Summary (Chapter 1)
In the Old Testament times, God spoke to his people through the prophets. In these last days, i.e. the days since the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ, God has spoken to us by his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke many words to us while he was on the face of the earth. Those words are recorded for us in the New Testament, in particular in the Gospels. When he died and was resurrected back to life, and he ascended back to heaven, he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within the hearts of true believers in Jesus Christ, who have been crucified with Christ in the putting off of the sinful nature, and who have been raised to new life in Christ, through the power of a heart transformation of the Holy Spirit of God in cleansing our hearts from sin, and in giving us new hearts that desire to obey God as our only god.
The Holy Spirit within us continues the work of Jesus Christ in counseling, guiding, directing, teaching, instructing, convicting, and encouraging us to live godly and holy lives. His job is to teach us all that Jesus Christ commanded us. The Holy Spirit of God also spoke to and through the apostles and writers of the New Testament, as they were moved along by the Holy Spirit. The words they wrote, we now know as our New Testament, God’s divine God-breathed words to us, his church, and to the world. Jesus Christ continues to speak to us through his divine and revealed word to us, in all of scripture, and through the witness of the Holy Spirit within us in speaking to us through whatever means he chooses, as long as the means by which he speaks to us does not contradict or conflict with God’s revealed word to us, or with his divine nature. In I Corinthians 2 we learn that the Spirit of God reveals to us the things of God. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God, who reveals God’s thoughts to us, so that we have the mind of Christ (v.16), and we can know what God chooses to reveal to us.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is also God the Son, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. He was/is the creator of the universe. The Son is the exact representation of God, i.e. he is God, and he sustains all things in this universe by his powerful word. God the Father said this about his Son:
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.” (Hebrews 1:8-9 NIV 1984)
God the Father continued by calling his Son, “O Lord,” who laid the foundations of the earth. He said that the created things will perish, but God the Son will remain. Jesus Christ will judge the earth, and thus the earth will change, but God the Son will remain the same, and his years will never end, because he is our eternal God. Now Jesus Christ is sitting with God the Father at his right hand, until the Father makes his enemies a footstool for his feet.
Summary (Chapter 2)
Because of what we learned in chapter one about Jesus Christ, who he is, how he speaks to us, and what he did for us in dying on the cross for our sins, and in being resurrected back to life in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin so that we could be free from sin, we must pay more careful attention to what we have heard so that we don’t drift away from the truth of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is going to judge all men one day, and we will not escape that judgment if we ignore such a great salvation as Jesus provided for us.
God the Son left his throne in heaven to come to earth and to take upon himself human flesh. He was made perfect through suffering. Jesus Christ shared in our humanity so that by his death he might destroy Satan, and so he might free us from the slavery of sin. Jesus had to be made like us so that he could become our merciful and faithful high priest, i.e. our mediator between us and God the Father. He is merciful to us because he experienced what we experience, yet was without sin, which is why he was our perfect sacrifice for our sins. Because he suffered when he was tempted by sin, he is able to help us when we are tempted, and he will provide a way out from under the temptation so that we can stand up under it and not give way to it, if we will let him, and if we will trust him to do so.
Chapter 3
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
Warning Against Unbelief
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
My Understanding: “Therefore…,” i.e. because of, as a result of, or for the reasons stated in chapters one and two, we, who share in the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus, should fix our eyes, thoughts, motives, attitudes, actions and behaviors on Jesus Christ, and on his will and purpose for our lives. Christ Jesus is our faithful high priest over God’s house, the true church, i.e. over the hearts and lives of those who are truly his. In other words, he’s our boss! And, we are his house IF we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. And, we have come to share in Christ IF we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. The scriptures teach this over and over again, and I believe this teaching is also supported by Jesus’ own words when he taught the parable of the sower and the four kinds of soil.
When some people hear the word of God, but do not understand it, the evil one (Satan) comes and snatches the word from their hearts. Others hear the word, and at once receive it with joy, but the word does not take root in their hearts and lives, so their “faith” only lasts a short time, probably because it was emotionally based. Trouble and persecution, which try our faith to see if it is genuine, come along, and these “believers” quickly fall away. Then, there are those who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it out, so that it does not bear fruit in their lives. Then, lastly are those who fit in the category of these “IF” statements from Hebrews 3. They are the ones who hear the word, who understand it, who are doers of the word, and who bear fruit for God in keeping with repentance and true faith, which is the kind of faith that holds on (remains) in Christ, and that holds firmly to the end the confidence in Jesus Christ that we had at first.
So many people today are teaching a “faith” absent of true repentance and obedience to Jesus Christ. They are teaching that God is pleased with us no matter what we do. They promise them a false hope of eternal life based upon a lie. Yet, we learn here in Hebrews 3 that our eternal life is contingent upon true and genuine faith, which is faith that lasts, and is faith that bears fruit for God and his eternal kingdom in keeping with repentance. All throughout the New Testament we learn that we must repent (turn from our sin) and we must put off the old sinful self and put on the new self, created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness. We cannot base our faith on a false hope. We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work of cleansing of sin, of change of heart and mind, and of making us into new creatures in Christ Jesus, free from the control of sin over our lives, and free to walk humbly in obedience daily to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the true gospel.
So, the Spirit of God is saying to us even today that when we hear his word, we should not harden our hearts to it as was done previously during a time of spiritual rebellion. We should not test God by continuing in willful sin. God is not pleased with us when we choose to willfully disregard his commands and we choose to disobey him. There are many ways in which we can harden our hearts to God’s word – some of them are more obvious, and others more subtle. Yet, the result is the same. We quench the voice of the Holy Spirit within us time and time again to where we don’t even recognize the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit any longer. We grieve the Spirit of God when we do this. And, we do this whenever we ignore the truths of God’s word, which are for his church and the world today, and by willfully choosing to go our own way, instead.
We need to be in God’s word daily, sitting at Jesus’ feet, letting the Spirit of God teach us the things of God, and then we need to obey all that he teaches and commands us to do, so that it may go well with us. So, today, if you hear his voice, do not turn away from your reflection in the mirror and forget what you look like. Remember the parable of the sower and the four types of soil, and remember that true faith is faith that endures forever.
Your Servant / An Original Work / September 21, 2011
Lord, I love to have You near me
As I go throughout my day,
Walking daily in Your footsteps,
As I humbly pray.
List’ning to You, hear You teaching
Me to live and work for You,
Lord, I pray You lead and guide me
Daily in Your truth.
Lord, I want to be Your witness,
Telling others of Your grace;
Telling how they can be set free
Of their sins today;
Share with them the love of Jesus,
He died on a cruel tree,
So that we’d be forgiven
For all eternity.
Lord, I want to serve You only,
As I bow on bended knee,
Making You my Lord and master,
And Your servant be.
Humbly walking in obedience,
Doing what You say to me,
Lord, may I be an example
Of one who’s set free.
Your Servant
Remain in Him / An Original Work / September 23, 2011
Based off of John 15:1-17
Remain in Him
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