36. Confidence to Completion
Covering Hebrews Chapter 3 through 4:11:
I am so full. Hebrews Chapters 1-2 sets out the entirety of our Glorious Salvation in kernel form, every part of which the writer now intends to develop. The first word of Chapter 3 is “therefore.” This is the third time in a row that word is used, with its full meaning now set before us. Because of and out from this Salvation in which we are carried, we consider JESUS carefully.
I have placed the divide between this lesson and the next, “Word and Oath,” in-between verses 11 and 12 of Chapter 4. 4:11 is Completion and 4:12 is Word. Before we consider Jesus carefully in 3:1, I want to place the setting and meaning of this passage that our topic covers, which is our confidence, that is, Ruling Verse 7.
Confidence and Boldness. Hebrews 3:6 & 14 and 10:19-22 have been two of seven ruling verses in my life since my early thirties, though I had only vague notions of what Hebrews 10 meant and I had Hebrews 3, the jeopardy of the Gospel, completely backwards. At the heart of both rules is the Greek parrhesia, meaning boldness in public speaking, translated both as confidence and as boldness. These two have similar meanings in English; confidence is from Latin and boldness from Anglo-Saxon. Read their historical definitions at etymonline.com.
As I have written about Ruling Verses 6 and 7 over time, they have gone in two different directions, though keeping the same meaning. Boldness is the right word for how we apprehend everything of God and confidence is the right word for every next step we take out from God.
The Actions of Faith. That places boldness with Covenant and confidence with Kingdom. Both are a description of the action of faith, the action of overcoming, that is, defeating death. Boldness is Source and space, whereas Confidence is movement and Completion, from Source to Completion. Chapter 3:1 through 4:11 are Kingdom and related to the journey of Israel, and Chapter 10:1-23 are Covenant and related to the Tabernacle, although Covenant and Kingdom are always intertwined throughout the Bible.
This is also a description of our working definition of Life, that Life is purposeful movement within and without. The greatest expression of boldness inside of God and confidence out from Him are the words, “God, You are with me. You have answered me.”
Consider Jesus Carefully. (Chapter 3) • 1 Therefore, devoted brothers and sisters, active partakers of the heavenly calling, consider carefully the Apostle and High Priest of our same speaking, Jesus, 2 who is presently being faithful to the One who causes Him, as also Moses was faithful inside his entire house. 3 For He has been accounted worthy of more excellent and plenteous glory than Moses, just as the one who builds a house has greater honor than the house itself. • 4 Indeed, every house is built by someone, but the One who built all is God.
We are to consider three things. First, we are to consider Jesus as Apostle and High Priest; second that He is proven faithful and True; and third that His task is to build a House for God. Then this. The One who builds the house is greater than the house, but the One who dwells in the house is greater than all.
Apostle and High Priest. Apostle and High Priest are NOT titles; they are words descriptive of the continuous function of Jesus in our lives. Apostle is One who is sent. Jesus is continuously SENT out from God into us. High Priest is one who returns. Jesus is continuously returning us to the Father inside Himself. Apostle is authority, and High Priest is propitiation. Jesus is the authority out from God to resolve all differences, that He might then connect us to God in every moment. Jesus comes forth in Confidence and returns in Boldness, that is, the description of faithful, that is, filled with faith.
But all of this is a means to an end, and the end is a House for God, a Body prepared for the Father, a Church bringing forth the Life of God into creation, the Form for God through Jesus.
Sent and Returned. The House of God, Ephesians 2:19-22, is not the main theme of Hebrews, but we see that the writer is placing that concept in the background as the reason for everything going forward. At the same time, the mention of Moses is a continuation of Hebrew’s drawing all out from Old Testament Scripture.
3:1 Definition: Jesus as Apostle means that Jesus is continuously SENT out from God into us, becoming in us our own knowledge of God. Jesus as High Priest means that Jesus is continuously returning into the Father with us inside of Him, becoming God’s own knowledge of us.
4 The Form for God through Jesus: Although not the primary theme of Hebrews, the writer is placing the House (and city) built for God as the background concept, for indeed, the One who dwells in the House that is built is greater than all.
Our Confidence. • 6 Christ, however, as Son upon His house, whose house we are, IF INDEED, our confidence, our bold and public speaking [of Christ our life] and the exultant boasting of our hope [that we are just like Jesus – 1 John 3:1-3], we should hold upon firm unto all completion.
Verses 6 & 14 are the jeopardy of the Gospel, centered entirely on the critical word IF. What I want to do now is set out the relationship found between the three verses that I selected to be part of Ruling Verse 7 together with the meaning of the story in Numbers 13 and 14 and in Joshua 1-6 and the reference to the Tabernacle. The “house of Moses” is the tabernacle pattern and the nation of Israel. And the “House of Christ” is the Salvation He has wrought and His glorious Church, the House of God.
The Most Significant IF. “Whose house we are,” then means, literally and substantially, the place where Jesus dwells, His actual and only body. The word “if” is the most significant IF in the Bible and must be taken as do or die. Fulfill what comes after the IF and live, or fail to fulfill it and hear, “I never knew you.” What comes after the IF is the most important quality of the Christian life – faith in Jesus becoming His faithfulness.
Ruling Verse 7: The word “if” in verses 6 & 14 is the most important IF in the Bible, the issue of life or death. We are utterly concerned about God fulfilling in us what comes after the IF. The House Jesus builds is our hearts where He dwells and the entirety of His Salvation. Our part is faith, that is, full confidence in Jesus that, as we speak Christ our only Life, so Jesus makes us to be just like Himself. We stand upon Firm.
Placing the IF. Then we have two main points in-between these first two parts of Ruling Verse 7. • 7 Therefore, just as the Devoted Spirit says, “Today, if you should hear and comprehend His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the provoking, in the day of testing and despair in the wilderness. – • 12 Look carefully, brothers and sisters, lest there would ever be inside any of you an evil heart of unbelief into withdrawing from the living God. 13 But encourage each other every day, while it is called, “Today,” so that not one of you might be hardened by the false impression of falling short.
These are two things that must be defined, three actually. The first two are “Today” and “an evil heart.” But we also must fully place this passage with its primary source, Numbers 13-14, the today of despair, the opposite of parrhesia.
Only Today. 7 & 13 Definition: Today is the only Day of Salvation, the only day that ever exists, and all the ages to come have only one reality ever, and that is the very next step we take. Today is our only day of decision; today we HEAR His voice and believe.
8 Definition: Hebrews is using the account in Numbers 13-14 as the primary picture of our great jeopardy, whether we run into Jesus or whether we prefer our own story of self. This is called the day of despair because Israel refused to enter into God’s promise to them. They saw themselves incapable instead, magnifying their enemies and minimizing God.
12 Definition: An evil heart is a heart that draws back from confidence in God in order to keep one’s own preferred identity of lostness. This disconnection from God is called un-belief, that is, faith in self and refusal of God.
Partakers of Christ. Next we have the second part of our Ruling Verse. • 14 For we have become partakers of Christ IF INDEED the source of our substance and assurance we should hold firm until all completion.
Again, “standing upon firm” will be developed in the expanded layout. Here we want to tie, “Become partakers of Christ,” together with the other parts. “Become partakers of Christ” has meanings at ever deeper levels and in many differing arenas. Part of its meaning here is the entrance into the Promised Land, into all the life of Christ, that is, Christian Community. Verses 6 & 14 can be merged together, with “we are Jesus’ house – we partake of Christ” being together, with the conditions met together, and with IF and upon firm the same.
Our Assurance. “The Source of our substance and assurance” is vague to most; it is no longer vague to us. The Source is Jesus in Hebrews 1:3, that we come out from His good-speaking every moment. Our substance is Jesus, who Himself is the substance of God, and our assurance is that Jesus causes us to be just like Himself. This is our confidence in transubstantiation and metamorphosis, the work and proof of Christ Jesus.
Ruling Verse 7: The word “if” in verses 14 & 6 is the most important IF in the Bible, the issue of life or death. We WANT God to fulfill in us what comes after the IF. We are part of Christ IF we are confident that we are part of Christ. Our Source is Hebrews 1:3, the good-speaking of Jesus out from whom we come every moment, and our assurance is that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself. We stand upon Firm.
God Always Leads Us. Next we bring in the third part of Ruling Verse 7, 2 Corinthians 2:14. – Good grace and thanks be to God, who always leads us in the triumphal procession inside of Christ, with the aroma of His knowledge being made visible through us in every place.
This is the primary Gospel Truth preached by Joel Osteen and fully received by me. Thus when I penciled out the most important verses of the Bible, I wanted to include it. Indeed, “God always leads me,” was my most grateful conclusion to all the healing accomplished in me. I saw clearly that it was God’s answer to the big IF. Then, in its attachment to Confidence, this verse turned the Rule towards Kingdom and every next step. “God, You are with me is” Covenant, and “You answer me” is Kingdom.
The Choice of Today. I want to partially paraphrase Numbers 13:30-33, for it is here that we see the choice inside of Today.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once into all the Life of Christ, and take possession, for we are well able to overcome all that opposes.” – “God is with us, and He always answers us.” – But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the opposition of sin and death, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land of Christ, of Christian Community…, saying, “There we saw the giants of injustice, despair, and unbelief; and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
This is the contention inside of which Hebrews places the jeopardy of the Gospel and our Victory.
The Same Faith. Inside our Salvation, “we are well able to overcome” always comes out from the all now, “God always leads us in the celebration of VICTORY over all sin and death.” “God always leads us as rivers of life and love flowing out into every place.”
Now the patterns of Caleb and Joshua so clearly portray the Gospel of Salvation now coming through us into our world, yet the Glory upon the Church is far greater than any glory they knew then. HOWEVER, not so with their faith and ours, for faith is the same. Indeed Moses, Joshua, and Caleb are Christians today, filled with Jesus, imparting their strength and courage towards us inside of Him, with all earnest expectation. This is the confidence in which we walk every next step, the Firm upon which we stand.
Defining the Rule. This rule is simple and complex, focused and yet including more critical things than mentioned thus far, including speaking Christ and asking and believing. Indeed, I am adding a bit more license to the expansion of this Ruling Verse.
Defining the Rule: The Gospel confronts every human with an absolute “IF.” We belong to Jesus, we are part of Him – IF. What comes after the IF is the most important quality we receive from God, utter confidence in Jesus, the faith of the Son of God, that Jesus accomplishes all inside of us. This faith is the only thing that pleases God; this faith turns us around to now be about our Father’s business. Confidence that we are part of Christ Jesus in all ways sends forth Life into all. This confidence asks and believes, “Let it be to me according to Your word.” It gives thanks in all; it speaks Christ our Life, that we are just like Jesus.
Expanded and Personal. Christ, however, as Son upon His house, whose house and body we are, IF INDEED, our confidence, our bold and public speaking of Christ our life and the exultant boasting of our hope that we are just like Jesus, we should hold upon firm unto all completion, even as we ask and believe God for all Word fulfilled in us. For we have become partakers of Christ IF INDEED the Source of our substance, Christ into us, and our assurance, that He makes us like Himself, we should hold firm until all completion. Today, we hear His voice, thus we say, “Good grace and thanks be to God, who always leads us in the triumphal procession inside of Christ, with the aroma of His knowledge being made visible through us in every place.” Today we walk in the celebration of all Victory; today Christ is revealed through us.
Christ Made Personal: I am part of Christ because I am confident that I am. I walk in the celebration of all Victory.
Life and Covenant. Life: Life is a Flow out from God through Jesus and into us, flowing through us to others, and then returning into God. We are the channels of that Life, but one thing only in us is the Door, that one thing is our utter confidence that Jesus is all.
Covenant: Life is movement within and without. Covenant is the boldness by which we apprehend all that God is inside of us inside of God. Kingdom is the confidence in which we take every next step out from God. In both Ruling Verses 6 and 7, the key word is parrhesia, bold public speaking. Kingdom, our every next step, comes always out from God sharing all with us.
Speak Christ: With their voices, Israel spoke out from hearts of refusal, magnifying evil and minimizing God. Inside the Gospel, we also speak out from our hearts, that Christ is our only life, having conquered all. We see God, and we see death no more.
What Must Appear. Before continuing, I want to set out what must show up all the way through, out from each of our three verses. The goal is to be part of Christ Jesus, part of His body, His Life, and His purpose (rivers of Life). The IF stands as absolute, the ONLY way by which our goal has become already all.
The requirement is confidence, being filled with faith in Jesus, that He is True, the completion of every Word God speaks inside our hearts. – “Let it be to me according to Your Word.” This confidence shows itself first and is practiced second, in three ways. We celebrate Victory already ours through giving thanks. We acknowledge that we come out from Jesus by speaking Christ. And we assert that Jesus makes us like Himself by asking His Word fulfilled, and then believing that He is.
In all, we stand upon firmness, upon the Certainty that God is True – all the way through all.
Symmorphosed and Filled! Ruling Verse 1: We stand firm upon the certainty that we are already symmorphosed with Jesus as the revelation of the Father, that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself. We engage with God every moment confident that we synergeo together making all things good. We walk in the absolute knowing that we are already glorified with Jesus inside the throne of God.
Ruling Verse 2: Christ lives inside of our hearts THROUGH faith, through our confidence that He does, and that He is written there as every Word God speaks fulfilled. The FIRM upon which we stand, then, is that we are rooted and grounded inside of Love. That Firmness continues as how we walk together, knowing the Father and loving one another. Our firmness holds until we know our togetherness as the very House of God, filled with all the fulness of God.
From Rivers to Intimacy. Ruling Verse 3: We are part of Christ Jesus, part of His Body, His Life, and His Purpose. That purpose is that Rivers of the Spirit of Life would flow out from us bringing the knowledge of God everywhere we go. Being confident that Life always flows out from us changes our knowing of everything.
Ruling Verse 4: We defeat sin and death, we cast down the accuser of our brethren, we share with Jesus in His authority, His Kingdom come now, inside the overflowing confidence that our full Victory is the only thing real.
Ruling Verse 5: Being part of Jesus’ form, Christ Community, the revelation of the Father, and part of His purpose, Life flowing out to all, those things come second. The most precious to us is being part of Jesus’ LIFE, that He shares all that He is with us and all that we are with Himself, in intimate, close, and personal fellowship inside of all Union.
From Boldness to Love. Ruling Verse 6: Hebrews 10:19-22 portrays the same confidence as boldness inside of God, that God is pleased as we apprehend everything He is, as now our own. And we do so only inside the CERTAINTY that Jesus has already carried us into God and that He joins us always with our Father.
Ruling Verse 7: This confidence that we are part of Jesus, of His Life, His Body, and His Ministry, is the foundation and Source of every next step we take forever. We live turned around because we are confident that we are part of Christ.
Ruling Verse 8: We will love as God through us ONLY as Ruling Verse 7 turns us around, that Jesus utterly joins us with the Father in all, that we DO share Hheart with God. We do not need to “feel” Love in order to speak Love through us, in order to be Love for others, for we stand upon Firm.
The Rock and the Fire. Ruling Verse 9: Our ministry towards all creation, our travail for the sake of others, our sharing with Jesus in placing the Father’s Heart above all, these things come only out from the utter certainty that Jesus is faithful and True, inside of us, in all that God speaks. We are the witness of Christ; the Firm upon which we stand is the Rock that is God, an absolute Salvation.
Ruling Verse 10: We know that Jesus is inside of the Father and we inside of Him and He inside of us ONLY IF we acknowledge that it is True. We know God our Father and LIVE only IF we first know with certainty that God sent Jesus into us to make us just like Himself. This Fiery IF is simple. Either God is not to be trusted, for our intellects are wiser than He. – Or – God always speaks the Truth, Jesus inside of us as all Word fulfilled. We abide inside of Jesus, we put the Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves, ONLY IF we are certain inside absolute Salvation.
The Kingdom as Father Made Known. Kingdom: Kingdom begins with every next step we take out from utter confidence in Jesus our Life already all. Yet this very confidence that God always speaks the Truth and is Faithful in all, goes out from us like the growth of a crystal, causing the same confidence in God through us to become the fabric of all interactions among all forever.
The Form for God through Jesus: God believes in Jesus, and He is glorified in our togetherness as we together walk in the certain conviction of Jesus faithful and True. Others will see God, and fall on their knees to worship Him inside of Love, only when they see the confidence in God that is Christ Jesus shining upon our faces. We are part of the House of God, Christ Community forever, as we together are CONFIDENT that God Himself is all our interactions through Jesus.
Defining Unbelief. • 19 And so we see that they were not able to enter in through unbelief, that is, through the absence of faith.
The issue is the ability of Jesus. Here is the testimony of all Christianity we have known. – No one of sufficient value was found who could open the scroll to perceive what was written in it (Revelation 5:4). In other words, “Jesus is not able to make us just like Himself right now.” In all my past Christian experience, we believed we could not live in God now BECAUSE we believed our fleshy and evil hearts were greater than anything Jesus might be.
19 Definition: Unbelief is not neutral. Unbelief is a heart filled with faith in its own evil, that sin and death are far greater than anything Jesus might be towards us. When unbelief sees God, it calls its own self – EVIL.
Enter What? (Chapter 4) • 1 We should fear, therefore, regarding being left behind of the promise to enter fully into His rest, lest any of you should imagine you have been left out [that is, have not entered]. • 2 And indeed, we have had the gospel preached to us just as they did; but the word that they heard did not benefit them, [that word] not having been mixed together in full union with the faith of those who heard. 3 For we who believe and are persuaded do enter into that rest…
Hebrews now goes from Numbers 13-14, refusing to enter in, to the actual entrance into the promised land in Joshua 3-4. In writing the Gospel Flow for Hebrews and Revelation at the same time, I see that both have placed the crossing of the Jordan River as central. Indeed it is the Ekenosis, the entrance of the Kingdom, He humbled Himself.
The Promised Land. Partaking of Christ (verse 14) is pictured to us by Israel taking possession of the Promised Land. Thus the entrance through the Jordan is our picture of Ruling Verse 6, the WAY through death and into all that is God. Thus the Promised Land and the Most Devoted Place speak of the same Life we enjoy inside of full union with Jesus and fellowship with one another. Yet again, the Promised Land is the Kingdom and the Most Devoted is the Covenant out from which such a way of living always comes.
The Promised Land is all the riches of Christ shared together inside the heart fellowship of Christian Community, knowing God together, the place of blessing, Life forevermore. The only thing that refuses such overflowing Glory is the paucity of self-worship, self turning “in confidence” towards self.
Life out from Union. 4:1 Ruling Verse 10 & 5: REST is living inside of Jesus who lives inside of us, John 14:20, yet even more, REST is abiding utterly inside the precious intimacy of our union with Christ Jesus, which He extends always over us in sweet fellowship.
1 Ruling Verse 6: The entrance into REST is already all, for Jesus has carried us into God, into the Most Devoted. We dwell in such REST only as we acknowledge it to be True.
2 Definition: Hebrews 4:2 is God’s definition of our conception out from Himself. Word is the Sperm of God entering into us. Faith is the female egg inside of us. Word and Faith join together, and we become sons out from God.
1-2 Life: By receiving the Word God speaks as True inside our human faith, against all human sight and judgment, we receive that Flow of God through Jesus that alone is LIFE!
Our Sabbath Rest. • 9 So then there is left a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has already entered into His rest, he also has rested from his works, just as God did from His own.
Brother Buddy preached this line more often than most, placing it after the “IF,” teaching that we must stop doing anything except “hear and obey.” I knew he was not regarding the words correctly, but I did not know what they meant. Now I do. God rested from His works BECAUSE THEY WERE FINISHED. We rest in our works in the same way, that all that we are and do comes out from “It is finished.”
This is Romans 8:30 passing through 8:29 and into 8:28, that is, already glorified, through symmorphosed with Jesus, into synergeoing with God in all out from a shared confidence of faith, a continual “work” found inside of utter REST.
Escaping Contempt. • 11 We should be eager, therefore, to enter into that rest, so that no one should fall in the same pattern of refusing to hear.
I now see what sin actually is, hamartia, a failed return. Sin is refusing to allow Jesus to carry us back into God. The return is entugchanó, which makes us part of Jesus as He carries all back into the Father. Refusal is contempt for God, for self, and especially for others.
9-11 Ruling Verse 6: Sin, the Greek hamartia, is a failed return into God, by preferring contempt and refusing Jesus having already accomplished all. The return is entugchanó, that we are part of Jesus carried always into God in every moment.
9-11 Ruling Verse 1: God rested inside His finished work; we also rest inside of “already glorified.” Already glorified, coming first, passes through already symmorphosed to become synergeoing with God in all, a shared work inside Sabbath Rest.
From Refusal to Rebellion. I must add another slide. God intended the entrance into the Promised Land to be the fulfilment of Tabernacles in the seventh month. They tried at that time, but were defeated. Then, the rebellion of Korah (Numbers 16) came in December, the ninth month, the time of the birthing of a child.
When faced with sin and death, Christians see THEMSELVES, and thus call Jesus incapable here and now. This is the cause of continual defeat and continual fake “repentance.” But John Calvin went further. He said, “When you see God, then you will KNOW! Know what? – You will KNOW EVIL, just how evil you are.” And his answer to such wicked seeing? – Make yourself right in the very presence of the All-Sustaining One. – The birth of Rebellion, burning union with Jesus at the stake.
Let us therefore FEAR. – We run with confidence into Jesus.
The Return and the Completion. We are finally beginning to understand Ruling Verse 7, though we have cast ourselves upon God inside of it for years. It has become so much to us.
Now, this lesson is “Confidence to Completion.” What is the Completion into which confidence takes us? The answer to that question is hidden throughout, for it is the Jesus Secret, that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself – IN THE RETURN. That is, Jesus shares with us the same quality of carrying others inside our hearts all the way into God.
“Here am I, God, I and all these precious ones whom You have given to me,” is my completion, my return with Jesus into the Father, and you with me. The Return and the Completion is Christian Community, believers in Jesus loving one another in daily life together.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we know that Jesus has carried us into You and caused us to share Your Life with ours and ours with Yours. Through our confidence that Jesus is faithful and True, we give You our all, our best and our worst, our most and our least. Look upon us, Oh God, for we belong to You.
“Inside of You now, oh Father, Jesus has turned us around that we might share Your Heart and Your Desire for Your Church, that You might fill her with Your Glory. For Your Zeal and Determination are now the entirety of our lives.
“We are confident, Father, even as we synergeo with You inside the overflowing Rivers of our Devoted Spirit going forth, that the Victory of Jesus’ Resurrection flows into Your Church now upon this earth, eating up death for the sake of all. Even so, Lord Jesus, for You fill Your Church with Life.”