Hebrews 3
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
We must keep in mind as we look at this book. It was written dealing with a uniquely Hebrew problem. The truths contained are timeless and for everyone. The application is for all times but the context is dealing with Hebrews who were saved out of the old Jewish religion of rites and rituals, then were being influenced to return to it. (Hyles)
[“Wherefore”]” introduces a conclusion drawn from the preceding portrayal of Jesus. For the first time the author addresses his audience directly, calling them “holy [brethren]”, not in the sense that they’re sinless but in the sense that they like him have been consecrated by Jesus so as to become sons of God and thus brothers of one another as well as of Jesus, God’s firstborn Son. (Gundry)
Heavenly calling: every Christian’s calling is based on heaven… based on the spiritual… it is never based upon some ‘secular’ career pathway. Your ‘profession’ is to be your heavenly calling.
Jesus was the Apostle [(sent One)] of the Father, and has given to mankind the new covenant; and we are to consider the whole system of Christianity as coming immediately from him. Every system of religion must have a priest and a prophet; the one to declare the will of God, the other to minister in holy things. Moses was the apostle under the old testament, and Aaron the priest. (Adam Clarke)
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. 3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. 4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Moses was indeed great; but Jesus is far greater. Jesus is shown to be superior to Moses in office, in work, and in person. In His office, He is the Apostle and High Priest. In His work, He is the Builder of the house. In His Person, He is the Son. (MacArthur)
It is very important that one be faithful to their calling; but most are not. The secular consistently wins out over the spiritual. House here indicates ‘family’; Moses’ family were the Israelites; Jesus’ family is all the saved. This ‘spiritual house’, or the ‘household of God’, is equal to the ‘family of God’, thus all the saved from all time. It is not the same as ‘the church’. Christ is ‘as a son over his own house’…i.e., his fellow brothers (and sisters) in the family of God (children of God).
[“If we hold fast…”] This does not mean, as many have misinterpreted, that we are saved if we hang on until the end. We can neither save ourselves nor keep ourselves saved. The meaning is simply that continuance is the proof of reality. We can tell if we are really the house of God because we stay there. The one who falls away never belonged in the first place. (MacArthur)
I believe that a true believer will have confidence and hope in their being part of the family of God (i.e., saved) until the end (perserverance); oh, there may be occasional doubts, but the Holy Ghost within them will give them the peace that they are God’s dear child. And, logically, what child who has been informed that they are someone’s child, forgets this?!
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
The Holy Spirit seems to be giving a supernatural push to anyone on the edge of accepting Jesus Christ. Many people intellectually accept the gospel. They believe its message, but never commit themselves to the One whom that gospel proclaims. They do not repent of their sins and turn wholeheartedly to Him as Savior and Lord. It is no favor to God—and no benefit to us—to like, to admire, to praise His gospel, without accepting and obeying it. To know the truth and not accept it brings worse judgment than never to have known it at all. (MacArthur)
Here is one of the clearest testimonies in Scripture to its own divine inspiration. The writer of Hebrews is saying that the Holy Spirit was the author of Psalm 95, from which Hebrews 3:7b-ll is quoted. (MacArthur)
A hard heart is that where the conscience is seared and insensible; where truth makes no impression; where no religious effect is produced by afflictions; where preaching is listened to without interest; and where the mind is unaffected by the appeals of friends. The idea here is, that a refusal to listen to the voice of God is connected with a hardening of the heart.
(Barnes’ Notes)
They first harden their own heart, and then God further hardens it to perform His purposes (as He did with Pharaoh).
The Jews in Moses’ time had hardened hearts while sojourning for those 40 years in the wilderness; they did not trust God to give them the Promise Land (Joshua and Caleb did though). These (20 and older) would not be allowed to enter into God’s rest, the Promised Land (actual physical land). This isn’t saying that those that didn’t trust God’s promise of the future land would not be allowed to go to Heaven; I am confident that there were many of that 20+ y.o. group that went to Abraham’s bosom. The application of this is to the Jews, and Gentiles, of today; that they shouldn’t harden their hearts when times get rough (tempted); that they don’t get so hardened that they won’t receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour; otherwise they will not enter into His rest…Heaven. They choose not to hear the Holy Ghost’s voice. Thus, there is a analogy made here between the Jews who hardened their hearts while in the wilderness’ tough times and then were not allowed to enter the rest of the Promised Land (Israel)… and with people hardening their hearts towards God while in their own lifes’ difficulties and then not being allowed to enter into eternal rest…Heaven. Intestingly, Moses was not allowed to lead the people on into the Promised Land due to sin…and the Lord killed him for it.
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
‘Wherefore’ …then the long parenthetical statement…then ‘take heed’. It may be that Paul has addressed this book, or at least this section, to his ‘brethren’, the Jews (lost Jews…the Hebrews). If it is written to fellow Christians, then it may seem to promote one losing their salvation. However, it could be written to believers but in a loose context; in that, the so-called ‘believer’ needs to make sure that they truly do ‘believe’ and have ‘confidence’ of Heaven as their home. The previous passage and analogy supports the book of Hebrews having a ‘lost Jew’ audience vice a Christian. Paul is talking to Hebrews in general who know of the prophecies and Messiah but may choose not to believe the truth, never having been saved prior, and might be hardened via unbelief brought from the deceitfulness of sin in their life. What sends you to Hell? Sin; but here it clarifies it as the <TOPIC:sin> of unbelief. For, if it was ‘sin’, then we could never enter it…for we all have sinned; but, if we would ‘believe’, then no matter what amount of sins I’ve commited, or will commit, “I can go in!” Some try and wrest this to mean that if a true Christian stops believing (unbelief), then they will not enter into the Promised Land (Heaven). But, when we get saved, all of our sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven and washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ! …including the sin of ‘unbelief’. Also, their ‘unbelief’ was at the ‘beginning’ and not at some point ‘after’ that initial belief.
This To day is a capitalized word pointing to vs 15 and salvation, the day of it; for someday it will be too late. We are to exhort the lost daily lest their hearts become too hardened. I believe that a true believer will hold their confidence of their salvation steadfast to the end. The story line of the Jews in the wilderness teaches us that there were millions who ‘heard’, but did not believe…and they hardened their hearts…and they were not allowed to enter the rest…it was because of ‘unbelief’; they never believed in the first place; it wasn’t because they believed and then had unbelief. Verse 19 is very clear in what prevents one from enterring into the eternal rest of Heaven….it is ‘unbelief’. But, is that the only sin that needs to be ‘taken care of’…changed…repented of? There are many examples of Jesus Christ dealing with a lost person and pointing out a sin that needed to be repented of (other than the sin of unbelief) (rich young ruler, etc.).
God’s feeling towards those who put off salvation and harden their hearts: grieved (10,17), tempted (9), wrath (11), provolked (8). That whole time with Israel He was grieved (but not with Joshua and Caleb).
This section seems to go along with Paul’s exhortation in 2 Cor 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
His warning is to professing believers, who must be sure they have exercised genuine faith lest they fall away in unbelief and fail to enter God’s salvation rest (3:12; 4:11). Those who have believed enter that rest (4:3), and by perseverance give evidence of their genuine faith (3:6, 14). (Dr. Kenneth Gardoski)
Last week we focused on the two big ifs in verse 6 and verse 14. Notice carefully: It does not say: we will become Christ’s house if we hold fast to our hope. It does say: we are his house if we hold fast to our hope. In other words the holding fast to our hope is the demonstration and evidence that we are now his house. Then look at the if of verse 14:
It does not say: “We will become partakers of Christ in the future if we hold fast to our [confidence]. It says that we have become partakers (in the past) if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. In other words, the holding [steadfast] verifies that something real and lasting has happened to us, namely, we became partakers of Christ. We were truly born again. We were truly converted. We were truly made part of Christ’s house.
What then would be the conclusion if we do not hold [steadfast to this confidence]? The answer is not that you stop being a partaker of Christ, but that you had never become a partaker of Christ.” (John Piper)