Devotional 07 June 2025

June 07, 2025 • Steve Torres

Hebrews 3:13.jpg

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." (Hebrews 3:7-14, ESV)

The book of Hebrews is filled with warnings, not to scare us, but to wake us up. These aren’t threats meant to shake our security in Christ; they are signs posted on the narrow road that leads to life. Hebrews reminds us that while we are saved by faith, that faith is not a passive belief, but a living allegiance revealed through action.

We are reminded that the generation brought out of Egypt saw signs and wonders, yet failed to enter God’s rest because of unbelief. Their failure wasn’t due to a lack of exposure to God’s promises, it was due to hearts that were hardened by sin. Hebrews 3 is not only telling a story of the past; it is calling us to test the present. As Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5). This is not about obsessing over our failures, but ensuring that our trust in Christ is alive, real, and fruitful.

Just as Jesus is said to be “made” or to “become” perfect in Hebrews, not because He changed, but because He was being revealed as what He always was, so it is with us. We are not made into the children of Abraham by our good works, but our good works reveal that we already are. As Jesus said, “you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). And so James says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).

This kind of life, rooted in faith and revealed in action, requires endurance. Jesus Himself said, “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). True salvation is not a fleeting moment of coming down the aisle and reciting a prayer, but a life of confident, ongoing trust. That’s why Paul writes, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). We are working outwardly what God is working in us, not to earn salvation, but as a display of its transforming power.

This is not about earning salvation, it’s about living in the truth of it. Those who were brought out of Egypt, yet died in the wilderness because their lives betrayed hearts of unbelief. Though the call was to the Promised Land not just out of Egypt. The same danger exists for us. If we claim to belong to Christ, we must “hold our original confidence firm to the end” (v.14). Not as a condition for salvation, but as evidence of it.

And we don’t do it alone. Hebrews 3:13 reminds us: “Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today.’” Our walk of faith is a shared pilgrimage. The deceitfulness of sin is real, and no one is immune to the drift of a cold heart. But in community, with daily encouragement, we help one another stay awake to God’s voice, alert to His promises, and active in our obedience.

So take heart. The life of obedience doesn’t negate the Gospel, it confirms it. The rest that God promises is not behind us; it is still ahead. Christ has paid the price to bring us home, not only out of bondage, but into the blessing of His rest. Let your life reflect that journey.