Hebrews 3 - Introduction

Christ is infinitely greater than Moses: therefore if we believe not in him, we shall be more worthy of punishment than hard-hearted Israel.

Anno Domini 63.

THE apostle, in the first chapter of this epistle, having affirmed that Jesus of Nazareth, the person by whom God the Father spake the gospel revelation to mankind, is his only-begotten Son: also, in the same chapter having proved from the Jewish scriptures, that God constituted his Son, the heir or Lord of all things, by whom he made the worlds: moreover, in the second chapter, having answered the objections urged by the Jewish doctors for invalidating the claim of Jesus to be God's Son, and having thereby given full effect to the direct proofs which established his claim, and which were well known to the Hebrews living in Judea, where they were publicly exhibited, he, in this third chapter, proceeds to shew what is implied in Christ's being the Heir or Lord of all things: which is the third fact on which the authority of the gospel revelation depends.

A proper account of this matter was necessary, First, because the title of Jesus to remove the Mosaic economy and to substitute the gospel dispensation in its place, was founded on the power which he possessed as the Son of God, and heir of all things. Secondly, because many of the Jews, in the persuasion that the law of Moses was of perpetual obligation, and that its sacrifices were real atonements for sin, rejected the Lord Jesus as an impostor for pretending to abolish these institutions. Wherefore, to shew the unbelieving Jews their error, the apostle, who in the first and second chapter had proved the Son of God to be the Heir or Lord of all things, exhorted the unbelieving Hebrews, in this chapter, to consider attentively Christ Jesus the Apostle and High-priest of our religion; that is, to consider how great a Person he is, that, knowing him to be the Son of God and Heir of all things, they might be sensible that it belonged to him to form and govern the house or church of God, Hebrews 3:1.—Next, to convince them that in forming and governing this spiritual house, Jesus acted agreeably to the will of his eternal Father, the apostle affirmed, that when he excluded the law of Moses and the Levitical priesthood from the new house, or church of God, which he built, he was as faithful to his heavenly Father who appointed him his Lawgiver in his church, as Moses was, when he established the law and the priesthood in God's ancient house the Jewish church. The proof of this affirmation the apostle did not produce on the present occasion, because the Hebrews were well acquainted with it. By voices from heaven, uttered more than once in the hearing of many of them, God the Father had declared Jesus, his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased, and had commanded the Hebrews to hear him, Hebrews 3:2.—Farther, the apostle told the Hebrews, that God the Father counted his only Son Jesus as worthy of infinitely more glory than Moses; inasmuch as he who hath builded the house or church of God, not for his own salvation but for the salvation of others, hath more honour than the house; is a more excellent Person than all the members of the church which he built. These things cannot be said of Moses. He built the Jewish church as an instrument under God, for his own use, as well as for the use of his brethren; and so being a member of his own church, he was obliged to have recourse to its services, especially its typical atonements, equally with the rest of the Israelites; whereby he was shewed to be a sinner like them; consequently he had not, like Christ, more honour than the house, Hebrews 3:3.—This however is not all. To make the Hebrews sensible of the great power of Jesus as the Heir or Lord of all things, the apostle observed, that although every society civil and religious is formed bythe ministry of some person or other, the original of all just power, and the governor of all righteous societies, is God, who, by constituting his eternal Son the Heir or Lord of all things, hath delegated hisauthority to him as man, and empowered him to model and govern these societies as he pleases, Hebrews 3:4.—More particularly, to shew that Jesus, as a Lawgiver, is infinitely superior to Moses, the apostle observed, that the faithfulness of Moses in building the Jewish church, was not that of a legislator who himself framed the laws which he established, but it was the faithfulness of a servant who established the laws which were dictated to him by his Master, without adding to or diminishing ought from them; and who formed the tabernacle and appointed its services, not according to any plan of his own, but according to a pattern which God shewed to him in the mount, without presuming to deviate from it in the least, Hebrews 8:5. This faithfulness in building all the parts of the ancient house or church of God, was required of Moses, in order that the things afterwards to be spoken by Jesus and his apostles might be confirmed by the attestation given to them in the figures, and ceremonies, and services of the law, Hebrews 3:5.—But the faithfulness of Jesus in building the new house of God, the Christian church, was that of a son in his Father's house, who, being the Heir or Lord of all, was entitled to remove the Jewish church, after it had answered the end for which it wasestablished, and to erect the Christian church on a more enlarged plan, so as to comprehend believers of all nations.—Wherefore Jesus, in the exercise of that authority which belonged to him as the Lord or Governor of all things, having actually abolished the Mosaic economy and established the gospel dispensation, the apostle, to confirm the Hebrews in the profession of the gospel, assured them, that all who believe in Jesus with the heart unto righteousness, are as really members of the house or church of God, and as fully entitled to the privileges of the house of God, as the Israelites were who believed in a Messiah to come, with the heart unto righteousness, during the subsistence of the Jewish church, ver.

Thus it appears, that the authority of the Lord Jesus as a Lawgiver, is infinitely greater than the authority of Moses. He was a Lawgiver in his own right; whereas in establishing the law, Moses acted only ministerially. His institutions therefore might be abolished by the Son of God, who, being the Heir of all things, hath all power in heaven and earth committed to him, Matthew 28:18. If so, the Jewish doctors fell into a grievous error, when, from some ambiguous expressions in the law, they inferred that it was never to be abolished, and rejected the Lord Jesus as a false Christ, because his disciples affirmed that he had put an end to the law and to the priesthood.

The sacred penman having thus displayed the greatness of Jesus, as the Heir or Ruler of all things, addressed the unbelieving Hebrews, as an apostle of Jesus, in the words which the Holy Ghost spake to their fathers by David; Wherefore, as saith the Holy Ghost, To-day, when ye shall hear his voice; the voice of God the Father by his Son Jesus, commanding you to believe on his Son, and to enter into his church, Harden not your hearts as in the bitter provocation, &c. Hebrews 3:7. This exhortation of the Holy Ghost to the Israelites in David's days, the apostle with great propriety applied to the Hebrews of his own time, because, if rejecting Jesus they refused to enter into the Christian church, God would as certainly exclude them from the rest of heaven, as he excluded their fathers from the rest in Canaan for their unbelief and disobedience.—He therefore requested them to take heed that none of them shewed an evil unbelieving heart, either by refusing to obey Jesus, or by apostatizing from him after having believed on him. This, he assured them, would be a real departing from the living God, Hebrews 3:12.—Then he ordered them to exhort one another daily to believe and obey Christ, Hebrews 3:13.—assuring them, that they should be partakers of his rest in heaven, only if they held fast their begun confidence in him to the end, Hebrews 3:14.—and told them that they might know this by its being said to the Israelites in David's time, To-day, when ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts: for such an exhortation evidently shews, that faith and obedience are necessary at all times, Hebrews 3:15.—Withal, to make the Hebrews sensible that unbelief and rebellion are extremely offensive to God, he put them in mind that by these sins, their fathers provoked God, Hebrews 3:16.—to such a degree, that he destroyed the whole congregation of the disobedient in the wilderness, Hebrews 3:17.—after swearing, that they should not enter into his rest, Hebrews 3:18.—Thus, says the apostle, we see that they could not enter in, because of unbelief, Hebrews 3:19.—and by making the observation, he has shewed in the clearest light the contagious fatal nature of unbelief; that it is the cause of the disobedience and punishment of sinners in all ages; and so he has put us on our guard against such an evil disposition.

I have only to add, that the apostle by exhorting the Hebrews to obey Christ, after describing his supreme authority in the church as its Lawgiver, and by setting before them the punishment of the Israelites in the wilderness, has insinuated that Christ is Judge, as well as Lawgiver; consequently he has both authority and power to render to all men according to their works; as will appear likewise from the things set forth, ch. Hebrews 4:11.