Read Hebrews 3:7-19

We can be God’s children. We can be his house, with his Spirit living within us. However, there is a condition.

Quoting Psalm 95, the writer again compares followers of Christ to ancient Israel. They rebelled against God and as a result wandered in the wilderness, never coming into their promised land. Hebrews says we are at risk of doing the same thing spiritually. Only if we hold on to our courage and our hope in Christ will we remain his dwelling. The writer warns against hardening your heart in unbelief, falling before sin’s deceitfulness, losing your confidence in God’s ability to run your life better than you can. You could become a vacant house. And vacant houses fall into ruin.

Israel’s basic sin was unbelief. Forgetting how far God had brought them from the slavery of Egypt, forgetting God’s demonstrated power both at the Red Sea and by providing food and everything else they needed, the Israelites turned away from God with hard hearts, certain they could do their own thing better than God could. God has great patience, but finally he would not put up with it any longer. Those people died in the wilderness, separated from God, the promise of their lives unfulfilled. Be careful, the writer warns, or you will do the same thing spiritually. You will banish yourself from God’s presence, dying in the wilderness of sin and perishing, barred from God’s presence forever.

Read Hebrews 3:1-6

The writer of Hebrews has one big issue. He wants us to keep our attention on Christ. Observe, appreciate, understand, realize Christ’s incomparable glory and saving power.

For the sake of illustration, he compares Christ with Moses. Both were faithful in their work. And what was that work? Moses was in charge of the whole house of Israel, that is, all the people who came out of Egypt. How is Christ a parallel to Moses? Verse 6 says we are Christ’s house. God’s whole house is all who believe on Jesus.

The writer is showing us how the foundations of the church were laid. Peter describes Christians as living stones to be used to build God’s house (1 Peter 2:5). Paul speaks of our bodies as God’s temple, to be used for God’s glory (1 Cor. 3:16-17, 1 Cor. 6:19-20). Hebrews says we are God’s house and the person in charge of that house is Jesus, our faithful high priest. What do you do with a house? Live in it? Jesus told the disciples at the last supper that if anyone loves him and obeys him, he and his Father would come and make their home with that person (John 14:23).
First believers are likened to God’s children, Christ’s siblings. Then we are likened to God’s house with Christ, God’s son, in charge of it. How blessed Christians are. Christ’s followers know a defense, a security unlike any other.

Read Hebrews 2:5-18

Would you like to be Jesus’ brother or sister? Jesus says he is not ashamed to say out loud in public that he is a member of the same family as those who love and trust him.

The writer goes further. Quoting Isaiah 8:18, he says God acknowledges us as his children. Jesus’ suffering was necessary. God is gracious, but he doesn’t cheat. Since we are flesh and blood, Jesus had to share our humanity. There was nothing for it but to pay the price himself to rescue us from our sins. He did more. As God and man in one person, Jesus could become the mediator. “Mediator” is from an old Latin word that means “to be in the middle.” With all respect, could we say that Jesus runs interference for us with God? In addition, he became our leader. He walked as a pioneer, treading the path we are to follow. That path leads us to salvation.

The writer could have drawn a lot of implications from Jesus’ taking on himself our humanity while remaining divine, fully God. He highlights only one, our fear of death. Jesus destroyed the devil’s power of death, freeing us from slavery to that fear.

How great is all of that? Yet his words are just groundwork for the author’s real theme. Jesus is our “merciful and faithful” high priest. For a walk on the high side, keep reading Hebrews.

Read Hebrews 2:1-4

In Old Testament times, God, evidently with help from the angels, delivered the Law from God to humans by way of Moses. That Law covered a lot of things, but the very core of it was the Ten Commandments. Over the years Israel quit following God’s Law. Finally God had enough. He allowed the nation to be destroyed, the people sent into slavery in Babylon.

The writer says that while Christ did not come to abolish the Law—the Ten Commandments are still in force—Christ’s salvation is greater than the Law of Moses. Only Christ’s death can atone for our sins, opening a way for us to know true fellowship with God. That is why his warning is so strong. God destroyed Israel because they turned their backs on the old Law. What do you think will happen to us, he asks, if we turn our backs on a far greater deliverance? His figure of speech in v. 1 is of a ship drifting from its moorings. All of us are at risk. All of us steer our lives every day through currents of hostile thoughts and actions. Even a gentle tide will finally carry you far from shore. He says you heard what Jesus taught. You saw it confirmed by his miracles. You know that the Holy Spirit has come to help us stay firmly moored to Jesus. “Are you going to pay attention?” he asks.

Read Hebrews 1:10-14

The book of Hebrews presents a two-story view of reality. The ground floor is our visible world, which the writer regards as a land of shadows. This present world with its rituals and institutions will pass away. The upper floor is permanent, the world we don’t see yet, genuine reality. Christ belongs to this eternal level, the unseen world of absolute truth. The book of Hebrews continually contrasts the old and the new, shadows and certainty.

Quoting from Psalms, in this passage the author makes his final two comparisons to establish who Jesus Christ is and why he did what he did. It brings his argument to a logical close. The world will disappear, he says, but God is forever.

The writer’s last point is that through Christ comes victory over enemies. The Son is the supreme Creator. All things belong to him. His work of redeeming mankind—ending our separation from God—was finished on the cross. He rose from the dead. He sat down in heaven. It is Christ alone who sits down in glory at the Father’s right hand. The writer’s parting shot emphasizes again that Christ is above, not just us, but above everything. Christ sits at God’s right hand, his enemies beneath his feet. His last words are of incomparable comfort to us humans. The angels, strong and robust, have as a chief duty ministering to all who have received Christ as Savior.