Hebrews 3:12-14

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be heardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

What is the connection between sin and unbelief? I believe this passage in Hebrews speaks clearly about this. The context of this passage is the author of Hebrews explaining at length about how God declared on oath that the Israelites shall never enter his rest because they “tested and tried me” and because their hearts were hardened with sin. The progression of the Israelites was that they saw an incredible act of God’s power through being released from slavery from Egypt, yet quickly fell into sin. This sin caused them to doubt that God was with them and they began to demand God would display signs that he was in fact with them. This was stabbing God in the back, essentially demanding he show more of his power to them after he had already shown them the greatest visible act of his power in the history of the world. The sin Israel committed caused them to doubt God.

And so it is with us. Sin is deceitful, and possibly one of the greatest methods off deceit sin offers is by assaulting our identity. This is the meaning of the author of Hebrews telling us to “encourage one another daily.” Encouragement is defined as “getting alongside of and helping each other.” We must encourage each other daily of our true identity. We must hold firmly and remain confident that our lives are hidden with Christ, we are holy because of His blood, and he choose us to be of the same family—fellow co-heirs to the Throne.