The “Big Ifs” – Part I

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 3:1-6

Key Verse: Hebrews 3:6

But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

Like many other references in the New Testament, our Key Verse contains a couple of “Big Ifs”. The little word “if” is a transitional word from one thought to another. It carries with it a dependency that may happen based on a conditional statement after the word “if”.

In our Key Verse, we find the first “Big If”: we are God’s house if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. The writer of Hebrews uses the concept of “house” to refer to the Kingdom family. Jesus oversees God’s family, and we are in God’s house, if we don’t lose our courage or our hope in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy gives similar “ifs” (2 Timothy 2:12-13):

• If we endure hardship, we will reign with Him.
• If we deny Him, He will deny us.
• If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is.

Please note that Paul distinguishes between those who deny Jesus and those who are unfaithful to Jesus. Those who deny Jesus are walking away from Him because they no longer believe that Jesus is who He says He is. Those that are unfaithful to Jesus still believe in Him but have fallen to a weakness in their flesh.

The enemy of our souls tries to blur this difference and make us feel unwanted when we are unfaithful to God. God forgives our weaknesses. We must resist the evil one and cling to the promise that our weaknesses and failures do not stop God’s steadfast love for us.

God does not force someone to believe in Him. We need to understand that when a person loses their “hope in Christ”, they have lost their faith in the work of Christ on the Cross. When this happens, this Scripture confirms that the person is no longer in the house of God.

I realize that there are many who don’t believe that a person that is in God’s family can ever leave. I don’t want to get into a theological debate, I only want to be true to the Scriptures as I read them in Hebrews 3:12: “Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning away from the living God” and again in Hebrews 3:13: “You must warn each other every day…”.

The only logical conclusion is that if it is not possible for a Believer to stop believing, then why write these warnings to our brothers and sisters in God’s Family? (continued)

Father, help me to be very careful, every day, to keep my faith strong. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.