be priests and kings to God, inherit the earth, enter into the rest in which our souls are satisfied with enjoyment, and enjoy the Lord’s complete salvation depends on how we respond to matters related to entering the kingdom of the heavens. If we enter the kingdom of the heavens, we will enjoy all these things; if we do not enter the kingdom of the heavens, we will not enjoy them. If we enter the kingdom of the heavens at the time of the Lord’s return, we will obtain the reward, enjoy eternal life in the coming age, enjoy the birthright of the church, be priests and kings to God, inherit the earth, enter into the rest in which our souls are satisfied with enjoyment, and enter into the Lord’s complete salvation. If we enter the coming kingdom of the heavens, we will enjoy all these things and fully enjoy God’s complete salvation.