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The writer of Hebrews warned believers in chapter 3 against having sinful and unbelieving hearts because such a turning away from faith would incur God’s wrath. Instead we turn our eyes on Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of faith in a way that we can partake and share in Jesus Christ. What does it mean to partake of Christ (Messiah)? It is to adjoin our character and our whole being to the nature, graces, righteousness, and life of Jesus. It is to fully bind ourselves and attach our moral and spiritual fiber to that of Jesus. Our inclination must be to do as Jesus would do and behave in our relationship with our Heavenly Father and in our relationship with one another.
It is a personal choice that must be made with true conviction and full confidence. A follower of Jesus must choose to align his/her thoughts and actions to the Master. It means to share and to possess the same nature of seeking, honouring and obeying God, the Father; to uphold and be constrained to God’s sense of justice and righteousness. The essence of this culminates in the full partaking of the divine nature (ref. 2 Pet. 1:4). It is God who has qualified us (ref. Col. 1:12) and enabled us to escape the corruption that is in the world.
Critical to this partaking is the steadfastness of faith. We must run the Christian race to the end. All through the Old Testament, God was with His people as they battled with their enemies: “Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you” (2 Chron. 20:17). They were not alone in their faith journey – the LORD was always with them.
Likewise for us, for this steadfastness to prevail, we must look to God who anointed us and it is God who makes us stand firm (ref. 2 Cor. 1:21). The triumph and success must be our goal inasmuch as the glory and honour must be given to God eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God (ref. 1 Tim. 1:17).
For it is by grace, which has been abundantly poured out on us, that we are able to stand and be partakers of Christ. This is our divine privilege and destiny.
