We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end,For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end:
3 sermons cite this verse
… chapter 3 verse 14 we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence hypostasis firm to the end now in the original there's no word for our would just be translated like this we have come to share in Christ if indeed the hypostasis if we hold firm the hypostasis to the end. Could be confidence, could be substance, depending on what that means. And then outside the New Testament, Paul uses it twice, and it's almost for certain, everybody agrees, that it would be confidence or assurance the way Paul uses it. So here's my question for the writer to the book of Hebrews. Why did you use this word? Why didn't you use pleriferia? Why didn't you use parousia? You used both of those words six times. They are the more ordinary words for confidence. They don't carry the freight of hypostasios, like in chapter 1, verse 3. What's the deal with choosing that word at this point? And I think his answer would be, I want you to deal with the load. …
You might think that if you were alive in the time of the tribulation, you'd respond to the gospel. Israel is indicted here because when God had put Himself on full display, on such a display as the world had never known, God brought to Egypt ten plagues by which He liberated the people, and they went toward the Promised Land, and yet they died in the wilderness. They resisted God. They turned their back on God. They did not honor God. They did not enter into rest. Today is the day. Today is all you have. For some of you here today may not even be a tomorrow, but while it is day, and while you may, don't harden your heart. Enter into the rest that is provided to all who embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. Father, Your Word comes to us in power like no other word. No word of man can match the power of the Word of God. And we know it is true, and it bears the imprint of veracity. …
But persevering in the way of duty is necessary to salvation, as a concomitant and evidence of a title to salvation. There is never a title to salvation without it, though it be not the righteousness by which a title to salvation is obtained. It is necessary to salvation, as it is the necessary consequence of true faith. It is an evidence which universally attends uprightness, and the defect of it is an infallible evidence of the want of uprightness. Psalm cxxv. 4, 5. There such as are good and upright in heart, are distinguished from such as fall away or turn aside: Psalm cxxv. 4, 5.“Do good, O Lord, to those that are good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. But peace shall be upon Israel.”—It is mentioned as an evidence that the hearts of the children of Israel were not right with God, that they did not persevere in the ways of holiness. Psalm lxxviii. 8. “A generation that set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.” Christ gives this as a distinguishing character of those that are his disciples indeed, and of a true and saving faith, that it is accompanied with perseverance in obedience to Christ’s word. John viii. 31. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” This is mentioned as a necessary evidence of an interest in Christ, Heb. iii. 14. “We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end.” …