Hebrews 3:14

‘For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end.’

Following through the earlier quotation this would suggest that entering into rest (Hebrews 3:11) is to be seen as the equivalent of ‘being partakers of Christ’.

In Hebrews 2:14 Jesus partook of ‘flesh and blood’. He was made one with it, and it became very much part of what He was. This is a reversal of that position. Those who are His have become partakers of the Christ (Messiah). They have been made one with Him, and become very much what He is. They have entered into His rest. And the test of whether we have so become partakers of Christ, and are now partaking in His life and saving power, is that we will hold fast our first confidence in Him to the end (compare 1 Corinthians 1:8). That is the final proof as to whether we are partakers in Christ, sharers in Christ as the One Who is over the house, Whose house we are (Hebrews 3:6). As Jesus said in John 10:27-28, the sheep reveal that they are His by following Him and by keeping on following. Thus they may sometimes wander, but they do not wander away so far that they perish, because He will not allow it, nor does anything from outside snatch them from Jesus’ protection. His protection ensures their eternal security within the flock that is following Him. And the proof that they are His sheep is that they continue in the end to follow Him because of His faithful shepherding.

‘The beginning of our confidence.’ That is, the seed from which our confidence will grow. But Jesus elsewhere warned of the seed that sprang up quickly but was not firmly planted and therefore withered and died (Mark 4:16-17). They must consider whether their confidence, their faith and trust in Christ, is genuine enough, so that it will survive to the end. Does it have depth of earth? Is it truly founded in Christ? The difference is between those who enthusiastically follow Christianity as some new and attractive thing (Acts 17:21), and those who genuinely follow Christ because they have truly come to know Him.