The writer of Hebrews began his letter by explaining how God speaks to us, not through the prophets or through the law or through angels or through the Levitical priesthood. God now, in these days, “speaks to us through His Son.” And the whole Bible from beginning to end is about the message of His Son! Jesus is the living “Word” of God. He embodies God’s message to all mankind. It’s not a profound theological concept that only philosophers or theologians can understand. It’s the pure message of God’s love for each and every one of us. Receiving God’s love as expressed through Jesus on Calvary brings a rebirth and regeneration to our lives through the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. This is the simple truth that is to be proclaimed by preachers. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. This is true for rich and poor alike. It’s true for employer and employee alike. It’s true for each and every member of every race on earth. It’s true for male and female alike. It’s true for everyone! There are no standards to be met in order to receive God’s love. He offers it freely to us all and with it the Holy Spirit. This is why the author of Hebrews adds Hebrews 8:11. It says, “And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

Again, it’s all about Jesus. You’ve heard the saying: “No Jesus, No God. Know Jesus Know God!” Jesus said to Philip “whoever sees me sees the father” (John 14:9). In Matthew 11:27 Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” There is no more miraculous revelation from God or about God. Everything has been revealed in Jesus. Jesus is just what He claimed to be; the ultimate revelation of God to man. Then Jesus goes on in Matthew 11:28 to say, “come to me all you who are weary and burned out on religion and I will give you rest.”

Kent clarifies the idea of everyone will “know” God. “The Holy Spirit residing in each believer provides the basic enlightenment. John did not mean that no teachers are ever needed by believers (John himself was teaching in his epistle), but that the function of human teachers is to clarify and unfold, rather than to convey new revelation from God. That revelation has already come, and the indwelling Spirit provides the intuitive knowledge which in germ at least is possessed equally by all believers.”[1] True rest comes to those who understand Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of God’s love for man. Knowing Jesus is knowing God. No God, no rest. Know God, know rest!

[1] Homer A. Kent Jr., The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1983), 154.