The Heavenly Calling
A. B. Davidson, LL. D. Hebrews 3:1 Why, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; "Wherefore" connects generally with chaps, 1., if., where Christ is Apostle (Hebrews 1:1-3) and High Priest (Hebrews 2:9, &c.), though immediately with "faithful" (Hebrews 2:17) and the closing words of chap. if. The author had in view this comparison with Moses, and prepared the way for it by using "faithful" in Hebrews 2:17. The author had called believers "sanctified" and "sons" (Hebrews 2:11-13); recalling this, and realising what it implied, he addresses the Hebrews as "holy brethren." Further, he had set before them what the great salvation was to which they were destined (Hebrews 2:3), and to which the Captain of their salvation had attained, even lordship over all things in the world to come (Hebrews 2:5, &c.); and as called to this heavenly world and already tasting its powers (Hebrews 6:5; Hebrews 2:4), he addresses them as partakers of "a heavenly calling"; that is, sharing in a call to the possession of the heavenly world to come. In the word "heavenly" there is struck for the first time, in words at least, an antithesis of great importance in the Epistle, that of this world and heaven; in other words, that of the merely material and transient and the ideal and abiding. The things of this world are material, unreal, transient; those of heaven are ideal, true, and eternal. Heaven is the world of realities, of things themselves (Hebrews 9:23), of which the things here are but "copies." There is the true Tabernacle (Hebrews 8:2); the city that bath the foundations (Hebrews 11:10); the heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:22); the kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:27, 28); the true "country" which the patriarchs sought (Hebrews 11:16) — all the eternal real things of which the things of this world are but shadows (Hebrews 10:1); and to these things we are called and are come, for this heavenly world projects itself into this present life like headlands of a new world into the ocean. This world of realities has been revealed, for Christ, who belongs to it, has come from it, and has opened up the way to it by entering it through death as our Forerunner (Hebrews 6:20) and High Priest (Hebrews 10:19). This real world is the abode of God, where He is as He is in Himself. It is that which He has destined to be put in subjection to man as his final possession (Hebrews 2:5-8). Being true and consisting of things themselves, it cannot be shaken, but remains after the great convulsions under which things that are made pass away (Hebrews 12:27). Then it may be called earth or heaven, for earth and heaven coincide. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; WEB: Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus;