I don't write the text. I didn't write the book of Hebrews.
Lots of candidates for authorship. I'm not one of them.
But there's four categories of conditional sentences.
They call them classes in Greek grammar. First class condition.
You know, what does that mean? It's like which word is followed by which other word,
and then that sort of gives you the meaning.
We're going to go all the way down here, let's just go down here to the third.
Third class conditions, because this is what we have here in the book of Hebrews.
Now, look at this definition: «The third class condition
often presents the condition as uncertain of fulfillment, but still likely.»
Now, let me just unpack this a little bit. You're reading along in the book of Hebrews.
Look at verse 6: «Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house,
if indeed we hold fast our confidence.»
See, the word "if" introduces an element of uncertainty.
Will we? I mean, we're God's house, we're believers. And all these things,
you know, are said of us. This is true, and we're the Lord's, were the Lord's house,
"if". Why are we talking about ifs?
The writers addressed us already as believers, why do we get these "if" statements?
Well, we're God's house, if we keep believing, «if we hold fast our confidence
and our boasting in our hope,» not ourselves, but our hope, which is Jesus;
the resurrection, what he did.
Well, does that mean that the writer thinks that we might not?
That we might stop believing? Does he consider that a possibility?
Here's what we have grammatically, look on the left hand side:
«Third class condition often presents the condition as uncertain of fulfillment,
but still likely.»
And how is it marked? Okay. You know, there are exceptions this but
a «third class condition encompasses a broad semantic range.»
There is logical connections between the two elements, so on and so forth.
And the third class condition is going to be marked by "ean", right there.
«The structure involves the particle ean followed by a subjunctive verb.»
«Hold fast our confidence,» "aorits" active subjunctive. In Greek grammar,
there are different moods of verbs. The most common is the indicative,
it's the mood of reality. If you use that you're talking about stuff
that we already know is real. "He built the house." Indicative mood, okay?
If you're talking about something that doesn't yet exist,
like a hypothetical situation,
or a possibility, there's something about it that, okay, that this is great. Yeah,
that very likely, that's going to happen, but it hasn't happened yet.
So to describe things that haven't happened yet, and so there's this element
of uncertainty you use the subjunctive mood, because it's not really yet.
That's exactly what we have here in the book of Hebrews.
What I'm going to do here, I created a little search here, all of the third class conditional
statements in Hebrews, and I'm going to turn on this filter. And we're going to keep reading.
Okay, we're going to keep reading here. If you see "if" in a little box like this,
right over here,
we have a third class condition. And what was the third class condition?
There is an element of uncertainty that it'll happen, but it's likely, it's likely.
So the writer says, «we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence
and our boasting in our hope.»
You know, that hasn't happened yet. Because we're not at the end of the road.
There is an element of possibility that you may turn from your belief,
and then you wouldn't be the Lord's house.
But the writer saying, "my money is on, you're going to continue.
You're going to get through this persecution,
you're going to continue to believe your faith is going to endure."
He's on their side, and he believes that they're going to keep believing.
But it's still a conditional statement. Ok, I don't write the text.
I didn't write the book of Hebrews.
Lots of candidates for authorship. I'm not one of them.
But grammatically we know what it's telling us. Let's keep reading.
«Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if.» Look, there's a square,
there's a square with the word "if". That means we have a third class condition,
«if you hear his voice.» Again, some uncertainty, but we think that's going to happen.
«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.»
It's not that Israel just did stupid stuff, or even rebellious stuff, or they sin,
everybody sins, okay? «‘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.»
I mean, these are the people he's already called partners in the faith.
He says, you know, boy, I don't want any of you to ever get an
«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.»
What sin is he talking about? Unbelief in context. «For we have come to share
in Christ.» Oh, wait a minute, let's stop there. Share "metochos".
That's the word we saw earlier. Again, he's writing to believers,
«we have come to share in Christ if» there's another square,
another third class condition, we share in Christ «if indeed we hold our original confidence
firm to the end.» Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, we have come to share in Christ
if now that we believe we perform really well. Or that we don't sin or sin less.
It doesn't say that. It says «we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our
original confidence firm to the end.» We keep believing. Don't stop believing is his message.