John Calvin Commentary Hebrews 3:6

"but Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end." — Hebrews 3:6 (ASV)

Whose house are we, etc. Just as Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, after prefacing that he was appointed to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, adds—to gain credibility among them—that they were included in that number; so now the author of this epistle exhorts the Jews who had already professed Christ to persevere in the faith, so that they might be considered as being in God's household.

He had said before that God's house was subject to the authority of Christ. Suitably to this declaration, the admonition is added that they would then have a place in God's family when they obeyed Christ. But as they had already embraced the gospel, he mentions their condition if they persevered in the faith. For the word hope I take to mean faith; and indeed, hope is nothing other than the constancy of faith. He mentions confidence and rejoicing, or glorying, to express more fully the power of faith. And from this we conclude that those who assent to the Gospel doubtfully and vacillate do not truly and really believe; for faith cannot be without a settled peace of mind, from which proceeds the bold confidence of rejoicing. And so these two things, confidence and rejoicing, are always the effects of faith, as we stated in explaining Romans 5, and Ephesians 3.

But to these things the whole teaching of the Papists is opposed; and this very fact, even if there were nothing else, sufficiently proves that they tear down the Church of God rather than build it. For the certainty by which alone we are made holy temples to God (as the Apostle teaches us), they not only obscure with their interpretations, but also condemn as presumption. Besides, what firmness of confidence can there be when people do not know what they ought to believe? And yet that monstrous thing, implicit faith, which they have invented, is nothing other than a license to entertain errors. This passage reminds us that we are always to make progress even until death; for our whole life is, as it were, a race.