The Bible is clear on the subject of salvation from sin. We are saved not by good works, but by the grace of God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins and rose again on the third day (see 1 Cor.15:1-4; Eph.2:8-9). God so loved the world He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (see John 3:16). The Bible is also clear that those whom God saves He keeps. Of believers in Christ, the scripture says, “who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). The Bible teaches both of these truths very clearly, but it also warns believers not to turn back from following Christ while encouraging them to endure in faith to the end.
The main concern of the writer to the Hebrews is that his readers endure to the end. In chapter 11, in order to encourage his readers, the author provides many examples of believers who kept the faith. He says of them, “these all died in faith…” (see 11:13). But in chapter 3, he cites the generation of Israelites whom God delivered from Egypt, but who did not continue to believe Him, and failed to enter the “rest” of the Promised Land. With the story of the wilderness failures in the background, the writer warned his readers, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). He continued to warn them in chapter 4, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11). The “rest” that we must be diligent to enter is heaven, or the kingdom of God which will be established on the earth at Christ’s return. Let us be diligent to continue following Christ and to hold fast our confidence in Him firm to the end!