In a story called “Jackie Robinson and the year of the Boar,” a little girl recounts her move from China to New York. One day her father needs something from the store. She tells him she is old enough to navigate her way through the city streets to the store and so her father lets her go. As she leaves the store, the girl gets turned around and soon finds her self lost in a maze of streets and buildings that all look the same. Since she could not speak English she wasn’t able to ask directions. As she sits down to cry and contemplate her fate she feels a hand on her shoulder. Her father had sent one of his friends to follow her and make sure she didn’t get lost. The man gently directed her back to the way she was to follow and she accomplishes her task because of her father’s faithfulness.
The author of Hebrews gives us a picture of Christ’s faithfulness in this section to show us that if we are believers in Christ He, because of His faithfulness, will direct us all the way to His heavenly home. If we have been made partakers of Christ’s house He will not leave us alone to be lost on the way but will guide us until the journey’s end. The key idea of this passage is we are to consider the greatness of Christ’s person in our Christian walk so we might find His faithfulness sufficient for our perseverance in the faith.
Introduction:
The author discusses three aspects of Christ’s faithfulness. But before we look at these we want to look at two introductory issues that set the stage for this passage (vv. 1-19).
1. Our New Position
The first introductory issue the author notes is our new position. He calls his readers, “holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling.” Those who have come to Christ for salvation have received a new standing with God. We have a new position by which God has made us His own. We are now brothers and sisters in Christ. We are part of this family, as we mentioned last week, of which Christ is not ashamed to be a part. God the Father has made us His children and therefore Christ has become our brother.
But notice he doesn’t just call us brothers. He calls us holy brothers. We are not wayward offspring like the designated black sheep of the family. The Father has designated us as holy. Our new position is one of holiness before the Lord and we are to walk in that holiness. God didn’t save us to walk our own way. He saved us so we might be trophies of His grace. He is transforming us into the image of His Son. And, as Peter notes, God tells us, “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy for I am holy.” Our new position calls to us with new responsibility. Because God has declared us to be holy we can live in a holy fashion. Those who declare they do not have the ability to live a holy life have not understood the position in which they are before God.
And finally not only does he call us holy brothers but says we have been called with a heavenly calling. We are participants of heaven. We are those who have been called by God to heaven and so now are to live out our heavenly citizenship here on earth. God has designated us, not by who we were, but by who we are in Christ. And the terminology of being partakers of a heavenly calling confirms for us, once again, we are to be living, no longer as sinners but as saints, those set apart for God, who have received a new commission.
2. Christ’s New Role
The second introductory issue the author notes is Christ’s new role. He says Christ is “the apostle and high priest of our confession.” This is the only place in the Scripture where Jesus is called an apostle. The author is describing His role as One being sent by the Father. And the purpose for His being sent is found in His title of high priest. He was sent to bring people into fellowship with God. Through His role of high priest Jesus has removed the earthly priestly system from use. The system had been put into use under Moses to point to Christ. He is the One who died on our behalf to cleanse us from all our sin. He is the One who intercedes for us. He is the One who gives us full and free access into the presence of the Father.
Now the author says Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession. By this He means our creed or belief system is focused on Jesus. The core of what we believe is He was sent from the Father and He is our high priest by whom we have entrance and access to the Father. Only through faith in Jesus Christ alone can we approach God. This is Christ’s role for the believer.
I. A Comparison of Faithfulness
The first aspect of Christ’s faithfulness the author discusses is a comparison of faithfulness. He notes this in verse 2. He says, “He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.” We see the author of Hebrews is making a direct comparison between Jesus and Moses. Let’s look at the significance of this comparison.
A. Its background
First, we see the background of this comparison. The author alludes to Numbers 12:7 where the Lord describes Moses. The Lord has come to the defense of Moses because his brother Aaron and sister Miriam were criticizing him because of a personal decision he had made. They were attempting to usurp Moses’ position as prophet and leader of the nation. And because of this the Lord intervenes and speaks directly to Aaron and Miriam about Him. We pick up the words of the Lord in verse 6. “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord shall make Myself known to him in a vision (Here is the verse the author uses). Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses.”
Moses was being attacked by possibly the two most influential people in the nation (outside of Himself) and he was being attacked in a big way. So the Lord was responding in kind. He let them know Moses was not just an ordinary person. He wasn’t just a prophet. He was greater than that. He was faithful in all God’s household as a servant. And God didn’t speak to him as He did to other prophets. He spoke to Moses face to face. Moses saw the form of the Lord. He was a great man. The Lord tells us so.
And so the author of Hebrews is not putting Moses down in the least. He is using the words of the Lord, and the people reading this would have been very familiar with the passage. He is making this comparison of Jesus with Moses to show that as Moses was special in the life of the nation of Israel so is Jesus.
B. Its importance
So let’s view the importance of this comparison next. The importance of this comparison is that Moses was one of the chief heroes and a larger than life figure among Jewish people in those days. And that was even before Charlton Heston played Moses on the big screen. The author wanted the people to see Jesus in the same light in which Moses was placed for his faithfulness. The verse says, “Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him. Jesus did not stray from what God had appointed Him to do. And unlike Moses, who later lost the opportunity to enter the Promised Land because he misspoke in his mission before the people, Jesus did everything His Father appointed for Him even being faithful unto death. He went all the way to the cross without one faithless deed.
But the author’s point in this passage is not to highlight Moses’ booboo. It was to highlight his faithfulness in leading the nation of Israel 40 years as this intercessor for the people. He led them faithfully even through their desert wanderings and kept them from being destroyed time and time again even though some of those times the people actually sought to harm Moses. He was the epitome of the faithful servant. But this is where the comparison stops. The author brings Jesus up to the point of Moses in faithfulness and then surpasses him like a runner who comes up behind his opponent in a race pulls even with him and then continues past him. And this brings us to verses 3-6 as we look at the second aspect of Christ’s faithfulness and we find it in a contrast in greatness.
II. A Contrast in Greatness
Now the author uses two illustrations to bring home the point that Jesus is greater than Moses in His faithfulness. He phrases his argument from verse 3 to the beginning of verse 6. In this passage he says, “For He (Jesus) has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house.”
The author wants his readers to realize that Christ is the one whom they should follow, not Moses. As a matter of fact, Moses was here as a servant “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.” This indicates Moses wasn’t there for his own accord to bring glory to himself but to prepare a time for a testimony of things to be spoken later about the Messiah.
A. A builder vs. a building
The author first uses an architectural illustration to describe the contrast between Jesus and Moses. This contrast is the difference between a builder and a building. In verses 3&4 he says, “For [Jesus] has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of a house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”
Jesus, the author notes, has more glory than Moses. He is better, greater, weightier than this Old Testament hero of faith. But in the same way that any skilled craftsman receives honor more than the craft he has produced so Jesus has more glory than Moses. It would be unthinkable to look at the work of great artists and give all the glory and honor to the work of art but ignore the artist. It would be ridiculous to enjoy the wonderful artistic quality of the Brandenburg Concertos and praise them but neglect Bach the master who composed them. Who thinks the beauty found in the craftsmanship of a building is derived from the building itself? Is it not found in the hands of the craftsman that is simply expressed in the handiwork of the building?
Moses was simply part of the house. Jesus is the builder. We may look and say, “What a wonderful building” but it is idolatry if we praise the building and neglect the builder. And look at how great the author says Jesus is: “the builder of all things is God.” Why is Jesus greater than Moses? He created the nation of Israel. He made Moses its leader. He brought about the faithfulness of Moses in all His house. Here again is a wonderful testimony to the deity of Christ. He is not the house but is the builder of the house. Jesus is much greater than Moses in as much as a builder is much greater than the building.
B. A Son vs. a servant
The author next uses the illustration of a household hierarchy to describe the contrast between Jesus and Moses. This contrast is the difference between a Son and a servant. In verses 5-6 he says, “Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house.”
What the author wants us to know is that Moses, as great as he may have been, was simply a servant. Christ, however, is the Son. He is the One to whom goes all the tribute. He is the one to whom goes all the inheritance. Moses is not someone to follow in place of following Christ. And to the Jewish believers the author was saying, Moses is not great enough to forsake Jesus even if you can avoid persecution heaped upon by your family if you return to your old religion.
Moses may be a good pattern, a good role model and a good example of faith but he is not the one who can cause us to remain faithful in our walk with God. Moses is simply not great enough. We cannot look to him for he is simply a servant, not a Son. We must look to the Son for our encouragement to persevere. Jesus was the apostle and high priest of our confession. He died for us and rose again and now intercedes for us so we will continue to persevere.
III. A connection to holding fast
We now see the final aspect of Christ’s faithfulness is the connection to holding fast. There is a connection to Christ’s faithfulness and our own. Now this is really where the rubber meets the road. Here we come to the application for us. And we see it in the closing section of verse 6. The whole verse reads, “But Christ was faithful over His house – whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” Now the author says we are Christ’s house. The house he is speaking of here is the church at large. In Colossians Paul said Jesus is the “head of the body, the church.” He is not speaking of a local group or of a building but of that body which is comprised of believers everywhere meeting corporately united through the Word of God and through their Savior.
Now the author makes this a conditional statement. He says, “whose house we are, if . . .” A conditional statement places some requirement upon it for it to be true. The author is addressing the congregation as a whole. And he is saying you truly belong to Christ’s body, the church, if you continue to hold fast to Him. If you continue to believe in Him you are His. But don’t misunderstand the conditional sentence. He is not saying our salvation is dependent upon our effort or struggle it is still dependent upon Christ. We could say it in this way. If you are Christ’s house you will hold fast. In other words, if I were the author of Hebrews and looking out upon this group today I might say, “How can I know whether or not each person here is truly a believer? You might all say you are believers. But how can I tell you are a believer from the standpoint of my limited perspective of knowledge. Because I can’t see your heart and know whether you are truly saved or not I can only say that if you continue steadfastly in the faith YOU PROFESS do you truly belong to Christ.
The author has said we who have been saved are relying on Christ’s faithfulness. The Scripture describes the faithfulness of Christ to save us. Philippians 1:6 says, “He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” In 2 Timothy 1, the apostle Paul affirms God’s faithfulness to protect His salvation. There he notes, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” Genuine faith in Christ looks to God’s preservation of His children firm until the end.
But the author of Hebrews is not just focused on the faithfulness of Christ in securing our salvation. There also is a connection of the believer to hold fast to Christ and to His house, the church. People who do not hold fast have not been saved. John says this in his first letter. “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” And the author of Hebrews addresses these people. He tells them if they do not continue in the steadfastness of their faith they were never part of Christ’s house. There are people in every Bible preaching church who have some kind of hold out to from real faith. They still want to be the judge over the Word of God. They won’t submit themselves to it so they say, “I don’t agree with all of the Scripture.” I’m not going to be baptized like the Scripture says I should. I don’t need to be born again like the Scripture says I need to. I don’t want to serve others in the church like the Scripture commands. If you do not belong to Christ He will bring the Word to bear in your life in such a way until you say, “I don’t love the Word of God, I don’t want to obey the Word of God, I don’t need the Word of God.”
There have been those who used to be here that have stumbled at the Word of Christ. They will not tolerate it because they will not subject their lives to it. I can remember many who though they had made some kind of profession of faith in Christ come to be at odds, not with the church, not with me but ultimately with the Word of God. The Word of God will do that to separate real believers from false believers.
And I have met people who claim to be Christians and yet are living lives completely at odds with the Scripture. Because they made a decision or prayed a prayer or say they have been born again some time ago they cling tenaciously to a hollow event that had no life changing impact in them. They claim to be “saved” but have no love for the Word of God, they show no obedience to the Son of God and have no desire to fellowship in a church of God. These people have a false hope. They are not clinging fast to their confidence and the boast of their hope firm until the end. They are not obeying the Word of God out of a sincere faith. They have never been born again and their works simply confirm this fact.
Let us make sure we as a church are in the right position in this. Yes you must be born again. If you can’t say that you have been born again, if you can’t give clear testimony of your salvation and I don’t mean some evasive answer like, “I’ve always believed” then how can you say you have been born again. So there is a need for a conversion experience. But if the only evidence of your conversion has been “I prayed a prayer when I was 12” then you need to see if your conversion fits the framework of Paul’s description of salvation in Romans 6:17 that includes your mind, your heart, and your will. If your faith is not one that loves Christ and clings to Christ in difficulty then has your heart truly been changed?
If you have placed your trust securely in Jesus Christ, if you are resting, not in your works but in the work of Christ on your behalf then you will hold fast your confidence and the boast of your hope firm until the end. Friends, let us consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. Let us set our minds on the greatness of His faithfulness. Let us think on Him and on what He has done for us. And in this we will not lose hope in our walk with Him.
But if you are looking somewhere else for your salvation than in Christ alone, hearken to the warning the author is putting forth both this week and next.
For, as we will see next week, there is still hope for you who recognize you have not been born again but need to be. But do not harden your hearts, as in the day of testing in the desert when those of Moses’ generation hardened their hearts against God. We will see what happened to them next week. I pray that what happened to them will not happen to you.