In Hebrews 3:6 we are told that Christ has a house He is
building, and that "we are His house".... It is a common theme in Scripture. God desires to make us dwelling places for
His Spirit. He wants to "live in
us", to transform us into "His glorious likeness".
But there is an interesting condition given as to our
qualifying for being connected with God in Jesus. "...if we hold fast the confidence and
the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." What is this "confidence" and
"rejoicing of the hope" that we must hold tightly to all the way to
the end of our earthly life? While it
obviously means to hold to an assurance that we belong to Jesus, and be glad
about it, is there more beneath the "surface"?
The American Standard Version reads: "if we hold fast our boldness and the
glorying of our hope firm unto the end". The English Standard Version reads: "if we hold fast our confidence and our
boasting in our hope". Weymouth's reads: "if
we hold firm to the End the boldness and the hope which we boast of as ours". These different translations are trying to
get at a clearer understanding of the words in this verse.
The word for
"confidence" in the Greek has the idea: "all outspokenness", "publicity". A frankness or bluntness that is on open
display. The word for
"rejoicing" has the idea:
"to boast", "glory
in". To lift up something you have
so it will be desired by all. In other
words, we say that we belong to Christ as long as we give a public
demonstration of the fact that we believe following Jesus is the greatest
privilege we have, and we think everyone deserves the same wonderful
life! (Now while it should go
without saying, I'm going to say it anyway so there is no room for anyone to
find fault. This does not mean someone
should thumb their nose at another person and say, in a sing-song voice: "I have Jesus and you don't".)
What God is trying to tell
us is that being a true follower of Christ means that our life, everything we
do and say, should show the great advantage we have because we love and serve
God. We are to have a firmly settled
conviction in our mind that belonging to God is the source of tremendous
advantages and privileges. That you
cannot imagine living any other way and you think everyone else should belong
to Him too.
This is what the apostle
Paul did when he stated, while standing before King Agrippa bound in
chains: "I would to God, that not
only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether
such as I am, except these bonds." (Acts 26:29)
Suppose you were to come into possession of
several million dollars (insert whatever amount you want here), and you had family members or friends who
were really struggling financially.
Would you try to help them, or would you not say anything because
"they might be offended"?
Would you try and hoard all the money for yourself, or would you try to
help as many worthy people and projects as you could?
If you are a Christian, you
have been given a treasure of infinite worth.
Wealth that only grows larger the more you try to give it away. When God entered into the plan of salvation,
He took all the treasure of the universe and poured it all out for us. Knowing that not everyone would accept it,
He still gave everything He had in giving us His Son. In light of that fact, how can we even think
of not telling everyone we can about Jesus!
God will not consider us
disciples of Jesus if we are not giving a public demonstration of our belief in
His love and care. Jesus says: "Whosoever shall confess me before men,
him shall I confess before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him
shall I also deny before My Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 10:32-33)
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