Jesus Christ is Superior to Moses as God’s Lawgiver (Hebrews 3:1-19)

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house” (Hebrews 3:1-3, NKJV). 

The Reason Christ is Superior to Moses

“Therefore,” since Jesus is a merciful and faithful High Priest, having become human like us in all things, including suffering and temptation (2:9-18), we are thus “holy” [hágioi] (set apart/sanctified) “brethren” [adelphoí] (cf. v. 6) as spiritual family thanks to our brotherly bond with Jesus Christ (2:11-17). We are therefore “partakers/sharers” of a heavenly calling (Phil. 3:14, 20; Col. 3:1-2). Christ (messiah) Jesus (savior) is the “Apostle” [apóstolon], one sent forth (cf. John 3:17, 34; 5:36, 38; 6:29, 57; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36; 11:42; 17:3, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21; etc.), and “High Priest” [archieréa], a concept introduced in 2:17 and developed in 4:14 ff. as one of the main themes of the epistle and a unique feature of Hebrews.

Our confession [homologia] (3:1; 4:14; 10:23) is not merely verbal but is lived out in the everyday lives of all who are devoted followers of Christ.¹ As Moses was faithful in all of God’s house (Num. 12:7; cf. Ex. 40:16), so Jesus has been faithful to the One who appointed him (cf. John 9:4; 17:4). He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses (3:3a): he who builds the house has more honor than the house (3:3b). Jesus is creator of all things (cf. 1:2, 10). He is the builder of his church (cf. Matt. 16:18). He is the king over God’s spiritual kingdom (cf. 1:3, 8). Moses is included in God’s household but is not over it (cf. v. 5).

“For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (Heb. 3:4).

For the original reading audience and all other Bible believers, this is an axiomatic truth. For everyone else, it serves as a simple and compelling statement of God’s existence and creative power. The so-called cosmological argument affirms that the universe, which clearly exists, has not always existed nor did it create itself. Therefore, something (or Someone) superior to and beyond itself must have caused it (cf. Rom. 1:20).  

“And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end” (Heb. 3:5-6).

Moses was merely “a servant” [therápōn] (free, personal service; a role of subservience albeit a position of honor) in God’s house, but Christ is a Son over his own house. WE are (emphatic!) this house (cf. Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:5) as Christians rather than physical Israel of the past. Condition: “if [eán] we hold fast the confidence [parrēsían] and the rejoicing [kaúchēma,  lit ‘boast’] of the hope firm to the end” (3:6b). Our confidence is exhibited by a bold, open profession of the Christian faith (cf. 4:16; Eph. 3:12).

The “boast of the hope” is opposite of being ashamed (cf. Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:12). It is the open assurance of an earnest expectation (cf. Rom. 5:3-5; 8:24-25; Col. 1:23, 27). “Firm to the end” (not in all manuscripts) is an expression of endurance, perseverance (cf. v. 14; 6:11; Rev. 2:10). 

A Call to Faithfulness

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, “They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.” So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest”’” (Heb. 3:7-11).

Having established the supremacy of Christ over Moses, the argument shifts to an exhortation. “Therefore” [dió], in light of the fact that we are God’s house in persevering, “as the Holy Spirit says [légei]” (present tense, “is saying”), presently and continuously, via a quote from Psalm 95:7-11. This simple statement affirms both the divine inspiration of scripture (cf. 10:15-16) and its current and ongoing relevance.

What is the Holy Spirit saying? “Today,” applicable to the day this psalm was first written and every day since when it is read and heard, “if you will hear His voice ...” Reading scripture and hearing it read is to listen to the voice of God as the Holy Spirit speaks, which in the context of Hebrews is to hear the voice of God’s Son speaking (cf. 1:1-2).

The contrasting example is Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness (cf. Ex. 17:1-7; Num. 14:1-38; 20:1-13). They “have not known” God’s ways (v. 10) because they have not listened with open hearts (vv. 7-8) and have therefore faced grave consequences (cf. John 8:43, 47).

Reference to kardía (“heart”) occurs six times in this section of Hebrews (3:8, 10, 12, 15; 4:7, 12). The term “rest” [katípausis] appears eight times in chaps. 3–4, and only once elsewhere in the NT.²

Warning and Exhortation

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion’” (Heb. 3:12-15).

“Beware” (NKJ), “Take care” (NAS) [blépete] (“look,” “behold”) “brethren” [adelphoí], note v. 1; cf. 2:11-17. “Apostasy is the ultimate consequence of unbelief; and unbelief, as the next verse indicates, is brought on by the heart that is hardened through sin. Thus the logical order of the downward process is sin, a hardened heart, unbelief, apostasy” (N. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today 90).

What are we to do? “Exhort” (NKJ), “Encourage” (NAS) [parakaléō] (lit. “call to one’s side”). Who? “one another” or “yourselves” [heautoús], a reciprocal duty (cf. John 13:34; Col. 3:16). How often? “daily” or “each day” [hekástēn hēméran] (cf. Acts 2:46). Why? “For” [gár] “we have become” [gegónamen] (perfect tense: in the past, continuing in present) “partakers” or “sharers” [métochoi] of Christ (cf. 1 Co.1:9; 2 John 9; Gal. 2:20). Condition: “if we hold the beginning of our confidence [or ‘assurance’] steadfast to the end” (3:14), a call for perseverance, pressing on (note v. 6; cf. also 2:2; 6:19).

Lessons from rebellious Israel3

“For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb. 3:16-19).

It is interesting to note that the “disobeying ones” [apeithēsasin] (v. 18) were guilty of “unbelief” [apistían] (v. 19); cf. 4:6, 11. It follows, then, that to be a believer in the biblical sense is to obey (cf. 5:9; 11:31).

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ Cf. 2 Cor. 9:13; 1 Tim. 6:12. On the verb homologeō, see Heb. 11:13; 13:15; cf. Matt. 10:32-33; Rom. 10:9-10; 1 Tim. 6:12.

     ² Heb. 3:11, 18; 4:1, 3(x2), 5, 10, 11; Acts 7:49 (quote Isa. 66:1-2). The verb form katapaúō occurs in 4:4, 8, 10, and only once elsewhere in the NT (Acts 14:18). Note also sabbatismós (“sabbath rest”) in 4:9, the only occurrence of this word in the NT.

     ³ Cf. Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:1-11.

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