Hebrews 3 - Can Someone Lose Their Salvation?
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Jesus Greater Than Moses
3 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
The author of Hebrews now compares the ministry of Jesus to the ministry of Moses. Moses was a faithful servant of God's house, which was the temple. It was Moses who faithfully gave the Law to the Israelites as instructed by God. This Law specified what God's house was to look like, and the sacrifices needed to come into God's holy presence.
Moses was a member of the household of God but Jesus is the creator of that house, worthy of greater glory. - Guzik
Moses was a faithful servant, but he was never called a Son in the way Jesus is. This shows that Jesus is greater than Moses. - Guzik
What does the author mean by "And we are his house"?
Where God dwelt in the temple in the Old Testament, through the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament
Paul tells us that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are called the "body of Christ", which each of us our members of. We also call this the household of God. Jesus is the head of the church and has authority over it. This is why we need to fix our eyes on Jesus not any other earthly or church authority.
Warning Against Unbelief
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
The author of Hebrews now turns to the subject of unbelief. He equates the Holy Spirit as the voice of God. It is also the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sin and leads us to saving faith in Jesus. But there are those in the church whose hearts h become hardened to God's voice, just as the Israelites' were in the wilderness.
While God never gives up on anybody and desires all people to be saved, He will not override one's will. It is a dangerous thing to develop a resistance to God's Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will not force himself on anyone.
The point is clear. As the Holy Spirit speaks, we must hear His voice and not allow our hearts to become hardened. We hear the Spirit speak in the Scriptures, in the heart of His people, in those He draws to salvation, and by His works. - Guzik
The Holy Spirit tells us today because it is a genuine invitation. We know that the Holy Spirit really wants us to come to Jesus because He says, “today.” If someone asks me to come over their house for dinner but they give no day or time, I know it isn’t a firm invitation yet. But when they say, “Come over on this day at this time,” I know it is a firm invitation, that they want me to come, that they are ready for me to come, and that it will be prepared for my coming. The Holy Spirit gives you a time for His invitation – today. - Guzik
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
When the author uses the words 'brothers and sisters", the assumption is that he is talking to fellow Jewish believers in the body of Christ. So when he warns against turning from God with a sinful and unbelieving heart, it would mean a Christian who has stopped trusting in God and living by faith. Then he says something even more challenging. He says, "We have come to share in Christ if we hold our original conviction until the end."
This brings up the issue if you can lose your salvation? In this verse if he is speaking to believers it certainly seems that way. He repeats the verses cited from the Old Testament about the Jewish believers whose hearts were hardened and God declared you will never enter my rest. The difficulty is that if these are born again believers wouldn't they be different than the Jewish people who have never been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
This is a very challenging issue and other parts of the bible would seem to indicate that one can't lose their salvation. If they truly born-again, then Christ and the Holy Spirit live inside of them. Can one be "unborn again"? You are a member of God's family can you kicked out for bad behavior? How bad do you have to get to lose your salvation? Kill someone? Commit suicide? Curse at God? Go through a period of doubt and unbelief?
Do you see the common theme in all of these examples. All of the onus is on us. If I do something wrong I can lost my salvation. I would hate to think that any sin or unbelief has overcome me and I am not living my day trusting in God that I am in danger of losing my faith.
Also Paul says to the Ephesians, "the Holy Spirit is a downpayment guaranteeing our future inheritance." Ephesians 1:14.
So you would than have to say someone lost the Holy Spirit and therefore lost their guarantee of their future Holy Spirit?
What does it mean in Philippians 1:6 when Paul says, "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
One could argue that the Prodigal Son, when he spent all of his inheritance, was a metaphor of a Christian who wasted the grace they were given perhaps through a period of rebellion like so many Christian go through as young adults. But the Father waited until the son came to his senses and welcomed him back home with a big party.
I read this online and I think it addresses the "once saved always saved" issue very well.
Let me give you my own answer to the question, Can I lose my salvation? In my mind the answer is simple: It depends on who saved you.
– If God saved you, you can’t lose it because it depends on God.
– If you saved yourself, you can lose it because it depends on you.
Your salvation is eternally secure if God did the saving. But if you think that salvation is a cooperative venture between yourself and God-where you do a part and he does a part-then you’re in big trouble because anything you start, you could mess up somewhere along the way. But if God started it, he’ll also finish it. - Ray Pritchard
You can see why this is a divisive issue and bible believing, Jesus loving Christians disagree on it. This is why we should be gentle and respectful when discussing this issue together.
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