We have become partakers with Christ, if we keep our commitment firm until the end

Hebrews 3 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus; ² He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. ³ For He 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. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. ⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; ⁶ but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the boast of our hope.

⁷ Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear His voice, ⁸ Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As on the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ Where your fathers put Me to the test, And saw My works for forty years. ¹⁰ Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; ¹¹ As I swore in My anger, ‘They certainly shall not enter My rest.’”

¹² Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end, ¹⁵ while it is said,

“Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

¹⁶ For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

In today’s text it says: Just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As on the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers put Me to the test, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My anger, ‘They certainly shall not enter My rest.’” Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end.  In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says: “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”   We can only be partakers of the rest of Christ if we are yoked to Him. If we are yoked to Him, we will walk with Him. In John 5:19 Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way.”  We tend to think of that verse in terms of the miraculous things Jesus did, but in truth, Jesus did everything that He did in step with the Father. He worked and walked according to the Father’s will. He knew the Father’s will and never went astray. Jesus could rest in the boat during a raging storm. (Matthew 8:23-27) That is the rest we can have if we walk with Him.

It is more than just peace and rest in this life that we lose if we do not believe and stray from God and Christ. Again, it says: Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We need to recognize that doubt, unbelief and fear are sins. They are evil. In Revelation 21:5-8 the Lord says: “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give water to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life, without cost. The one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” When we allow fear and unbelief to dictate how we respond to the situations and circumstances that we face, we stray from God. We believe more in the things that we don’t want than in the things that we do want. Fear and unbelief can cause us to lose our inheritance in Christ; to not enter into His promises of an abundant life here and now and eternal life in heaven.  In John 16:33 Jesus says: “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” When we walk with Christ there is nothing that can harm us. Romans 8:31-39 says: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we abide in Christ, never straying from the will of God, may the words of the psalmist, a man after the heart of God, be our declaration and prayer.

The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For the sake of His name. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life, And my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.