Hebrews 3:1-6: Apostle and High Priest of Our Profession, Christ Jesus
2022-08-13
Hebrews 3:1
When we see the word “wherefore” or “therefore,” we must consider what came before. Because Jesus became a man, because He defeated the devil through His death, and because He entered the miserable human experience knowing fully well that He would suffer and die for enemies, we should consider the following. Because He held nothing back from us, we must take this very seriously, and more so than anything else.
Therefore, considering those things, let us now consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, the Scripture addresses the recipients as “holy brethren.” These people are considered brothers in the Lord. Our fellow Christians are our family, saints in the household of God. They are “holy” because they have been called by God and set apart for His purposes. The phrase is used elsewhere: “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren” (1 Thessalonians 5:27). The Word of God is for every saint as the source of God’s revelation for us. We as Christians are holy brethren.
We are also “partakers of the heavenly calling.” We have been called by God. The word “heavenly” refers to a calling that is from beyond the sky. God called us from the third heaven in Christ to serve Him.
Concerning Jesus, He is “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.” First, He is called the Apostle. The word for “apostle” is translated elsewhere different ways:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. (John 13:16)
Whether any do enquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ. (2 Corinthians 8:23)
An apostle is a “sent one” or a messenger. God sent His Son Jesus to us to save us from our sins. Likewise, He is our High Priest; He went back to God on our behalf. His blood paid for our sins, as we have seen. He also is our intercessor: “...made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12) and “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
Hebrews 3:2
Christ was faithful to the Father who appointed Him. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5). “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14; cf. Revelation 19:11). Here the Lord Jesus Christ is a faithful and true witness, which is a statement of deity: “Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us” (Jeremiah 42:5). Because the Father is faithful, the Son is faithful also.
Here, we see Jesus compared with Moses. This portion of the letter shows how Jesus is superior to Moses.
Moses “was faithful in all his house” (Hebrews 3:2, 5). This is a reference to Numbers 12:7. Consider this passage in context, Numbers 12:5-9. Moses was superior to other prophets in that God speaks to the ordinary prophet via dreams and visions. Moses was different in that he was “faithful in all mine house” (Numbers 12:7). God revealed Himself to Moses directly and appeared to Him in some literal form. We know not completely, as the full glory of God was not revealed to him: “And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:22-23). Nonetheless, Moses knew the Lord unlike any before him.
Hebrews 3:3-4
Our Lord is compared to Moses and is superior. Jesus “was counted worthy of more glory than Moses.” He should be held in higher esteem than Moses. The reason: “he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” In Numbers 12:7, we read whose house it is: “faithful in all mine house.” A house should be read “household.” In the Old Testament, the people of God were the Israelites. Moses was a part of the house, but Jesus built the house.
Moreover, though every household is built by somebody, God has built all things. The context requires that this is Jesus. He is God, and He has built all things. “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28).
Since Jesus is God and He created all things, surely He is superior to Moses and requires more honor than him.
Consider Deuteronomy 18:15-19. Moses announced that another Prophet would come that would be like him. Compare with the Numbers 12 passage. God would know Him and speak to Him face to face. God commands His people to listen to this Prophet. Recall that they did not want to hear the voice of God once receiving the Ten Commandments. “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:18-19). It was truly a frightening time. They wanted Moses to speak to them in lieu of God Himself.
However, Moses would not be around forever. A new prophet would follow Moses. This prophet would be “like unto me” according to Deuteronomy 18:15, but also “like unto thee” or from among them in Deuteronomy 18:18. In other words, He would be from Israel, contrary to interpretations of other religions. This Prophet would be given the words of God and would faithfully preach everything God would give Him. Anyone who disregards the words of this Prophet will suffer consequences. Acts 2:22-23 confirms that this speaks of Jesus, and the consequences of rejecting Him was destruction. When Jesus fed the 5,000, those present said, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14). The people confessed again at the feast of tabernacles (John 7:40).
As Moses brought the Word to the people, Jesus did the same. However, Moses is dead and buried, but Jesus rose forevermore.
Hebrews 3:5-6
As we saw in Numbers 12:7, Moses was faithful in his house. He was faithful 1) in his house and 2) as a servant. This contrasts with Christ, in verse 6, where He 1) over His house and 2) as a Son. How was Moses faithful in his house as a servant? “...for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.”
Consider the Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-6. When asking for Moses and Elijah to stay in tents with them, Peter is rebuked from heaven. We are to look to Christ alone, not Moses and Elijah, who also represent the Law and the Prophets, respectively. Moses and Elijah, and the Law and the Prophets, point to Christ. There were “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.”
Consider again, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus saves, but the Law condemns. And again, Jesus said, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). Everything of the Old Testament, including Moses and the Law, point to Christ.
Moses was a servant, and Christ is the Son. It is true that Christ was called a servant in the Old Testament. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isaiah 52:13). However, His Sonship is the emphasis, as God had His only begotten Son.
As Christians, we are His house. We are his family. He is over this house. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).
There is a third-class conditional attached to this. A third-class condition is not translated “since,” but rather it may be true, or it may not be. I believe there are (at least) two parts of this.
First, remember the original audience of this letter: Hebrews. These were Jewish people, and this letter was written on the eve of the destruction of Jerusalem. This is written collectively to a group of people. Paul had tried to reason with the Jews throughout most of the book of Acts. In the final chapter, after Paul presented Jesus Christ to the Roman Jews, we read Acts 28:23-29. Some Jews believed, some did not. Paul quoted Isaiah to show this hardening of Israel. There was never any national repentance of Israel, and Jerusalem was swept away in A.D. 70 by the Romans.
In future sections, we see that even the Jewish believers receiving this letter were very much in an infant state spiritually. They were still asking questions about the basics of the faith, when they should have had much greater understanding.
Consider the following: “Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee” (Romans 11:19-21). The New Testament was written in a time where there was a great transition, where the Jewish people rejected Christ, and were therefore hardened in their unbelief. This hardening resulted in the salvation of multitudes of non-Jewish people. This is much the context of what we read here, and for the following sections.
However, this does not preclude a direct consequence on us. I believe in the unconditional eternal security of the born-again believer. However, this assumes that one is truly born again. From God’s perspective, “The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19). He knows the truly saved. From our perspective, the parable of the wheat and the tares demonstrates that the wheat and the tare look very much alike, to the point you must wait until harvest to separate them. Keep holding fast to that hope in Christ.