“Hold Fast to the End” (Heb 3)

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” (vs1-6)

Keep trusting Christ unto the end (Heb 3:1-6). It isn't who starts, but the prize goes to who finishes. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it”. Play for keeps. Hebrews 3 says, “Moses also was faithful in all His house... but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end”. Don't be discouraged or drawn away by the world. Keep believing, and you'll be rewarded for your faith. Salvation has many troubles. Believing the Savior conquers all.

Secondly, unbelief rejects God's rest, His victory over sin (vs7-11). He says,  “they have not known My ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest”. Unbelief refuses to believe God for power to live godly, as a new creation. It rejects pardon, grace, and the gift of the Spirit.  It rejects God, and God rejects unbelief. Don't deceive yourself.  Trusting God's Son is the only rest. Take his yoke and honor Him.

Don't resist mercy and refuse mercy (vs12-15). He says, “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion”. Don't say, “God can't save”, or, “Who is the Lord that I should serve him?”  Don't choose Egypt's sin over salvation's promises, and He'll receive you. He says, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you” (2 Cor 6:17). Salvation is receiving what God willingly and freely gives, so that you're without excuse - He'd save you, just as you are, forgiving you of sin and giving you power over it.

Thirdly, unbelief is punished. We read, “Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?” When the warnings are rejected, then heavenly fire will consume the soul.  We have no rational choice but faith, for devotion to Christ is the way to heaven.  He mediates between us and God, bearing away the sin and bringing down the blessing, or, without Him, wrath comes, infuriated by the rejection of the Son.

Unbelief shuts the door of blessing and brings torments from the same God who would have blessed (vs18-19).  We read, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief”. God won't budge.  No Christ equals no salvation.  No faith equals no forgiveness or power.   Christ isn't optional. He is our hope.