There is, however, another point of identification between the Old and New Testament in this passage. The ecclesiological and eschatological come together in this text in a way that is infrequently seen in the pages of the New Testament.
The identification is in discovered in the fact there is one house of God in both the Old and New Testament economies. There is only one church of God, the temple of his people among whom he dwells. The writer of Hebrews is making this principle explicitly clear so that there is no notion that he was pitting the Old Testament and the New Testament with such a sharp division that the two were not seen to be organically connected in their origination and purpose. Geerhardus Vos captured this point so well when he wrote,
We must note the continuity of the Old Testament with the New. In 3:1–6 Moses is compared with Christ. There we read that Moses was in the house, whereas Christ is over the house. The implication is that the same house is meant in both cases, namely, God’s house. (Compare Num. 12:7). In this house Moses is a servant, while Christ is a Son. The superiority of Christ to Moses is further brought out by the consideration that the builder of the house (Christ) is greater than the house and its contents (including Moses). Again the implication plainly is that the same house is meant, namely the house of which Moses was an inmate and in which he was a servant.
This may be the most strikingly clear allusion to the New Testament church as belonging to the true Israel of God. The continuity is rarely seen in such a clear way as it is in this passage. There is only one house of God, built on the same promises, tasked with the same purpose and mission. When we remember this, we recognize that the preparatory and anticipatory elements of the Old Testament were there for us to come to a greater understanding of the spiritual blessings of Christ in the fulness of time.
However, the continuity works the other way as well. There is something deeply spiritual about the Old Testament. The Old Testament saints were living as pilgrims and strangers here. They were, like New Testament believers, looking for the city to come that has foundations, “whose builder and maker is God.” They were willing to take up the reproach of Christ during the time of the sojourning here–as we learn of Moses himself (11:25–26). Vos again notes:
“Christ is the core of the heavenly, spiritual world. Therefore a real contact existed between that world and the Old Testament house. The Old Testament house was therefore also in vital contact with the heavenly, spiritual reality.”
Understanding these truths helps us more confidently to go back to the entirety of the Old Testament and discover the spiritual and eschatological core of the types, shadows, and ordinances (which have all been fulfilled in Christ). Whatever glory Moses and the Old Testament had in redemptive history, Christ has is worthy of more glory since he built the one house of God, Old and New Testament, “whose house we are in we hold fast our confidence and boasting in our hope” in Christ (Heb. 6:6).
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
