Hebrews 3:6 - But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
I'm going to share the contrast that I mentioned in my last post first and then I want to spend a little bit of time on this verse because I think there's a salvation issue here.
First of all, the contrast: But Christ as a son, circle that. Over his own house. The contrast is that Moses was faithful (in) the house, and the Son was faithful (over) the house.
And then it says whose house we are. It's not a building. It's a family. We are the dwelling place of God, individually, and in the future throughout eternity, collectively, we will be the new city Jerusalem whom God will dwell in forever. So, the contrast: Christ Jesus is of more glory than Moses. But if you tell that to a Jewish person, his ears will perk up and he gives you the reasons why.
Then the condition, and this is a good one:
Now whose house we are, and here is the first of several conditional clauses in the book of Hebrews which causes people to say that the letter is being written to the same group of people, therefore there's a challenge as to whether we can keep our salvation or not!
And that's not what he's saying. Whose house we are, if we hold firm the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Conditional clause! Whose house we are, "if" you meet this condition.
(We are the dwelling place of God, individually, and in the future throughout eternity, collectively, we will be the new city Jerusalem whom God will dwell in forever.)
Reminds me of Revelation 21:1-3.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
You see, that's also a lack of understanding of what salvation is. If you have the Spirit of God living inside of you, how do you go out and do whatever you want to do? Do you think the Holy Spirit is just going to sit there and say "Well, I'll just wait for you to come home?" We take Him with us. God loves us, and so He disciplines us. He convicts us. And if we don't give in to the word in conviction, He has other ways of getting our attention.
But He will not let us continue in sin, because He's alive, He's real. He's not just a person that we believe in who lived 2,000 years ago. He's alive inside of us. How do you think that you get a license for sin if you have Christ living within you?
So, there's a lot of misunderstanding in the body of Christ today. Multitudes of people think that you're saved just because in your mind, you agree with the bible, rather than being born of the Spirit of God. If we understand that as salvation, then we're going to have to explain how we get the Spirit out of there if we don't want to be saved.
Jesus said I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's at the end of Hebrews Chapter 13. But Jesus used a double negative, and a triple negative. I will never leave you. That Greek word means I will not leave if you tell me to. Secondly, and I will never ever forsake you. I will never leave you on my decision. That's Jesus. So, if I tell Him to get out of my life, He's going to say no. He's never going to leave me, ever, because His Spirit is in my spirit. We're one, and that is never going to be undone throughout eternity.
Thanks again brother Jesse for sharing your understanding thus far in this great epistle. I can see your passion coming through when expounding this portion of Scripture and can well imagine this will come to the fore again when you deal with some of those verses (as given in chaptes 6 and 10) that have been understood differently by many.
It bears remembering as we read Hebrews, as I think you highlighted at the beginning (can't refer to it now because of this Site's limitations on earlier pages), of the readership of this epistle. They were predominantly Jewish converts living outside of Palestine, even as the references the author makes to the OT: the understanding they had & the practises that were required of them before they found salvation in Jesus & not in the keeping of the Law. And of course, there would be some that were outside of Christ, yet coming under the sound of the Gospel as the Diaspora cleaved together in a Gentile world. Gentile converts amongst them would have very little intimate knowledge of such things, but such direction & encouragement given here by this author to the "Hebrews", would certainly have cleared the air of any doubts or misunderstandings, showing Christ as the Preeminent One & Redeemer of all. Blessings to you brother as you continue in this work, and to each one of us as we read together from this very important Book.
Yes, when it comes to issues of salvation, I do have a passion to share the things I've come to learn over the years. I hope there is some sort of resolution to where we can view posts going back a bit farther. As it is now, if you miss visiting the site for a day or two, you are probably going to miss a whole lot of great things that others have to share.
I can hardly wait to get into Hebrews Chapters 6 and 10. I think I already know the verses you are referring to but we'll see. There are verses in both those chapters that are used to show that a saved believer can lose their salvation, and I will touch on those. I'll just leave it at that for now.
I think one of the things that often gets overlooked is that there were Hebrew/Jewish people who were following along with the teachings, mixed in with the group of believers, but they knew what would happen to them if they were to denounce Judaism and truly follow Christ (Surrender their life to Him).
From what I have learned, there are three groups of people that this letter was written to, 1-Hebrew believers, 2-Hebrews who understand and intellectually agree with what's being taught, but they have never received Christ, and 3-Hebrew unbelievers, those who were at these meetings, those who were in the crowd that just did not believe.
I think by understanding these three groups, it helps us better understand some of the scriptures that are being presented. There are sections of scriptures to each one of these three groups in the book of Hebrews.
Anyway, I am excited to get to those two chapters. It should be a great study. God Bless!!!
Paul said in Ephesians Chapter 2, and along with Ephesians Chapter 4 that the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a guarantee until the redemption happens, when Christ comes for us. 1 John 5:18-20 says the one who has been born of God, Satan cannot touch him, because God keeps him. 1 Peter 1:5 says we are those who have been saved by the power of God, and we are kept by the power of God unto salvation.
It's His faithfulness. I'm saved today because I have Christ in me, not because I act a certain way or don't act a certain way. It's because I have Christ in me. And because I have Christ in me, I'm going to make it all the way to the end, no matter what goes on because I'm a child of God.
But some people use that verse, that phrase, that conditional clause, to show that it's possible for someone to lose their salvation. "If you don't make it all the way, you lose your salvation. Or if you quit." But that's an expression of not understanding what salvation is. I'm not saved because I decide I want to be saved. I'm saved because I'm born of the Spirit of God. Now that God's Spirit is in me, if I don't want to be saved, something's got to be done with His Spirit. I hope this makes sense? We can't just quit!
And then you'll have those who will say that if you sin, then you lose your salvation. Well, we've all lost it then, haven't we? If that's the case, nobody is ever going to be saved. Some say that because you say you cannot lose your salvation, you are giving Christians a license to sin, that you can do whatever you want because you're never going to lose your salvation.
I like how you emphasized that one who is born of God cannot be touched by Satan. That is how I think, too, in that Satan cannot take us out of the hand of our Savior as we have been given to Jesus by the Father. Satan has no rights to us after we have been born again. We belong to Christ, not Satan. Satan may try to mess with things in our lives to get our eyes off of Jesus and tempt us to turn away from Jesus, but the Holy Spirit is who "keeps" us. If we undergo trials and troubles in this life, God always knows all of the matter and allows it to occur to work it out for our good.
Many talk as if Satan is continually interfering with their life, joy, peace, etc. I am not sure that is generally the case, but can be. In some Pentecostal circles, this "devil under every rock and around every corner" "warfare" is common. I have not had that experience in my life. I have felt under God's protection and watch. Whatever comes my way, He knows and is willing to help when I turn to Him. But others may have more difficulties than I have had, so I wish to be compassionate.
Perhaps it is better to think that Jesus is everywhere around us, with us, and in us. What better protection from the enemy than Himself! I am grateful that God does not allow us more than we can bear when we rely on Him and desire to obey Him.
I have heard that the saying of the Lord's Prayer that says, "lead us not into temptation" is not saying that God leads tempts us. Rather, it means that we ask God to not let us be tempted beyond to where we have no recourse but to sin. I love that, for if we pray for such help from our Father, we will receive it. He loves us so. He doesn't want us to be in the grip of sin having freed us from its captivity, nor does He want us to dispair of being able to escape temptation because He promises to give us a way out of temptation.
Well, I'm going on a rant now, but there's so many great points that you bring up that I could spend much time talking about. I'll close with a comment on your second post about those who endure to the end. We are the ones who are enduring and will endure to the end because we have Christ in us, and He will carry us to the end. And yes, even though salvation is offered to every single person who has ever been born into this world, I believe that God knew ahead of time those that would receive Him and those who would reject Him.
I do have a similar understanding of the phrase "lead us not into temptation." James 1:13 comes to mind. Also, I'm aware that in theological circles that this is part of what's known as the "Lord's Prayer," but I personally don't agree that this is the actual Lord's prayer. What's known as "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew 6:9-13, I understand this as the Lord teaching us how to pray. I believe the actual Lord's prayer is found in John Chapter 17 where Jesus prayed in intercession for His people to the Father. That in my opinion is the real Lord's Prayer. Anyway, that's neither here nor there!
I hope you have a blessed weekend. The Lord is good!
Brother Jesse, thanks very much for your response to me in relation to your Hebrews chap 3 commentary, but in reference to the "Lord's Prayer" here in this thread (in Matthew 6:9-13): I've always understood this prayer given to His disciples as being something that the Rabbis often gave to their 'disciples'. We know the Scripture in Luke 11:1-4, when one of Jesus' disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them to pray, even as John (the Baptist) taught his disciples. It seems that these followers of Jesus also wanted to receive a prayer template or recitation, as was given to others by their Rabbis/leaders. Have you heard of this understanding?
And just my thoughts on "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil": using the reference you shared ( James 1:13), I also believe that the the Lord doesn't take us on dangerous paths to be tempted of Satan. Yet, this part of the prayer could also mean, 'Lord, hold us back when temptation lies ahead in wait, and give us deliverance from the evil (one)'. I know that's a very liberal transliteration of mine, but thought to throw it in as a possible way of understanding that part of that prayer. Blessings.
On our own, we can't resist temptation. I've found that my strongest point in my relationship with Christ is to confess to Him that without Him I cannot do one thing. If I trust in my own flesh and my own effort to continually resist temptation, I will eventually fail, and then I feel bad because I let the Lord down!
So, when we say lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, we're putting our confidence and trust in Jesus Christ. We're at His mercy. And when temptation comes, we are to surrender to Him and confess that confidence, confess our weakness, our inability to resist in our own efforts.
Thanks brother Jesse for your response. I've tried to do a search on Rabbinical prayers given to their disciples, but unfortunately have not been very successful. There were some snippets of information, but nothing worthy of highlighting to direct you or anyone interested in this matter. So that might have to be shelved unless some substantial authoritative reference can be found.
And concerning 'temptation'. So true as you wrote: "putting our total confidence in God to keep us from being carried away by temptation". And in that confidence in our God, which should always be at our forefront, we must also be confident in the power of His Word, having full faith in its teachings & keeping it ready at our side (& in our hearts) to wield it against the flesh and the Devil when temptations confront us. How we deal with them will reflect the strength of our confidence in our God & in the power of His Word. Blessings and thanks again.
I Have not heard of this before but if you have discovered something on this, I am very interested. From time to time, I like to visit Jewish websites and read the various teachings of the Rabbi's and how some of these things fit into what we read in the scriptures.
I did read somewhere that they refrain from and don't even acknowledge what is known as the Lord's Prayer because its source comes from the New Testament which they reject. So, an Orthodox Jew won't even go there even though the principles on prayer that Jesus was teaching His disciples fits in with most of what they believe.
I am not aware of any template or prayer that was given to them to recite but it is something that I am interested in learning. I have heard that, and I'm not sure if it's used all the time, but in most cases, they recite Psalm 23 instead.
On the section that says, "lead us not into temptation," I think for the most part that we are in agreement. I like the way you put it where you said, "Lord, hold us back when temptation lies ahead in wait, and give us deliverance from the evil (one)." This matches perfectly with the Greek text is saying.
When I read this in the Greek text, what it is literally saying is "And do not allow us to be led away by temptation but rather (in contrast), deliver us from the evil one."
I think what this means for us is that we are putting our total confidence in God to keep us from being carried away by temptation. With this, I am reminded of John Chapter 15 (My favorite chapter in the entire bible) about the vine and the branches where Jesus says apart from me, you cannot do one thing.
I agree, Satan cannot take us out of the hand of our Savior. In fact, there is a strong case given to us that in Romans 8:38-39 that there is nothing that can separate us from our Savior. As far as Satan not being able to touch us, we do know from scripture that Satan can touch our flesh. But he cannot touch our spirit/soul. The only way he can do that is to penetrate Gods Spirit in us and that's not going to happen. It's like Gods Spirit is a shield over our spirit. And as far as trials and trouble goes, I truly believe that God allows those circumstances in our lives as a way of teaching us to trust Him. For many years, I had to learn the hard way. I would find myself in a difficult circumstance and try to take care of the problem on my own, and it's like how is that trusting Christ?
I like where you said, "Whatever comes my way, He knows." That is a perfect response to all of our circumstances is that Lord, you know, because we don't, even when we think we do! And yes, it is better to think that Jesus is everywhere around us, with us, and in us, as He is omnipresent. Yes, I also have also heard of folks who talk as if Satan is continually interfering with their life. Sometimes you just want to ask them, "Do you belong to Christ?" As believers, Satan knows that he has lost us forever to Christ. So, what does he do? The only thing he can do, which is to chase us and keep our minds occupied on the cares of this life and to wear us down so that we are too tired to study the word and spend time with the Lord so that we might grow spiritually.
One, you can just be putzing along and being part of the house, and functioning as a Christian, and someday decide that you just don't want to be a Christian and that you don't want to be a part of this, and that means that you lose your salvation.
Or two, the other condition would be that it's describing the person who is saved, and that one of the qualifications of salvation is that you make it all the way to the end because you have the Holy Spirit. A believer will make it to the end. And here's the basic scripture that it's all based on, and I wanted to squeeze this in because it's a very important topic to me, and hopefully to you.
Jesus said about the last days, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Again, it makes it sound conditional, doesn't it? "If you want to be saved, you have to make to the end." But please check this out. The term "shall endure," is what is called an Aorist Participle in the Greek. And it means the one who has endured to the end, that same one shall be saved.
This is a description of the characteristic of a person who is saved. The one who has already made it to the end, that's the person who shall be saved. In fact, that's the answer to all questions. How do we know who's saved or not?
Of course, this is a message to people who have gone about 75 to 80 percent of the way and are thinking of dropping out. They're not saved. All saved people will make it to the end because they have Christ, and they belong to Christ.
I agree, that those who endure to the end are, indeed, those who are saved. This is because they were elected to salvation before the foundation of the world when God decreed to elect those who would receive salvation. It was a done deal then and always come to pass in real time and history. This is such a comforting truth for those of us who have been born again! We have been brought from death unto life in Christ and we cannot die (as to become un-reborn) again.
Hebrews 3:6 - But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
I'm going to share the contrast that I mentioned in my last post first and then I want to spend a little bit of time on this verse because I think there's a salvation issue here.
First of all, the contrast: But Christ as a son, circle that. Over his own house. The contrast is that Moses was faithful (in) the house, and the Son was faithful (over) the house.
And then it says whose house we are. It's not a building. It's a family. We are the dwelling place of God, individually, and in the future throughout eternity, collectively, we will be the new city Jerusalem whom God will dwell in forever. So, the contrast: Christ Jesus is of more glory than Moses. But if you tell that to a Jewish person, his ears will perk up and he gives you the reasons why.
Then the condition, and this is a good one:
Now whose house we are, and here is the first of several conditional clauses in the book of Hebrews which causes people to say that the letter is being written to the same group of people, therefore there's a challenge as to whether we can keep our salvation or not!
And that's not what he's saying. Whose house we are, if we hold firm the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Conditional clause! Whose house we are, "if" you meet this condition.
(We are the dwelling place of God, individually, and in the future throughout eternity, collectively, we will be the new city Jerusalem whom God will dwell in forever.)
Reminds me of Revelation 21:1-3.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Blessings
Amen! One of the many places in scripture where the New Jerusalem is compared to as a bride of Christ!
Hebrews 3:6 Continued:
You see, that's also a lack of understanding of what salvation is. If you have the Spirit of God living inside of you, how do you go out and do whatever you want to do? Do you think the Holy Spirit is just going to sit there and say "Well, I'll just wait for you to come home?" We take Him with us. God loves us, and so He disciplines us. He convicts us. And if we don't give in to the word in conviction, He has other ways of getting our attention.
But He will not let us continue in sin, because He's alive, He's real. He's not just a person that we believe in who lived 2,000 years ago. He's alive inside of us. How do you think that you get a license for sin if you have Christ living within you?
So, there's a lot of misunderstanding in the body of Christ today. Multitudes of people think that you're saved just because in your mind, you agree with the bible, rather than being born of the Spirit of God. If we understand that as salvation, then we're going to have to explain how we get the Spirit out of there if we don't want to be saved.
Jesus said I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's at the end of Hebrews Chapter 13. But Jesus used a double negative, and a triple negative. I will never leave you. That Greek word means I will not leave if you tell me to. Secondly, and I will never ever forsake you. I will never leave you on my decision. That's Jesus. So, if I tell Him to get out of my life, He's going to say no. He's never going to leave me, ever, because His Spirit is in my spirit. We're one, and that is never going to be undone throughout eternity.
It bears remembering as we read Hebrews, as I think you highlighted at the beginning (can't refer to it now because of this Site's limitations on earlier pages), of the readership of this epistle. They were predominantly Jewish converts living outside of Palestine, even as the references the author makes to the OT: the understanding they had & the practises that were required of them before they found salvation in Jesus & not in the keeping of the Law. And of course, there would be some that were outside of Christ, yet coming under the sound of the Gospel as the Diaspora cleaved together in a Gentile world. Gentile converts amongst them would have very little intimate knowledge of such things, but such direction & encouragement given here by this author to the "Hebrews", would certainly have cleared the air of any doubts or misunderstandings, showing Christ as the Preeminent One & Redeemer of all. Blessings to you brother as you continue in this work, and to each one of us as we read together from this very important Book.
If you go to the top of the 1st page and select "more" you will come to the "King James Bible Resource page.
Then scroll down to "Bible Comments and Commentaries" and select Discussion Pages on your right.
Then you will have access to all the discussions by the book!
Select on your desired book and chapter such as Hebrews 2.
To search for any of Jesse's postings on Hebrews 2 select the tab that says "More Hebrews chapter 2 Discussions.
You'll be able to recover any of the postings this way for the last several years.
Blessings.
Thank you so much for sharing this information with us all!
Yes, when it comes to issues of salvation, I do have a passion to share the things I've come to learn over the years. I hope there is some sort of resolution to where we can view posts going back a bit farther. As it is now, if you miss visiting the site for a day or two, you are probably going to miss a whole lot of great things that others have to share.
I can hardly wait to get into Hebrews Chapters 6 and 10. I think I already know the verses you are referring to but we'll see. There are verses in both those chapters that are used to show that a saved believer can lose their salvation, and I will touch on those. I'll just leave it at that for now.
I think one of the things that often gets overlooked is that there were Hebrew/Jewish people who were following along with the teachings, mixed in with the group of believers, but they knew what would happen to them if they were to denounce Judaism and truly follow Christ (Surrender their life to Him).
From what I have learned, there are three groups of people that this letter was written to, 1-Hebrew believers, 2-Hebrews who understand and intellectually agree with what's being taught, but they have never received Christ, and 3-Hebrew unbelievers, those who were at these meetings, those who were in the crowd that just did not believe.
I think by understanding these three groups, it helps us better understand some of the scriptures that are being presented. There are sections of scriptures to each one of these three groups in the book of Hebrews.
Anyway, I am excited to get to those two chapters. It should be a great study. God Bless!!!
Hebrews 3:6 Continued:
Paul said in Ephesians Chapter 2, and along with Ephesians Chapter 4 that the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a guarantee until the redemption happens, when Christ comes for us. 1 John 5:18-20 says the one who has been born of God, Satan cannot touch him, because God keeps him. 1 Peter 1:5 says we are those who have been saved by the power of God, and we are kept by the power of God unto salvation.
It's His faithfulness. I'm saved today because I have Christ in me, not because I act a certain way or don't act a certain way. It's because I have Christ in me. And because I have Christ in me, I'm going to make it all the way to the end, no matter what goes on because I'm a child of God.
But some people use that verse, that phrase, that conditional clause, to show that it's possible for someone to lose their salvation. "If you don't make it all the way, you lose your salvation. Or if you quit." But that's an expression of not understanding what salvation is. I'm not saved because I decide I want to be saved. I'm saved because I'm born of the Spirit of God. Now that God's Spirit is in me, if I don't want to be saved, something's got to be done with His Spirit. I hope this makes sense? We can't just quit!
And then you'll have those who will say that if you sin, then you lose your salvation. Well, we've all lost it then, haven't we? If that's the case, nobody is ever going to be saved. Some say that because you say you cannot lose your salvation, you are giving Christians a license to sin, that you can do whatever you want because you're never going to lose your salvation.
I like how you emphasized that one who is born of God cannot be touched by Satan. That is how I think, too, in that Satan cannot take us out of the hand of our Savior as we have been given to Jesus by the Father. Satan has no rights to us after we have been born again. We belong to Christ, not Satan. Satan may try to mess with things in our lives to get our eyes off of Jesus and tempt us to turn away from Jesus, but the Holy Spirit is who "keeps" us. If we undergo trials and troubles in this life, God always knows all of the matter and allows it to occur to work it out for our good.
Many talk as if Satan is continually interfering with their life, joy, peace, etc. I am not sure that is generally the case, but can be. In some Pentecostal circles, this "devil under every rock and around every corner" "warfare" is common. I have not had that experience in my life. I have felt under God's protection and watch. Whatever comes my way, He knows and is willing to help when I turn to Him. But others may have more difficulties than I have had, so I wish to be compassionate.
Perhaps it is better to think that Jesus is everywhere around us, with us, and in us. What better protection from the enemy than Himself! I am grateful that God does not allow us more than we can bear when we rely on Him and desire to obey Him.
I have heard that the saying of the Lord's Prayer that says, "lead us not into temptation" is not saying that God leads tempts us. Rather, it means that we ask God to not let us be tempted beyond to where we have no recourse but to sin. I love that, for if we pray for such help from our Father, we will receive it. He loves us so. He doesn't want us to be in the grip of sin having freed us from its captivity, nor does He want us to dispair of being able to escape temptation because He promises to give us a way out of temptation.
How lovely is this!
Well, I'm going on a rant now, but there's so many great points that you bring up that I could spend much time talking about. I'll close with a comment on your second post about those who endure to the end. We are the ones who are enduring and will endure to the end because we have Christ in us, and He will carry us to the end. And yes, even though salvation is offered to every single person who has ever been born into this world, I believe that God knew ahead of time those that would receive Him and those who would reject Him.
I do have a similar understanding of the phrase "lead us not into temptation." James 1:13 comes to mind. Also, I'm aware that in theological circles that this is part of what's known as the "Lord's Prayer," but I personally don't agree that this is the actual Lord's prayer. What's known as "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew 6:9-13, I understand this as the Lord teaching us how to pray. I believe the actual Lord's prayer is found in John Chapter 17 where Jesus prayed in intercession for His people to the Father. That in my opinion is the real Lord's Prayer. Anyway, that's neither here nor there!
I hope you have a blessed weekend. The Lord is good!
And just my thoughts on "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil": using the reference you shared ( James 1:13), I also believe that the the Lord doesn't take us on dangerous paths to be tempted of Satan. Yet, this part of the prayer could also mean, 'Lord, hold us back when temptation lies ahead in wait, and give us deliverance from the evil (one)'. I know that's a very liberal transliteration of mine, but thought to throw it in as a possible way of understanding that part of that prayer. Blessings.
On our own, we can't resist temptation. I've found that my strongest point in my relationship with Christ is to confess to Him that without Him I cannot do one thing. If I trust in my own flesh and my own effort to continually resist temptation, I will eventually fail, and then I feel bad because I let the Lord down!
So, when we say lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, we're putting our confidence and trust in Jesus Christ. We're at His mercy. And when temptation comes, we are to surrender to Him and confess that confidence, confess our weakness, our inability to resist in our own efforts.
God Bless!!!
And concerning 'temptation'. So true as you wrote: "putting our total confidence in God to keep us from being carried away by temptation". And in that confidence in our God, which should always be at our forefront, we must also be confident in the power of His Word, having full faith in its teachings & keeping it ready at our side (& in our hearts) to wield it against the flesh and the Devil when temptations confront us. How we deal with them will reflect the strength of our confidence in our God & in the power of His Word. Blessings and thanks again.
(Part 1):
I Have not heard of this before but if you have discovered something on this, I am very interested. From time to time, I like to visit Jewish websites and read the various teachings of the Rabbi's and how some of these things fit into what we read in the scriptures.
I did read somewhere that they refrain from and don't even acknowledge what is known as the Lord's Prayer because its source comes from the New Testament which they reject. So, an Orthodox Jew won't even go there even though the principles on prayer that Jesus was teaching His disciples fits in with most of what they believe.
I am not aware of any template or prayer that was given to them to recite but it is something that I am interested in learning. I have heard that, and I'm not sure if it's used all the time, but in most cases, they recite Psalm 23 instead.
On the section that says, "lead us not into temptation," I think for the most part that we are in agreement. I like the way you put it where you said, "Lord, hold us back when temptation lies ahead in wait, and give us deliverance from the evil (one)." This matches perfectly with the Greek text is saying.
When I read this in the Greek text, what it is literally saying is "And do not allow us to be led away by temptation but rather (in contrast), deliver us from the evil one."
I think what this means for us is that we are putting our total confidence in God to keep us from being carried away by temptation. With this, I am reminded of John Chapter 15 (My favorite chapter in the entire bible) about the vine and the branches where Jesus says apart from me, you cannot do one thing.
Have a restful night and may you awaken refreshed and at peace.
(Part 1):
I agree, Satan cannot take us out of the hand of our Savior. In fact, there is a strong case given to us that in Romans 8:38-39 that there is nothing that can separate us from our Savior. As far as Satan not being able to touch us, we do know from scripture that Satan can touch our flesh. But he cannot touch our spirit/soul. The only way he can do that is to penetrate Gods Spirit in us and that's not going to happen. It's like Gods Spirit is a shield over our spirit. And as far as trials and trouble goes, I truly believe that God allows those circumstances in our lives as a way of teaching us to trust Him. For many years, I had to learn the hard way. I would find myself in a difficult circumstance and try to take care of the problem on my own, and it's like how is that trusting Christ?
I like where you said, "Whatever comes my way, He knows." That is a perfect response to all of our circumstances is that Lord, you know, because we don't, even when we think we do! And yes, it is better to think that Jesus is everywhere around us, with us, and in us, as He is omnipresent. Yes, I also have also heard of folks who talk as if Satan is continually interfering with their life. Sometimes you just want to ask them, "Do you belong to Christ?" As believers, Satan knows that he has lost us forever to Christ. So, what does he do? The only thing he can do, which is to chase us and keep our minds occupied on the cares of this life and to wear us down so that we are too tired to study the word and spend time with the Lord so that we might grow spiritually.
Hebrews 3:6 Continued:
Now, this can only mean one of two things:
One, you can just be putzing along and being part of the house, and functioning as a Christian, and someday decide that you just don't want to be a Christian and that you don't want to be a part of this, and that means that you lose your salvation.
Or two, the other condition would be that it's describing the person who is saved, and that one of the qualifications of salvation is that you make it all the way to the end because you have the Holy Spirit. A believer will make it to the end. And here's the basic scripture that it's all based on, and I wanted to squeeze this in because it's a very important topic to me, and hopefully to you.
Jesus said about the last days, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Again, it makes it sound conditional, doesn't it? "If you want to be saved, you have to make to the end." But please check this out. The term "shall endure," is what is called an Aorist Participle in the Greek. And it means the one who has endured to the end, that same one shall be saved.
This is a description of the characteristic of a person who is saved. The one who has already made it to the end, that's the person who shall be saved. In fact, that's the answer to all questions. How do we know who's saved or not?
Of course, this is a message to people who have gone about 75 to 80 percent of the way and are thinking of dropping out. They're not saved. All saved people will make it to the end because they have Christ, and they belong to Christ.
I agree, that those who endure to the end are, indeed, those who are saved. This is because they were elected to salvation before the foundation of the world when God decreed to elect those who would receive salvation. It was a done deal then and always come to pass in real time and history. This is such a comforting truth for those of us who have been born again! We have been brought from death unto life in Christ and we cannot die (as to become un-reborn) again.
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