For we are become companions of the Christ if indeed we hold the beginning of the assurance firm to the end;
This verse names what is at stake for anyone who confesses Christ: a share in Christ Himself. Two questions press on any reader. What does it mean to share in Christ? And does that little word "if" put salvation in doubt?
Older translations read "partakers of Christ." The ESV says we "have come to share in Christ." The older word points back to a Psalm, and the choice of rendering matters.
"Companion" would be more modern English. But the translation here keeps the same word used in the Psalm this verse points back to. "Partakers" breaks that link, and it can also mislead. There is no lowering of Christ's glory in applying the word to those who confess Him. When the word is first used, the Holy Spirit recalls how God owns the Messiah as God. Even when grace adds companions from among His people, He is anointed as man above them all.
So the verse is not measuring how much of Christ's blessing we have received. It is naming where we stand in relation to Him.
We are made "companions," associates with Christ who has gone on before and is leading many sons to glory. The thought here is not the one the usual translation suggests. We are not speaking here of our blessings in Christ exactly, but of our place with Him.
The word translated "confidence" carries the sense of something solid underneath.
Instead of the word "confidence," we may read "substance," "assurance." It is a figure of speech. The thing is so certain that we might think we could take hold of it with our hands.
One mistake is to look for that assurance inside ourselves.
This is not assurance founded on anything in ourselves, which would only be self-righteousness. The assurance in view rests on the Lord Jesus, on His propitiatory sacrifice, and on the value of His work, which God has accepted. No one blames us for having such assurance. On the contrary, we are urged to hold it fast.
The "if" looks back at what the beginning really was.
As in verse 6, the emphasis falls on continuance. It proves whether a person's first profession really made him a partaker of Christ. If a grafted branch has truly taken hold of the stock and draws the sap of the tree, it will keep living and flourishing. If the "beginning" was not a vital, real connection, the branch will wither and die.
Does that put a true believer's standing at risk?
Here it is not the body of Christ, whose members are united to the Head by the Holy Spirit, where nothing unreal can come. Profession is still in view. It is assumed to be real, but it leaves room for what is unreal.
The warning does not cancel the believer's security. Both are true at once.
There are two sides to every truth. Believers are saved and saved for ever. We are the sheep of Christ, and we have our Lord's own word that we shall never perish. On the other hand, we are still in this world. We are pilgrims on a heavenly journey, and this is where responsibility comes in... This is where the "if" comes in as a healthy challenge, since continuance in the faith is the most conclusive proof of the reality of conversion.
Being His companion brings both a privilege and a duty now.
The companions of Christ have the privilege of nearness to Him and a share in His joy. They also have the responsibility of being faithful to Him in the world where He is still rejected. The Lord does not ask us to be faithful in our own strength. He has given us the grace that enables us to hold fast, as we depend on Him. What we hold fast is the assurance the gospel has brought us, and that we have accepted by faith.
- Companion. The older word "partakers" means companions. The verse speaks of our place with Christ, not just of blessings from Him.
- Confidence. The confidence we hold is "substance," or assurance. It is solid enough to take hold of, because it rests on Christ and His work, not on anything in us.
- Condition. The "if" tests whether the beginning was real. A branch truly grafted in draws sap and lives. A connection that was never real withers.
- Continuance. Continuing in the faith is the strongest proof that a conversion was real. Responsibility stands beside the promise that Christ's sheep never perish.
- Companionship now. The privilege is nearness to Him. The responsibility is faithfulness in a world that still rejects Him. He supplies the grace to hold fast.
in that it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation;
Verse 14 says we share in Christ if we hold our first confidence firm to the end, and the writer backs that up by quoting Psalm 95 again. Why repeat the line, and how long does "today" last?
Older translations say "provocation" where the ESV says "rebellion." The warning points back to two failures in Israel's desert years, and the Hebrew words carry place names.
Israel's past history was to teach lessons for their children. In the original, the word translated provocation would remind everyone of what happened at Meribah (Numbers 20:1-13). The word translated temptation would remind them of Massah (Exodus 17:1-7). On those two occasions they doubted God's presence among them, and His power and care for them — and without any reason at all. So let the Hebrews take care that none of them does the same.
The word "today" has a limit. Psalm 95 sets it against a coming day of judgment for Israel.
Until power comes in to judgment, while it is still called today — for in that great tomorrow no evil and no rebellious person will be allowed — they are called not to harden their hearts as they did long ago in the wilderness, when God swore that they should not enter into His rest. But now, after all, grace says Today, and invites them to come before His presence — He is the rock of their salvation.
The warning was not left behind in the desert. What God has done since makes it weigh more, not less.
"Today" is a serious and trying time (verse 15). We are in the wilderness, and without God there is nothing but difficulty and danger for His people, weak as spilt water in themselves. ... There is a difference now, since Christ accomplished redemption, took His seat at God's right hand, and sent down the Holy Spirit to be in us who believe. Yet it is still said, "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation." What He has done and revealed and made ours far surpasses all that was done of old in Egypt and the desert. That ought to be our strongest encouragement, and a firm foundation, as we heed His revealed will against our treacherous hearts — hearts sure to grow hard if we slight His word or tamper with sin.
The word for hardening here is not the usual one. It describes a choice, not an accident.
When the apostle in Hebrews refers to the wilful stubbornness of the Israelites in the wilderness, he uses a different word (Hebrews 3:8, 15; 4:7). We cannot be certain about its finer shades of meaning. Still, the word skleruno and the words built from it seem to describe a definite resistance on man's part, which deliberately blocks up the heart to shut out the light of God. As the Lord said, "yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:40).
Hardening seldom looks dramatic. The verses just before trace it to something ordinary.
We are urged not only to take heed to ourselves but to "exhort one another" each day, while it is still a day of grace and salvation. The aim is that the deceitfulness of doing one's own will hardens no one. The danger here is not the deceitfulness of committing sins, serious as that is, since one sin leads to another. The writer is speaking of the principle of sin, which is lawlessness. We little think how we harden our hearts by doing our own will.
The writer asks three questions about Israel. The third reaches the root.
Thirdly, to whom did God swear that they should not enter into His rest? It was to those who did not believe. So we learn the root sin was unbelief. The unbelief left them exposed to their sins, and sins hardened their hearts.
Verse 14 asks for confidence held firm to the end. Where does that confidence rest?
The assurance urged here from first to last is proper, required and necessary. It rests on the glorified Lord Jesus, our propitiation and our high priest — on the divine dignity of His person and on the accepted effectiveness of His work for us... If assurance rests on anything in ourselves, the sooner we abandon it the better, for it was really self-righteous, unfitting and false.
The verse is also a direct appeal. It leaves no room for cleaning yourself up first.
Many souls go wrong on this point. They think they must change their ways, alter their course or improve their moral condition before they come to Christ. In fact, until they really do come to Christ they cannot change or improve anything... The word is, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15). "Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
- Today — God's patience is still running. He holds the door open until judgment comes.
- Voice — the hardening God warns about is deliberate resistance that shuts out His light.
- Will — hearts harden less by dramatic sin than by the daily practice of doing one's own will.
- Unbelief — one root lay under Israel's hardness. It left them exposed to sins, and the sins hardened them.
- Held — holding firm to the end rests on Christ, on His person and His work, never on anything in ourselves.