The Church in Hebrews 3

The Church in Hebrews 3 is warned about hardening their hearts, as the Hebrews did in the wilderness. The passage referred to is Numbers 14, where the people listened to the 10 unbelieving spies and did not want to go into Canaan, but decided to return to Egypt.  The clear implication here is that, like Israel in the wilderness, Christians are liable to harden their hearts and turn back to the life of sin from which Christ has redeemed them.  I believe in Perseverance of the Saints, but a great many professing Christians have fallen away over the centuries, beginning with Judas. So, one does not know until the end if any Christian is the real deal. Professing Christians may, at some point, fail to hold on to their hope.  And we don't know that those who fall away for a time won't come back, as Peter did after betraying Christ.

As a Dispensationalist, I believed that the Church was a new thing God came up with in lieu of setting up His Kingdom.  As a Post-Mil, I believe the Church IS the kingdom and that Gentile believers are grafted into the true Israel [Rom 11], and are members of the assembly of the faithful, the "new man" and household of God mentioned in Ephesians 2, the Kingdom of Priests and Holy Nation of Exodus 19:6, and that we are one body with the great heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

Furthermore, I believe that, just as the Jews saw the miracles of Exodus, yet hardened their hearts and turned back to Egypt, and all but Caleb and Joshua were denied entry into the promised rest, many Christians are likewise hardened and drift away from the faith and become rebellious and useless.  The author of Hebrews obviously thinks this is possible, since he exhorts them throughout Hebrews to hold onto their faith and not drift away or fall away or turn away.  We read in vv.5,6:

5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 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.

We are NOT his house if we do not hold firm to the end.  The "if" in v.6 makes the first clause conditional. Likewise, v.14 also has this "if",

For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

We are partakers of Christ, not without condition, but perseverance is expected of the elect.  Now, I'm not going to try and argue that it is or is not possible for true believers to fall away.  That is not the purpose if the writer of Hebrews.  What he does want is the believers he had addressed to not give up their hope, particularly in the face of relentless persecution from the Jewish diaspora to keep all the Laws and traditions, despite the fact that so many of them were Gentiles.  

There is, then, a real danger that professing Christians, both Jewish and Gentile, can be hardened against Christ and fall away.  This is why v.13 says,

Exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin is stealthy, persistent, deceitful. When it gets into the life of a Christian, it can lead him to become bitter toward other Christians and often even bitter toward God. This was the struggle of Job.  We dare not allow bitterness in.  If God permits us to suffer, like Job, we should say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

We are, like the Israelites in the wilderness, not yet in heaven. We are on the way. But this side of "the Jordan", we are in a hostile wilderness, designed by God to toughen us up for battle, for conquest.  The "land of rest" has enemies we must overcome.  We are not in "peacetime", but need to "Put on the armor of God" and "take up the sword of the Spirit" so we may stand against the devil's wiles, and conquer the gates of Hell, which "cannot prevail against" the Church Jesus is building.  (How I thank God these things are not to be taken literally, but spiritually, as in spiritual warfare and wrestling not against flesh and blood.)  

Lord, help me to overcome the lull of a false peacetime, and fight by your side as long as you are "ruling among your enemies".  Please show me the way to fight, and conquer the unbelief in the hearts of others.  Make your church valiant and victorious, for the honor and glory and kingdom of your Son Jesus, in Whose name I pray.  Amen