Please note that this article is derived from a sermon series on Hebrews given in Bermondsey Gospel Hall, the audio of which can be found here.
This week we arrive at the last sentence in the opening paragraph of Hebrews 3. ‘And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.’ So far in Hebrews 3, we have been Considering Christ and Measuring Moses. Now we turn and begin Observing Ourselves. The sentence is so short you might wonder why (or even how) we will spend a full week on it. However, this sentence is one that has caused endless discussion and even division. Depending on how you understand this sentence, you can end up with very different answers to important questions: Can a Christian lose their salvation? Once you are a Christian, could you ever stop being a Christian? How do you know you are a Christian? Can we be sure? What happens if we sin? If God has forgiven us, why does it matter if we sin? Your interpretation of this sentence will answer these questions, and so has clear consequences for us all.
This verse, along with the very similar 3:14, is not only a key passage for answering the questions we have just raised, but it is a key verse in understanding the book of Hebrews. This is the first time that the central call to 'hold fast' or 'hold on' is used in Hebrews. We have already said that this instruction is at the very centre of the message of the book, summarised as 'Faithfilled Faithfulness'. Furthermore, Hebrews 3:6b is also found at the beginning of the first (or at least the first substantial) of the famous 'warning passages' in Hebrews. As a result, it sets the tone for the succession of warnings that will come throughout the book.
Therefore, given its importance, I wanted to spend a week on this verse together, looking not only at the verse itself, but at related passages to see how it fits within the broader teaching of God's Word. There are two key doctrines that are derived from our directly related to our passage. The first is a consequence of our interpretation of the verse, the second provides clarification for our interpretation. We will consider Christian Perseverance and Christian Preservation. As a local church we have set out what we believe about these two doctrines in our Doctrinal Statement, which you must be happy to confess in order to be a member here. Towards the end of the sermon, having seen how this explanation is built upon the Biblical text, I will quote this statement to remind us of what we have agreed to affirm together.
1. CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE – We are to persevere in our faith
Standard Interpretations
While this passage is particularly important for the doctrine of perseverance, there are many similar passages within the New Testament. In fact, almost every book in the New Testament contains clear references to Christian Perseverance. In the Gospels, we have the teaching of Christ on the perseverance of Christians recorded for us. We will see that Paul teaches extensively on it, along with Peter and John. And yet, while Christian Perseverance is taught throughout the New Testament, perhaps above all it is in Hebrews that it receives the most attention. If you remember, perseverance is the purpose of Hebrews. Hebrews is a written sermon to Christians calling them to hold fast, to endure and persevere, in their faith.
There are four main ways Christians interpret these perseverance passages throughout the New Testament. One of these we shall discuss later and see it fails to accurately interpret any passage. However, the three valid interpretations are: Enduring, Examining and Earning. The Bible contains each of these kinds of passages.
Enduring: The purpose of some passages is primarily to encourage and exhort Christian to endure in their faith until the end. While these passages may have other implications and secondary applications, their primary role is to spur us on in our Christian lives. They do this by casting our eyes forward to the finishing line. Like spectators might cry to a fading marathon runner, "Keep going to the end, the finish line is coming soon!". Paul will explain to the Colossians, ‘And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…’ (Colossians 1:21–23). Paul encourages us that if we continue stable and steadfast in our faith, at the finish we will be presented holy and blameless before God. In Matthew 10:22 Jesus says ‘the one who endures to the end will be saved’. He comforts his followers that if they endure, persevere through persecution in this life, they will experience salvation at the end. In these passages, the focus is ‘Keep Going’!
Examining: These passages primary direct us not to endure, looking forward to the finish line in the future, but to examine, looking at how we are running in the present and have ran since the starting line in the past. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul tells the Corinthians to ‘Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves…’. Pauls instructs them to look for evidence of God’s work in their lives, of Jesus Christ in them, in order to establish whether they are Christians or not. Jesus explains in Matthew 7:21-23 that many on the last day will have deceived themselves into thinking they are Christians. By examining and testing ourselves, we check to see whether we have deceived ourselves as well. John wrote an entire letter to help Christians do that (1 John 5:13). Throughout 1 John, we are given various tests to help us examine our faith and grow in the assurance that we are Christians. In 1 John 2:19, John will speak of those who have turned away from the profession of faith they once had. He says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.’ By abandoning the faith they show that they are not part of the faithful, though they professed faith, they were never true Christians. These passages help us test ourselves so we are not tricked. ‘Look Carefully’!
Earning: The third and final interpretation of these passages relates to Earning. Like Enduring, they also look towards the future and the finish line. However, the focus here is not just making it to the end, enduring, but doing so in such a way that we will gain greater rewards when we get there. Just like in the marathon there is a difference between just wanting to run the distance and finish the race and wanting to post a good time or even win a prize. For example, in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, Paul appeals to those building on the foundation of Jesus, that is serving as Christians, to realise that the quality of their service will impact the reward that they receive. All these Christians are faithfully serving, they are enduring in their faith, but some are serving more faithfully than others. Those who do will earn for themselves an elevated reward. For example, the servant who wisely managed more of his master’s resources received a greater reward than the one who managed less (Luke 19:16-19). We can expect people like Peter and Moses to receive a greater reward and role in the future. Some perseverance passage not only encourage us to endure, to finish the race, but to ‘Run well’!
Enduring, keep going. Examining, look carefully. Earning, run well. Those are the three main valid interpretation of perseverance passages. All three are valid because they can all be found in Scripture, as we have seen. However, we must take care not to mix them up. If you were to go on a guided forest walk, you might receive a similar mix of instructions. Your guides might tell you that if you want to reach the end of the tour safely, you need to keep walking along the path. If you stray from the path, you put yourself in danger. Perhaps they will explain that, if your tour group gets mixed up with another group and you aren’t sure which group you are supposed to be in, look at the colour of your name badge. That colour matches the t-shirts of your guides and will help you distinguish whether you are in the right group or not. Finally, if you spot any wildlife as you go along, take a picture of it. For every picture of an animal you show to the guides at the end, you will receive a special prize. There we have three instructions, one to endure, another to examine and another to earn. They are not all the same. If you treat all of those instructions as if they relate to earning, you put yourself in danger. Following the path is not an optional extra for those who want to get a special reward. You must follow the path to safely reach the end of the tour! Equally, if you only focus on one of the instructions, perhaps examining the colour of your name badge to see whether you are in the right group, you will miss out on enjoying the wildlife and earning the extra prizes. You might even lose your way and stray!
Though an imperfect illustration, it helps us to see the importance of correctly interpreting each of the perseverance passages, these instructions from God to help us to endure, examine and earn. Not all perseverance passages primarily call us to examine our faith. Neither do all passages look to future rewards. We need to ensure we don’t mix up interpretations or interpret all the passages in the same way. Doing this can be extremely dangerous. Not only does it do damage to the text, twisting them into your preferred interpretation. But God has chosen to use certain passages in different circumstances for good reasons.
Specific Instance
Having surveyed the standard interpretations for perseverance passage, what is the correct interpretation here? What is the author trying to communicate to this congregation in Hebrews 3:6? ‘And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.’ We need to answer three questions: What is the consequence? What is the condition? What is the connection?
What is the consequence? What is the result? That is what the author begins with, ‘…Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house…’. What does it mean to be God’s house? Well consistently throughout the New Testament, God’s people are called his house or household (1 Peter 2:5; 4:17; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Timothy 3:15; Galatians 6:10) using the same word. In this particular passage, the theme is drawn from the statement about Moses in Numbers 12:7 that we considered last week. God declares Moses to be faithful in all his house, that is among all of God’s people, over and above even the other leaders like Miram and Aaron. The author takes this theme in Hebrews 3 and explains that Jesus built and is over this house (3:3,6; 10:21). Therefore, given the context in the Old and New Testament, as well as the use in the passage, God’s house is quite clearly the church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18), the body of believers in whom God is dwelling now by the Spirit. A few try to interpret God’s house as a privileged place where we perform special service to God, based on Moses serving within God’s tabernacle. This allows Hebrews 3:6 to be an earning passage. However, there is no basis for this interpretation. It doesn’t fit the context in Numbers 12 or here in Hebrews 3. Neither does it make sense of the analogy, for the author says we are not just in God’s house but are his house. We are pictured not serving in God’s temple but being God’s temple. When the author says, ‘And we are his house…’ he is using the theme of the passages to simply say, ‘And we are Christians’.
What is the condition? We are Christians if what? What does the author instruct this congregation to do? He tells them to ‘hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.’ The instruction is translated in various ways, all with the same meaning: keep (NLT), hold on (CSB), hold firmly (NIV). The author tells them not to let go of, to endure with, ‘our confidence and boasting in our hope’. The object of our perseverance is described three more times in the letter, when the author tells them to hold fast to: ‘our confession’ (4:14), ‘to the hope set before us’ (6:18) and ‘the confession of our hope’ (10:23). Broadly, we are told to hold fast in our faith. However, specifically it is the ‘confidence’, being the boldness or courage, that is fuelled by our faith, along with the boasting, ‘rejoicing’ (KJV) or glorying in (NIV), that is faith’s fruit. In the words of Journey, we are told ‘Don’t stop believing’! We are to be firm in our faith and its effects, the assurance and joy that it brings.
What is the connection? How does the author connect being a Christian and our perseverance in faith? The connecting words are ‘if indeed’, which makes the sentence simply ‘Point A is true If Point B is true’ (Guthrie). We are Christians if we persevere in our faith. The author tells us that Christians endure until the end. Therefore, in a basic sense Hebrews 3 is an enduring passage, a call for us to keep going until the finish line. Christian, there is a race set out before you that you will need to run. Having trusted in Christ, you are instructed to continue trusting in him until the end, to persevere and endure. We are to persevere in our faith until the end. However, while there is an instruction to endure, there is also a clear implication that we are to examine ourselves as well. The author doesn’t tell us that if we endure we will become Christians at the end. Rather, if we endure to the end, we are Christians now. ‘We are his house…’ is in present tense. Endurance to the end is evidence that we are Christians now. This isn’t a one-off occurrence, but the same structure is found elsewhere (John 8:31; 1 Corinthians 15:2; Colossians 1:23). Our present position cannot be separated from our future faithfulness. And not just our present position, but our past position as well for in 3:14 the author refers to a past experience (‘we have come to share in Christ’). Our present and past position are connected to our future faithfulness. Christians persevere in their faith until the end. Endurance is evidence that we are Christians. Christian have not only believed the gospel in the past and in the present but also will continue to believe it into the future. We are to persevere in our faith until the end. This endurance is evidence of our salvation.
That is the doctrine of Christian Perseverance. However, clarification is brought to this interpretation when we also examine the doctrine of Christian Preservation.
2. CHRISTIAN PRESERVATION – God will preserve us through our faith
King Richard I had many nicknames. Best known as Richard the Lionheart, he was also called Richard ‘Yes and No’. Some say this was because of his trustworthiness. If King Richard made a promise, he kept it. His yes was yes and his no was no. Unfortunately, this was not the reputation of his little brother and successor. King John, of Robin Hood fame, had the exact opposite reputation. His people quickly discovered that King John’s mind changed easily. This, along with his failure to rule well, led to a revolt in 1215 which captured London. In order to prevent a civil war, King John entered into peace negotiations with the rebels and agreed to their demands for basic rights. Perhaps not trusting his word, the rebels insisted the agreement be written down and so the Magna Carter was born. For the first time, all men, even the king, were subject to law and had a right to a fair trial. Unfortunately, it did the rebels little good. King John was entirely untrustworthy, and as a result so was the Magna Carter he signed. Within a few months King John had broken the agreement.
When reading what God has said in Scripture, we are not dealing with an untrustworthy king. Paul declares God to be one 'who never lies' (Titus 1:2). Hebrews will later say it is 'impossible for God to lie' (6:18). God is completely trustworthy. And as a result, so is his Word. The Bible is certain, what God promises he will perform. It is also consistent, what God says in one passage does not contradict what he says in another. We can base our beliefs on the Bible, for it is certain and consistent. This certainty and consistency enables us to clarify what one passage means by comparing it with others. We can answer questions raised by one passage by looking at others. I’m sure when we said that we are to persevere in our faith, you asked yourself a question: what happens if we don’t persevere? What would happen if, in the midst of difficulty doubts creep in and we turn away from the gospel, no longer confess Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Can a Christian lose their faith?
We won’t find an answer to that question in Hebrews 3:6, but we will if we look to other passages. For the Bible not only calls Christians to persevere in faith but assures us that all Christians will persevere. Paul writes in Romans 8:30, ‘And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.’ Once you enter into the Christian life, God will bring you along until you are finally glorified. Elsewhere Paul says, ‘And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.’ (Philippians 1:6) What God starts, he will finish. If he has started to work in your life, he will bring that work to completion. Once you become a Christian, you will continue to be a Christian. Once God has saved you, adopted you as his child, you cannot be lost. This is why as a church we reject a fourth way of interpreting perseverance passages – Escaping. Some of these passages teach that we must endure to the end, others that we must examine ourselves and others that we can earn rewards. However, none of these passages teach that salvation will escape Christians, that we can fatally fall away, that Christians can be lost. Not only because no passage in itself properly understood means that, but because the rest of God’s Word makes clear that once you are a Christian, you will always be a Christian. This is summed up simply in our Doctrinal Statement where it states, ‘All true believers endure to the end.’
How does God of this? How does he ensure that we endure to the end? If there is a race we must run as Christians, and we are told that all Christians will complete this race, how does God bring us across the finish line? Put simply, Christian perseverance is guaranteed because of Christian preservation. We are to persevere in our faith, confident in the knowledge that God will preserve us through our faith. That is what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:9, he says we have been born again and can look forward to a heavenly inheritance which is being kept for us ‘who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’. God guards us through our faith. It’s not that God protects us because of, our faith, but rather that he protects us through our faith. His power preserves us through our faith. Paul says something similar, in Philippians 2:12-13 he calls us to ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.’ God is at work in his people to bring about his purposes, to preserve them and see them persevere. As Augustine summarised it ‘God gives what he demands’. God calls his people to persevere, and then works within them by his power, the faith to endure. Believers will persevere by the preserving power of the Father. We can strive with the strength our Saviour supplies! Christian, there is a race set out before you that you must run. You need to endure, hold on. We are to persevere in our faith until the end. But know that God will be with you the whole way, strengthening your strides and fuelling your faith so that you reach the finishing line, preserving you so that you can persevere until the end.
There are many questions I am sure I have left unanswered, please come and ask me them. I’m happy to take them away, write up responses and post them if that would be helpful. There is much more I would like to say if only I had the time. However, I want to close by focusing again, as our passage does, on the faithful figure of Christ. Consider Christ, our faithful and glorious apostle and high priest. His apostleship assures us that those who trust in him will never be lost. He declared in John 10:27-29, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.’ If you entrust yourself to Jesus, he will never lose you. You will be kept safe in the hands of your Saviour, in the great hands of the Father. And not only is Christ a faithful apostle, but he is a faithful priest. Do you notice the other distinction that the author draws between Moses and Jesus in verse 5: Moses was faithful, but Jesus is faithful. Right now, in the present, Jesus is still faithfully fulfilling his role as apostle and high priest. In 2:18 we are told that ‘he is able to help those who are being tempted’, in 4:15 he is able ‘to sympathise with our weakness’ and in 7:25 the author proclaims ‘he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.’ Jesus is a faithful apostle and high priest. Even now, raised from the dead and ascended to the right-hand side of the father, the good shepherd is interceding for his sheep. The great high priest is praying for his people. As he did for Peter, so he does for us. On that night when Simon Peter’s faith would falter, as he denied Christ three times, Jesus had said to him, ‘"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."’ (Luke 22:31–32) The faith of Christians may falter, it may be flawed, but it will never finally fail. Therefore, the author calls to his readers, ‘let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.’ (Hebrews 12:1–3)
If you are not a Christian today, what we have seen in God’s word provides you with a perfectly clear promise. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day to declare victory over death and damnation, so that if you repent, turn away from your sins, and trust in Christ, receive him as your Saviour by faith, you will never perish. ‘I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.’ You can take confidence in the fact that, if you become a Christian, Christ is not only capable of bringing you to God, he is certain to bring you to God. If only you would consider him, believe on him, God will sustain you in the race you have to run. He will give you the strength you need. For Christians will persevere by the preserving power of the Father. Christian Perseverance - We are to persevere in our faith. Christian Preservation - God will preserve us through our faith.
Our doctrinal statement at Bermondsey Gospel Hall describes Christian Perseverance and Perseveration like this : 'All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.'
ALEXANDER ARRELL