In our study of Hebrews we have reached the third chapter. Broadly speaking, chapter 1 sets forth the divine nature of King Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 2 presents His humanity. These two chapters constitute an enlargement of the prologue of the Gospel of John—John 1:1-18. In connection with them one would do well to study Philippians 2:5-11 and Colossians 1:13-17.

The Son took on human nature and thus became the God-man in order that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for every man, might bring to naught him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all those who through fear of it were all their lifetime kept in bondage. Christ thus opened up a new and living way and made possible our entrance into eternal life and glory with Himself and God the Father.

Having introduced us to the Lord Jesus Christ—the God-man—who has wrought redemption through the new and living way and has become a merciful and faithful High Priest to intercede in behalf of those who approach God through Him, Paul in chapter 3:1 made the following appeal to the Jewish nation—his brethren according to the flesh: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus ..." In former articles of this series I have called attention to some of the evidence that leads to the conclusion that Hebrews was written to the entire Jewish nation, which had at that time been evangelized. The expression, "holy brethren," was appropriate as a designation for the Jewish nation because this race is called "a holy people." God in speaking of them in the time of the Tribulation designates them as "the holy people."

The Apostle asked his brethren to focus their attention upon Jesus Christ and view Him in two different capacities; namely, as the Apostle and the High Priest. His language would have been inappropriate to those who had already accepted Him, for they could immediately retort by saying that they had already accepted Him, having considered Him and His claims. The natural meaning of the word consider in this connection is that it was an appeal to those who had been evangelized and had been given the gospel, but who had not accepted it.

Jesus is called "the Apostle." The word means one sent. In the middle of the great Galilean ministry, as we learn in Luke 6, Jesus, after a night of prayer, called His disciples and chose twelve of them whom He named "apostles." These constituted the original band. When Judas fell by transgression, someone had to take his place. The one qualification of the candidate for this office was that he had companied with the apostolic band "all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us ..." (Acts 1:21,22). There are no successors to the apostles, for they could qualify on this point only by having accompanied Jesus and His followers throughout His personal ministry. There are no successors to eyewitnesses. Messengers of the churches are sometimes called in the New Testament "apostles" but it is clear that the original ones whom Jesus appointed were not in mind in such passages. They were apostles only in that they were selected to travel for certain local churches.

Jesus is called in our verse "the Apostle." He was an apostle in the sense that He left heaven, being sent by the Father (John 3:16), and came to this earth as the first great missionary. Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor in order that we through His poverty might become rich (II Cor. 8:9). In this sense, therefore, He is called an apostle, and the Hebrew people were urged to consider Him in that light.

He is also set forth as "High Priest" of the Jewish confession. In this epistle Paul calls the Jews attention to the fact that the high priest in Jerusalem was not the real high priest of the nation. On the contrary, the Lord Jesus Christ who at that time was in heaven was indeed and in truth the great High Priest. He was the one who was typified by Melchizedek, the king priest of Salem. Later in the study of Hebrews we shall see the typical significance of this lone character as he appears in the historical record in Genesis.

In Hebrews 3:2-6, the Apostle compares and contrasts Moses with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us remember that the Hebrew people looked up to Moses as their great lawgiver and authority. They still do. Unfortunately they have exalted the writings of Moses to a position higher than any other portion of the Sacred, Holy Word. The writings of Moses today are considered infallible by them. The rest of the Old Testament is not, according to their way of thinking, on the same high level as the books of Moses. Paul said that, as long as they thus look upon Moses as the final authority, a veil is over their eyes; and they cannot see the truth as it is.

Moses was faithful to God in all his house. He indeed stands head and shoulders above all the Old Testament characters as a faithful and true servant of God upon whose shoulders great and mighty responsibilities rested. Only on one occasion did he flicker. Paul could therefore call attention to the fact that he was faithful to Him who appointed him "in his house." In whose house was Moses? This expression is an echo of Numbers 12:7. A glance at this chapter shows that God was the one who used this expression; the pronoun "his" has "God" as its antecedent. The nation of Israel whom Moses led, to whom he gave the law, and whom he served during the last forty years of his life constituted at that time the house of God. Stephen, in his indictment of the Jewish nation, called it "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:28). Moses gave his very life for the Children of Israel. He is therefore said in our passage to have been faithful to God in all things.

Paul asserts that Christ was just as faithful as was Moses. In fact, he could have put this in the superlative degree, for undoubtedly our Lord Jesus surpassed Moses in every particular although Paul does not emphasize that point in this connection. But he does show Christ's superiority by saying that, "For he hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house" (Heb. 3:3). Moses was simply a servant in the house. The Lord Jesus Christ was the Son over the house of God. Our Lord was as much superior to Moses as the builder of a house is superior to the edifice which he constructs. In chapter 1:2 the Apostle has already told us that it was Christ through whom God created the world. He is the one who has built the house. He is therefore on the highest plane possible. In comparison with Him Moses dwarfed into insignificance.

Moses and the house of God as it existed in his day, were "for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken" (3:5b). The entire Levitical system and the set up of the old economy were typical of the realities which we have in Christ. He is the Son, the Creator of all things John 1:3, who is now over God's house (Heb. 3:6).

What is meant by God's house today? The generation of Hebrews of Moses' day, who had been evangelized by him and Aaron, constituted God's house then. The Hebrew nation of the first century which had been evangelized before this epistle was written (Rom. 10:18) is the house to which reference is made here. Some students, however, think that Paul was speaking of the Hebrew Christians as constituting the house of God or the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will this theory stand the acid test of facts? I am confident that it will not. The Apostle furthermore in speaking of this house said, "... whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end" (Heb. 3:6). There are four classes of conditional clauses in the Greek language. The third class condition indicates a doubt. This fact is well known to Greek grammarians. The Apostle used this type of condition with the subjunctive mood and indicated grave doubt as to whether those to whom he spoke really were a part of the house of God. If we assume that the letter was written to Hebrew Christians, saved, regenerated people, then there is a doubt concerning their being a part of God's house. In other words, if this letter was addressed to saved people and presented as a warning against the possibility of backsliding, one may be saved today and lost tomorrow. This teaching, however, is contrary to many clear, unmistakable passages of the Word. For this and many other reasons I am of the firm conviction that this letter was written to the entire Hebrew nation and not simply to Hebrew Christians only, who were on the verge of going back to Judaism.

What the Apostle was saying was simply this: Israel, you have heard the message, having been evangelized. This generation will constitute the house of God now, just as the people of Moses' day did, if you hold fast to the messianic hope to which your ancestors have clung through the centuries, notwithstanding persecution, fire and sword. You have gloried in the hope of Messiah's coming. Rather than give up this hope many of you have suffered and died. If you will grip this hope and glory in it as you have in the past, it will lead you to Him who is the realization of it. Thus coming to Him, you Jews will still constitute the house of God today just as the Hebrews of Moses' day were then His house.

In order to enforce his exhortation that they consider Jesus our Lord in these two capacities and in order that they might continue to hold to this messianic hope and not give up, the Apostle quoted from Psalm 95 which foretold the coming of Messiah and His revelation to the people of Israel; but this portion of the message must be left to the next installment of this series.