7  Jesus Greater than  Moses (3:1-6)

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. (3:1-6)

After having seen the exalted supremacy of Jesus, who is better than the prophets and the angels, we are now shown how He is better than Moses, the one through whom the first covenant came.

THE GREATNESS OF MOSES

These first six verses present the doctrine on which the exhortation of the rest of the chapter is built. In order to understand the exhortation, we need to understand the premise; and to understand the premise, we need to review what the Jews of that day thought about Moses. To appreciate how, why, and to what extent Jesus is better than Moses, we need to see how important Moses was even before this. Even before this, we need to ask why it is necessary to prove that Jesus is better than Moses?

Moses was esteemed by the Jews far above any other Jew who ever lived. God had miraculously protected him as a baby and personally provided for his burial. Between those two points in his life are miracle after miracle after miracle. He was the man to whom God spoke face to face. He had seen the very glory of God and, in fact, even had this glory reflected in his own face for a brief while. After he came down from Sinai, “The skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him” (Ex. 34:29). He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt. As Paul stresses in Romans 2, Jews had great confidence in the law. The Old Testament commandments and rituals were their supreme priorities, and to them Moses and the law were synonymous. The New Testament often refers to the commands of God as the “law of Moses” (Luke 2:22; Acts 13:39; and others). Moses not only brought the Ten Commandments but he also wrote the entire Pentateuch, which lays out the Levitical and other laws that governed everything the Jews did. Moses gave the plans for the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant.

Some Jews believed that Moses was greater than angels. God spoke to the prophets in visions, but to Moses He spoke face to face. He spoke to him in a burning bush. He spoke to him out of heaven. He spoke to him on Sinai and wrote the commandments with a finger of fire. He was, above all others, God’s man.

Yet, in this passage of Hebrews the Holy Spirit calls on Jewish readers, especially, to look at Jesus. Moses was indeed great; but Jesus is far greater. Jesus is shown to be superior to Moses in office, in work, and in person. In His office, He is the Apostle and High Priest. In His work, He is the Builder of the house. In His Person, He is the Son.

JESUS’ SUPERIOR OFFICE: AS APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. (Heb. 3:1)

The Holy Spirit was speaking directly to Christian Jews who were looking at Jesus with one eye but glancing back to Judaism with the other. The word therefore always refers back to something previous. “On the basis of what I’ve just said,” the writer is saying, “consider Jesus.” The term consider (katanoe) implies attention and continuous observation. The idea is, “Put your mind on Jesus and let it remain there, that you may understand who He is and what He wills.”

His recovering of man’s lost destiny, His humbling Himself and becoming our Substitute, our Author of salvation, our Sanctifier, our Satan-Conqueror, and our Sympathizer—all these more than qualify Him for the most serious consideration possible. Jesus is the supreme Apostle, the Sent-One from God, and the perfect High Priest. He is powerful, sympathetic, merciful, faithful, saving, reconciling, protective, helpful, brotherly. On the basis of who He is and what He has done, every person should consider Him. Every person should focus on the absolute sufficiency of Jesus and drop everything else. We have a new High Priest and a new Sent-One from God. He is all anyone will ever need. What an amazing message.

HOLY BRETHREN ARE FELLOW BELIEVERS

As believers, we are brothers with Christ because we are identified with Him, as adopted children of the heavenly Father. Many people studying the book of Hebrews have assumed, therefore, that it must have been written exclusively to Christians, since the readers are so often addressed as “brethren.” But Scripture recognizes types of brotherhood other than spiritual. Both Peter (Acts 2:29) and Paul (Acts 13:38), for example, addressed unbelieving fellow Jews as “brethren.” But holy brethren refers to fellow Christians, to those who are true brothers. This particular passage is written to Christians, holy Jewish brothers in Christ. “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). These were spiritual brothers, sanctified, set apart, and made holy in Christ.

This section is written to partakers of a heavenly calling, who desired a heavenly country (11:16), and who had come to the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22). All of these blessings show the superiority of Christianity to Judaism. Judaism was an earthly calling with an earthly inheritance. Christianity is a spiritual and heavenly calling with a spiritual and heavenly inheritance. It is, therefore, far superior.

Paul said, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. . . . For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:14, 20). Our true home is in heaven and we live spiritually right now in heavenly places (Eph. 1:3; 2:6). As true believers we are brothers of Jesus by position and are thereby holy. We are only strangers and pilgrims on earth. Our bodies are in this world but we do not really belong here.

The writer is saying to his Christian Jewish readers, “You are citizens of the heavenlies, so why don’t you let go of the earthly things? Why do you want to hang on to the earthly rituals, the earthly symbols, when you have the heavenly reality?” As Christians we do not need religious ritual because we have spiritual reality. Jesus said that now—that is, since He has come—anyone who wants to worship the Father truly, must do so in spirit and in truth, not in rituals and ceremonies (John 4:23). There is no place in biblical Christianity for externalism because Christians have continual access to spiritual reality.

All of us, at times, are tempted to think that our works and our religious trappings are all-important. Even when we know better, we often feel most comfortable and “religious” in traditional, familiar worship settings and when we perform certain religious acts or good deeds that we believe are particularly pleasing to God. We know and accept God’s free grace complete in Christ, but we hang on to some form of artificial legalism rather than live a positive, Christ-controlled, Spirit-energized life. Considering and experiencing Christ’s sufficiency should shatter all legalistic efforts, whether Judaistic or any other kind.

For Christians to hang on to earthly religious trappings not only is unnecessary and pointless but also spiritually harmful. To do so keeps us from experiencing the fullness of our new relationship with God and from being able to follow Him as faithfully as we ought. These things are barriers, not means, to blessing. Since believers share in the righteous nature of Christ and in His heavenly calling, they live in a heavenly existence. They ought to concentrate on that heavenly existence, not the earthly. It is not just the unsaved who need to consider Jesus. Believers also, no matter how mature, need to consider Him in everything they do.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON CHRIST

Why do we need to keep considering Christ, when as Christians we are already in Him and identified with Him? Simply because all of us are far from fully discovering all of His glories, all of His beauties, all that He is. So the Spirit says to us, as to those early believers, “Gaze on Jesus. Keep gazing on Him and don’t look around at all the rituals and all the problems and all the persecutions. Keep considering Jesus. You don’t need anything else. He is sufficient for everything. Now that you have the supreme Reality, keep your attention on Him.”

There may have been a greater Christian than Paul, but I cannot imagine who he could have been. Yet this great apostle said that his greatest desire was to “know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;... Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:10, 12). Even Paul had not plumbed the full depths of Christ.

The reason so many Christians are weak and worried is that they do not keep considering Christ, and so His full strength and comfort and guidance are not theirs. The Holy Spirit continually says to every believer, “Consider Jesus.” When life gets rough and problems seem to have no solution and everything goes bad and disappointment and depression become “normal” and temptations seem impossible to resist—put your gaze on Jesus and keep it there intently until He begins to unfold before your very eyes in all His glorious power.

Jesus said, “Learn from Me” (Matt. 11:29). He did not say, “Learn about Me” but “Learn from Me.” Do you really enjoy your Christian life? Do you get up in the morning and say, “Lord, I just can’t wait to see what You’re going to do today?” Do you go through the day and say, “Lord, Your fellowship and Your presence are thrilling?” Do you enjoy Jesus Christ? Do you sometimes want to stand up and shout? You ought to enjoy Him like that. But many Christians do not enjoy Jesus. They appear to be miserable and unhappy, and they do not know anything about His joy. They may think the only thing the Lord does for us is to give an occasional rebuke. They see Him this way because they do not walk with Him day by day. They do not know Him richly and deeply and intimately. They need to consider Jesus and learn from Him.

When I was in college, I used to pay fifty cents to go through the back door of the orchestra hall in Los Angeles. I would go up into the balcony with two or three books and sit there and listen to a whole concert by myself while I did homework. I listened to Bartok and Moussorgsky and other great composers. As I listened, I began to gain an appreciation for the masters. To anyone who says he does not appreciate great music or great art, I would say, “My friend, go to the orchestra hall and the art museum and stay there until you enjoy it.” You have to learn to love the masters. You have to learn to recognize and enjoy great beauty and genius.

If you want to enjoy Jesus you have to stay with Him until you learn to enjoy Him. Stay there until your Christian life is one thrill after another. Until every waking moment of every day is joy upon joy upon joy. Consider Him. Focus your attention on Him.

When Timothy was still a young man, he began to have stomach trouble. Paul advised him to take some wine (1 Tim. 5:23). Among other things, he was being criticized by some of the Ephesian Christians. He became discouraged and was hurting. In his second letter to his young son in the faith, Paul tells Timothy to keep going, to be like a good soldier, a well-trained athlete, a hard-working farmer (2 Tim. 2:3-6). But his most important counsel was, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel” (2:8). There are many practical things, such as taking medicine when we are sick, that Christians can and should do. But when we face spiritual problems, serious problems, insurmountable problems, the really worthwhile prescription is “Remember Jesus Christ. Gaze on Him. Learn from Him.”

In Hebrews 12:1-2, the writer says, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.” If we are going to run the Christian race, we must look at Jesus.

I ran the 100- and 220-yard dashes in college. We learned very soon that you cannot run while watching your feet. You look straight ahead. When we ran sprints we set our eyes on the tape, and we kept our eyes on it until the finish. Looking at the tape helped motivate the desire to win and it kept us going in the right direction. It also kept our attention off ourselves and those running next to us. When we are running in the Christian race, we must get our eyes off our feet, get them off ourselves, and off those around us. We look to Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith. We look at Him and then we are able to run. Looking at Him we know why we are running and where we are running, and have the power and the joy to keep on running.

CHRIST AN APOSTLE

Jesus is to be considered as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The fact that He is both of these is the first way in which He is superior to Moses. Though he was never called such in Scripture, Moses could be considered an Old Testament apostle in the basic sense of the word. Apostolos means “sent one” and was a title often used for official ambassadors. In this sense Moses was God’s apostle, His sent-one to bring His people the law and the covenant. But Jesus was both Apostle and High Priest. Though Moses could be considered a type of apostle, he was not a priest at all, much less high priest. Jesus is superior to Moses in office because He has two offices, whereas Moses had only one.

Even in the office of apostle, Jesus is superior—first of all because He brought a better covenant, and second, because He was Himself the sacrifice that made the better covenant effective. Jesus is the supreme Apostle, the supreme Sent-One from God.

What are the characteristics of an apostle or an ambassador? First, he has the rights and the power and the authority of the ruler who sends him. Jesus came in the power of God, with all of God’s grace, all of God’s love, all of God’s mercy, all of God’s justice, and all of God’s power. Second, an ambassador speaks completely on behalf of the one who sent him. Jesus said, “I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak” (John 12:49; cf. 8:28, 38). Jesus was the perfect Ambassador, the perfect Apostle sent from God.

CHRIST THE HIGH PRIEST

Jesus is also our great High Priest. But since His role as High Priest is dealt with in such detail in Hebrews 4 and 5, we will not elaborate on it here. Suffice it to say that He is the supreme Priest, the supreme Mediator, between God and man. He not only is the Sent-One from God with all God’s power, speaking with God’s voice, but He is the One who brings man and God together. Thus He brings God to man and man to God.

JESUS’ SUPERIOR WORKS: AS BUILDER

He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. (3:2-4)

Here is a brief comparison of the work of Jesus with that of Moses. Keep in mind that it is hard for Gentiles to understand the affection Jews have always had for Moses. He was a great man, a man of God who stood head and shoulders above all other men. Almost everything of importance connected with God is, in the Jew’s mind, connected with Moses. This subject, therefore, is dealt with very carefully by the Holy Spirit in this passage. His wisdom is marvelous. Before showing Jesus’ superiority to Moses, He points up the resemblance of the two. Before talking about their differences, He talks about their similarities.

Moses was faithful. The Old Testament confirms that testimony. “My servant Moses ... is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth” (Num. 12:7-8). He carried out God’s plan. He came out of Egypt into the wilderness. God refined him. It took forty years for God to make Moses usable; then, for forty more years, God used him. God’s servant faithfully took the children of Israel out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea he believed God’s promise of deliverance and faithfully led his people through the parted waters. He was faithful in the wilderness. Several times he faltered, as he had long before in Egypt when he slew the Egyptian. For example, he struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded. But for the most part Moses was faithful. And it is his faithfulness that the Holy Spirit here emphasizes.

Just as Moses was faithful to the One who appointed him, so was Jesus—only much more so. As God’s supreme Apostle, God’s supreme Sent-One, Jesus was completely faithful to the Father. “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the one who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (John 7:18). In other words, Jesus was saying, “You can tell I am a true Apostle because I do not seek My own glory. I seek only the glory of the One who sent Me.” From childhood He had always been about His Father’s business. “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. . . . I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 8:29; 17:4-5).

Jesus always did the Father’s will. He was faithful. Faithful is such a wonderful word. The chief qualification for an apostle, as with a disciple, is faithfulness. “If I do not do the works of My Father,” Jesus said, “do not believe Me” (John 10:37). The Father had said to Jesus, “I am sending You to earth as a man and here is the work you are to do.” Jesus came to earth and He accomplished the work, without question and without hesitation.

TRUSTWORTHY IN HIS HOUSE

House is from the Greek oikos, meaning “household,” and refers to people, not a building or dwelling. Old Testament believers—Israelites in particular, but also proselytes—were God’s household. Moses was a trustworthy steward in that household. “In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Cor. 4:2). A steward does not own the house, he simply manages it for the owner. God owned the house of Israel; Moses was simply its manager for a while. He was in charge of dispensing to the people of Israel the truths, commandments, requirements, and promises God had committed to his trust. In this he proved trustworthy.

Christ was also faithful in His house, the church. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). “And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). We are the new household and Jesus is the One who cares for us. Just as believers under the Old Testament are called the house of Moses, believers under the New Testament are called the house of Christ. And as Moses was faithful to an earthly household, Jesus is faithful to the heavenly household. Jesus could say to His Father at the end of His life, “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do” (John 17:4). He said, in effect, “I told the household all that You instructed Me to tell them and did for them all that you instructed Me to do.” He was perfectly faithful to Him who appointed Him.

All Christians are stewards in God’s house, though in a lesser sense, of course. We all, for example, have spiritual gifts. We have them as sacred trusts; they are not ours. If we are unfaithful in administering our spiritual gifts, we are unfaithful stewards. Some of us have been given special responsibilities to witness, specifically to the people in our community that God has placed around us. Some have been unfaithful stewards of this trust. Others of us have been given positions of teaching or instructing and have been unfaithful in studying diligently, faithfully, and sacrificially. These, too, are unfaithful stewards. The Christian life is a sacred trust given to us by God, and it demands our faithfulness. One of the greatest thrills a Christian can hope for is that of hearing his Lord say at the end of his life, “As I was faithful to the Father, so you have been faithful to Me.” We have not begun to discover what God can do through us if we are willing to be faithful.

For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. (3:3-4)

Moses was faithful, but he was a part of the house. Jesus made the house. That is the difference, the great difference. Jesus created Israel. “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3; cf. Heb. 1). Moses was only a member of the household which Jesus built. Jesus created Israel; Jesus created the church. Since God built, or created, all things, Jesus obviously is God.

Before any of us became Christians, and thereby parts of Christ’s house, the church, someone introduced us to the gospel. That person was responsible in a human sense for part of God’s house—just as we are responsible for part of the house when we lead others to Christ. But on the divine side, God alone creates the house and continues building it as new believers are added. Human witnesses are but the instruments He uses. He is the Builder. The Builder is greater than any of His tools. Moses was part of the house of Israel and an instrument God used in building it. To hold on to the forms of Judaism or to its greatest leader is to hold on only to the symbol of reality or to an instrument of reality. To hold on to Jesus is to hold on to reality itself.

JESUS’ SUPERIOR PERSON: AS SON

Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. (3:5-6)

Here is the climax. In this passage we see that Moses is by person a servant, while Jesus is by person a Son. There is a great difference between a servant and a son. “And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever” (John 8:35). Servants come and go; sons are sons for life. Moses was a servant, and he conducted himself as a servant. The Greek word used in Hebrews 3:5 for servant is therapn, and is a term of dignity and freedom, not of servility. It is only used this once in the New Testament, and suggests that, even as the highest-ranking servant, Moses was still a servant. He was a faithful, obedient, ministering, caring servant—a good steward of God. In Exodus 35 to 40 there are twenty-two references to Moses’ faithfulness to God. Exodus 40 alone refers eight times to Moses’ obedience in everything God commanded of him. But he was not a son.

To ACCEPT MOSES IS TO ACCEPT JESUS

Moses’ faithfulness had an important and special reason: to be a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. Judaism did not understand then, and does not understand now, that Moses was faithful primarily as a testimony to things which were yet to come in Christ. Judaism without Christ, the Old Testament without the New Testament, is incomplete. It is the shadow without the substance. “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near” (Heb. 10:1). It was the shadow of the perfect substance that was to come; and if you reject the substance, the shadow is worthless. On the other hand, if a person truly accepted the shadow, he would also accept the substance when it became known. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me” (John 5:46).

“But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are” (Heb. 3:6). The church building we worship in is not the Lord’s house. We are the Lord’s house. His house is not a building but believers. “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). “But in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God” (1 Tim. 3:15). Moses was a servant in someone else’s house. Jesus is a Son over His own house, His own people.

THE MARK OF TRUE BELIEVERS

How can we know that we are really God’s house? By holding fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. This does not mean, as many have misinterpreted, that we are saved if we hang on until the end. We can neither save ourselves nor keep ourselves saved. The meaning is simply that continuance is the proof of reality. We can tell if we are really the house of God because we stay there. The one who falls away never belonged in the first place (cf. 1 John 2:19). Apparently there were many Jews who had fallen away, and it is because of them that the writer of Hebrews gives these words, which both warn and encourage. Some were convinced of the gospel and were on the edge of commitment, but kept falling away. Some, no doubt, had even made an outward profession of faith. But in both cases they fell away from the church, proving they were never a part of it. The true saints persevered, and their perseverance was evidence of their salvation. “If you abide in My word,” Jesus said, “then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31). One of the clearest truths of the New Testament is that the Lord keeps those who belong to Him. “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). Jesus has never lost anyone and will never lose anyone from His household.

This passage says two important things to us. First, we should be sure we are real Christians. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor. 13:5). Second, when we know we are in Christ, we should keep our eyes on Him. He is all we need. We are complete in Him.