Partakers of Christ

Hebrews 3:14-15 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” The encouragement we derive from this verse primarily comes from the word “partakers.” It’s the same word the Spirit used in 1:9. “THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.” In that verse it is translated companions. Again in 3:1. “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers (or companions) of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” If you are a child of God, then you are Jesus’ companion. You are not doing life alone. Jesus shares life with you. He partakes of everything you do and say. But let’s also think of it this way. You partake of His life. You share in His mission, sufferings, vision, faith, love, joy, peace, and ultimately, His glory. His life is your life! To get the essential sense of what the Spirit is saying, it helps to simplify it with a summary. From the beginning you heard that Jesus is God’s Son and He promises eternal life to all who believe. He promises a rest from your wandering and sojourning in this world in a new world to come, when you will finally be home with Him. You are Jesus’ companion if you hold fast to that promise, which is the beginning of your assurance, firm until you get there. Remember at the beginning of chapter 2 he said, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it…After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard.” The author took his readers back to what they heard in the beginning and used Ps. 95 as his authority to encourage them to hold fast. While God said, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, for I swear you won’t enter My rest” therefore, (now I jump down to 4:1) “Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.” Do you get it? God promises us His rest if we will hear His voice and trust in Him until the end. We are His companions if we don’t drift away or fall away in unbelief from what we have heard. I’m suggesting that the surest way to hold fast His promise until the end is to live to love with Him everyday of your life until the end. He not only will bring you to glory in His promised rest, but you can live in His rest and peace now while you are sojourning in this world. If you are His companion now, you’ll be His companion in the world to come.