Hebrews 3:1-6
1 “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.”
Having established that Jesus is greater than the angels, and consequently, Jesus’ covenant is better than the covenant delivered by angels, the author now compares Jesus to Moses. Moses was faithful in administering the Old Covenant law. However, Moses did so as a servant of God’s house. Jesus, who is God Himself and the very builder of God’s house, is faithful as the originator of the New Covenant. As such not only is Jesus’ covenant superior to Moses’, but He is also worthy of greater glory than Moses. Jesus is the final word from God and His word trumps that of the law.
If indeed we hold firmly: Hebrews is written to a Jewish people who are just beginning to conceptualize the Gospel. These people are on the journey of crossing from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant. Many were likely interested in the New Covenant but were experiencing peer pressure to remain under the law. The author of Hebrews, therefore, is urging people to have an abiding faith in Jesus, and not have one foot in the New and one foot in the Old. Those who have an abiding faith in Jesus are part of God’s house. This is not a building as was the case with Old Testament Judaism. In the New Testament, God’s home is within His people.
