But Christ as a son over his own house. — Rather, over His house. Throughout this passage (Hebrews 3:2; Hebrews 3:5-6) “His house” must be taken in the sense of the quotation, as the house of God. Whereas Moses was faithful as a servant in this house of God, Christ was faithful as a son set over His Father’s house. The antithesis is complete: the one is a servant for witness, the other a Son having a natural right to rule. The concluding words in Hebrews 3:5 have no formal answer here, but the contrast is not the less distinctly expressed. The name Christ (which here occurs for the first time) is in this Epistle never a mere name: it contains implicitly the thought that all that to which Moses bore witness has reached its fulfilment now. Christ has come: God’s house, formerly typified by Israel, is now manifested as it really is, containing all “sons” whom God leads to glory (Hebrews 2:10). The terms applied by constant usage to the one nation are thus successively enlarged: the “seed of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16), “the people” (Hebrews 2:17), the “house of God” (see Hebrews 10:21).
If we hold fast the confidence. — Better, If we hold the boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end. Faithful to his practical purpose, the writer adds to the words “whose house are we” the indispensable condition. The “house” exists (“are we”), to it belong all who possess the Christian “hope;” but for assured and final appropriation of the promise there must be steadfastness “unto the end.” This exhortation differs from that in Hebrews 2:1-4, in that it more distinctly implies that those who are addressed have a possession which they may lose. The Christian “hope,” that aspect of faith which is turned towards the future, is naturally often in the writer’s thoughts. The words associated are very striking: hope gives us boldness (see 2 Corinthians 3:12), and of this hope we make our boast. “Boldness” is spoken of again (in Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:19; Hebrews 10:35): properly meaning “freedom of speech,” it denotes the confident, bold feelings and demeanour which connect themselves with the free utterance of thought.