Tributes have pored in all week to the late Jack Layton, former leader of the Canadian federal New Democratic Party. Beyond all his contributions to various causes, a resounding factor that seems to have been recognized in him, was his ability to inspire hope. In a world rife with economic, political, personal and relational instability, it is easy to become pessimistic and fearful. People are always looking for something they can trust, something they can bank their lives on.
Some turn to political or social activism. They may spend years going to rallies and lobbying for change. Yet, outward laws or policies can only attempt to withhold the evil and destructiveness that grips our world.
Where can we find hope that does not come and go, that is not reliant upon frail humanity or ever changing world systems or trends? Christians know that only a hope that rests on God who does not lie and who’s purposes always come to pass can be trusted and relied upon.
In light of the Jewish persecution that the audience to whom the author of Hebrews is writing, would almost certainly face if they became Christians, they are pointed to Abraham. The father of the Jews is also the father of the faithful. He is the perfect illustration of a man of faith who, in the midst of adversity, uncertainty, and seeming impossibility, went all the way with God, totally trusting Him for everything. Yet Abraham’s faith was not blind. He could not see the consequences of his obedience but he could see God’s character. For some very obvious and powerful reasons, he could trust God. When the Lord makes a promise, He puts His integrity on the line. Every promise of God is secured by His character.
God’s integrity and faithfulness are the real theme of Hebrews 6:13–20. Abraham is simply an example of those who trust His integrity and faithfulness, which alone make our trust of any value. Can we trust our lives to God? Can we base our hope on Him and His promises?
In an age where hope is under attack, this passage in Hebrews gives us four reasons to trust God: Believers can have hope in God through: 1) His Person (Hebrews 6:13a,), 2) His Purpose (Hebrews 6:14-15), 3) His Pledge (Hebrews 6:13b, 16–18), and 4) His Priest (Hebrews 6:19–20).
1) His Person (Hebrews 6:13a)
Hebrews 6:13a [13]For when God made a promise to Abraham, (since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself),
No one in the universe is greater than God. And the reason He cannot lie is that He invented truth. He is truth. By definition, whatever He says is true. By the very nature of His person, He cannot lie. He has no capacity to lie. His promises, then, are first of all secured by His Person. Whatever He does has to be right and whatever He says has to be true. If God makes a promise, therefore, He not only will keep it, He must keep it.
Please turn to Titus 1
The Hebrew readers who recognized the truth of the gospel, who had seen miracles performed by the apostles, were still afraid to let go of Judaism. They were afraid to cast themselves completely on the Messiah for fear that He might not be able to save them, that something would go amiss. And so the Holy Spirit encourages and assures all believers, that they can trust God to do just as He says.
Preaching is an exercise of Hope:
Titus 1:1-2 [1:1]Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, [2]in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began [3]and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; (ESV)
Illustration: (2273 Any Hope Of Rescue?)
Years ago the S-4 submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly sank. The entire crew was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed to the scene of disaster off the coast of Massachusetts. A diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise. Someone, he learned, was tapping out a question in the dots and dashes of the Morse Code. The question came slowly: “Is … there … any … hope?” This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there any hope?” (The preaching of the Gospel of Christ is the answer to that question) (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.)
2) His Purpose (Hebrews 6:14-15)
Hebrews 6:14-15 [14]saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." [15]And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. (ESV)
Please turn to Genesis 15
Abraham had hope not only because of God’s Person, but also because of God’s purpose. God did not take Abraham from his homeland and send him to a foreign land to sojourn the rest of his life in order to fulfill a divine whim. God had a purpose for Abraham and for the Nations through Abraham. Abraham had not asked God to send him to Canaan or to bless the Nations through him. It was God’s idea, God’s purpose, God’s plan. God’s call of Abraham, His promise to Abraham, and His covenant with Abraham were all entirely of His own doing. The promise was given to Abraham already in Gen. 12:7 whereas the oath was not added until Gen. 22:17 (Lenski, R. C. H. (1938). The interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James (197). Columbus, O.: Lutheran book concern.)
Genesis 15 speaks to the nature of the Covenant:
Genesis 15:1-18 [15:1]After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." [2]But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" [3]And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." [4]And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir." [5]And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." [6]And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. [7]And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." [8]But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" [9]He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." [10]And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. [11]And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. [12]As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. [13]Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [14]But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [15]As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. [16]And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." [17]When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. [18]On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, (ESV)
• Ordinarily, when such a covenant was made both parties would walk between the pieces, to symbolize their mutual obligations to fulfill the conditions agreed on. But Abraham had no part in determining the conditions of this covenant or in the ceremony that sealed it. The fact that only God walked between the pieces signified that the total responsibility for fulfilling the covenant was His. Abraham was not a party to the covenant, only a witness to it and a vehicle for its fulfillment. The covenant was with Abraham in the sense that, humanly speaking, it revolved around him. But its conditions and obligations were God’s alone. The covenant was made between God and Himself.
Hebrews 6:15 notes the time gap between God’s promises and their fulfillment, for "Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise". Abraham was already 75 years old when God first made his promise to him (Gen 12:4) and waited another 25 years before Isaac was finally born (21:5). His fathering of Ishmael by Hagar at Sarah’s behest (Gen 16) (Girdwood, J., & Verkruyse, P. (1997). Hebrews. The College Press NIV commentary (Heb 6:15). Joplin, Mo.: College Press.)
• Abraham’s actions with Hagar, resulting in Ishmael the true father of Islam, shows us the danger of trying to rush God’s timetable, or trying to help Him out in the things that He sovereignty states that He will do alone. There are things we are commanded to do in faithfulness, and there are things that we must understand that God does alone, like changing the human heart.
• We would often desire an instantaneous fulfillment of God’s promises, yet patience is the root of faith: to trust God to do what He says that He will do, in His own time, and in His own way.
Abraham did not personally receive the entire fulfilment of the promise, but only the germ of that fulfilment. The promise was that Abraham was to become a great nation, and that the earth was to be blessed through Abraham. Isaac, born miraculously, was a partial fulfilment of the promise, and the Lord Jesus as Saviour and coming Messiah fulfils all that God promised Abraham (Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader (Heb 6:15). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.).
Reading Genesis 22:16–17, we receive the impression that God gave the promise to Abraham, for he is the one who obtains the blessing. “I will surely bless you,” God says to Abraham. But the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes the divine blessing applicable to all believers by calling them heirs of the promise. God’s unchanging purpose was to bless the nations through the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:3); the meaning of this was revealed in the gospel (Gal. 3:6–9) (Whitlock, L. G., Sproul, R. C., Waltke, B. K., & Silva, M. (1995). Reformation study Bible, the : Bringing the light of the Reformation to Scripture : New King James Version (Heb 6:17). Nashville: T. Nelson.).
• That means that God’s promise to Abraham transcends the centuries and is in Christ as relevant today as it was in Abraham’s time (Gal. 3:7, 9, 29). The oath God swore to Abraham was meant for us to strengthen us in our faith (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 15: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Hebrews. New Testament Commentary (174). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Illustration: 2006 The Key Called Promise
In John Bunyan’s great allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, the incident is related of how Christian decides to leave the Main Highway and follow another Path which seemed easier. But this Path leads him into the territory of Giant Despair who owns Doubting Castle.
Eventually he is captured by Giant Despair and kept in a dungeon. He is advised to kill himself. The Giant said there was no use trying to keep on with his journey. For the time, it seemed as if Despair had really conquered Christian. But then, Hope, Christian’s companion, reminds him of previous victories. So it came about that on Saturday about midnight they began to pray, and continued in prayer until almost morning. Now a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half- amazed, broke out in passionate speech, “What a fool am I thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well be at liberty. I have a Key in my bosom called Promise that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.” Then said Hopeful, “That’s good news. Good Brother, pluck it out of thy bosom and try.” And the prison gates flew open (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.).
3) His Pledge (Hebrews 6:13b, 16–18)
Hebrews 6:13b [13](For when God made a promise to Abraham), since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, (ESV)
Hebrews 6:16-18 [16]For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. [17]So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, [18]so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (ESV)
The third hope God gives, first mentioned at the end of verse 13, is His pledge. It was common in New Testament times for a person to make an oath on something or someone greater than himself—such as the altar, or the high priest, or even God. Once such an oath was made, argument was over; the dispute was ended. It was assumed that no one would make such an oath unless he was fully determined to keep it.
By appealing to human oaths the writer demonstrates that the divine promise is superior to man’s word. The limitation of man’s word lies in the fact that his word is not sufficient in itself. The very need for an oath to back up a statement reflects the character of the one who makes it. It should be remembered that Jesus was critical of men whose word was so unreliable that oaths were used to bolster their statements (Guthrie, D. (1983). Vol. 15: Hebrews: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (153–154). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
God, of course, did not need to make an oath. His word is every bit as good without an oath—as ours ought to be (Matt. 5:33–37). But to accommodate to the weak faith of people, God swore His promise on Himself. Since His promise already was unbreakable, His pledge did not make His promise any more secure. But He nonetheless gave it, as further assurance to those who are slow to believe. The bare word of God is guarantee enough, but God gave an oath just to show that He meant what He said. The confirmation is a “guarantee.” An oath is used to guarantee an agreement (Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (Heb 6:16–17). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.).
Hebrews 6:17 teaches that God not only made the promise to believers but also is the guarantor of the promise. God makes the promise of salvation, and at the same time he becomes the intermediary who ensures that the promise is fulfilled (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 15: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Hebrews. New Testament Commentary (174). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)
I believe the pledge of God’s oath is the Holy Spirit. Three times Paul refers to the Holy Spirit as God’s pledge to believers (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). In modern Greek, the same basic word used by Paul (arrabôn, “pledge”) means engagement ring, an sincere pledge of marriage. As if His bare promise were not more than enough, God swears an oath on Himself and gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit as a pledge, on the oath.
The two unchangeable things (6:18) are God’s promise and His pledge, His promise and His oath. They are immutable, without any possibility of change or variance. The term (arnetathetos) was used in relation to wills. Once properly made, a will was ametathetos, unchangeable by anyone but the maker. God has declared His promise and His pledge to be ametathetos, even by Himself. They cannot be turned around or altered. “You’re secure,” He says. “Come to Christ; there’s nothing to fear. I’ll hold you; I’ll never let go of you.” Our hope and security is not in our never letting go of God but in His never letting go of us.
Yet we are not to flail in the storm but flee to Him, to take refuge which is a metaphor for a safe harbor in a storm (cf. 2:14; 6:19); In the Septuagint, the Greek word here translated “refuge” is used for the cities of refuge God provided for those who sought protection from avengers for an accidental killing (see Num. 35; Deut. 19; Josh. 20). We will never know whether God can hold us until in desperation we run to Him for refuge (Utley, R. J. D. (1999). Vol. Volume 10: The Superiority of the New Covenant: Hebrews. Study Guide Commentary Series (67). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.).
We have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. This encouragement (paraklçsis) has the meaning of calling (kaleô) alongside (para) as though shouting encouragement or instruction in the midst of confusion, thus legal counsel. This mobile exhortation becomes even more important when the recipient is in dire straits and in flight. His readers evidently are experiencing a refugee flight from some condition, or soon will be. What can we trust? Whom can we believe? What is there to hold onto in the midst of this violent storm that tosses our ship and threatens its very integrity? But our encourager sends calls across to his own listeners and hails them with the good news that there is such a hold in the tempest. It is the hope that has already been set before them, which they grasp with firmness and trust to hold them against the tides of the storm (Evans, L. H., Jr, & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). Vol. 33: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 33 : Hebrews. The Preacher’s Commentary series (140). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.).
Please turn to Colossians 1
The hope is “set before us,” (is given) to us by God, and we grasp firm hold of it. This surely means that it is objective, the thing/person for which we hope (Lenski, R. C. H. (1938). The interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James (204). Columbus, O.: Lutheran book concern.).
In Hebrews, the word ‘hope’ never describes a subjective attitude (i.e. ‘our hope’ or ‘hopefulness’) but always denotes the objective context of hope (William L. Lane, Hebrews 1–8 (Waco, TX: Word, 1991), p. 153.)
The hope set before us is Jesus Himself, and the gospel He has brought.
Colossians 1:3-14 [3]We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, [4]since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, [5]because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, [6]which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, [7]just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf [8]and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. [9]And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, [10]so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. [11]May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, [12]giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. [13]He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14]in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (ESV)
• We can have hope because of the spiritual deliverance we have. The Gospel is the gospel of hope. It changes people across this planet. It gives spiritual wisdom and understanding. It enables people to endure with patience and joy.
God himself has provided hope through the promises of his Word. And we whom the author of Hebrews exhorts “to make [our] hope sure” (6:11) are invited to appropriate the hope that God places in full view before us. Taking hold of hope is not something that we do halfheartedly. On the contrary, we must attain the hope offered to us with the strong encouragement that we receive from God’s Word. In short, God holds out to us hope and at the same time strenuously urges us to accept and appropriate it (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 15: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Hebrews. New Testament Commentary (175). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Illustration: 2008 $5,000 In Bible
Some time ago an elderly man living in New Jersey made an unusual discovery as he leafed through an old family Bible. Many years earlier, his aunt had died and left it to him. Part of her will read: “To my beloved Steven Marsh I bequeath my family Bible and all it contains, along with the residue of my estate after my funeral expenses and just and lawful debts are paid.” When everything had been settled the nephew got a few hundred dollars plus the old volume mentioned in the will. After the money was used up, his only support was a small pension, and for more than 30 years he lived in poverty. Then one day he cleaned out his attic in preparation for a move to his son’s home where he hoped to spend his old age. There in a trunk was the family Bible he had inherited. Opening it, he was amazed to find banknotes scattered throughout its pages. He counted over $5000 in cash. Within his reach were riches he could have been enjoying all along (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.).
4) His Priest (Hebrews 6:19–20)
Hebrews 6:19-20 [19]We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, [20]where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (ESV)
God gave Abraham hope through the security of His Person, His purpose, and His pledge. All these He also gives to us who have believed in Christ. But He gives us yet another, His Priest. As our High Priest, Jesus serves as the anchor of our souls, the One who will forever keep us from drifting away from God. Nowhere else in the New Testament is the anchor used in a metaphorical way. It is a rich image. The job of the anchor is to remain fixed in the seabed whatever the conditions at sea. Indeed the rougher the weather the more important is the anchor for the stability and safety of the boat. It is an apt symbol of Christian hope (Guthrie, D. (1983). Vol. 15: Hebrews: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (156). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
Poem: We relate to the image of an anchor and express our feelings in the words of Priscilla J. Owens:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 15: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Hebrews. New Testament Commentary (176). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Or from the more familiar Hymn:
His oath, his covenant and blood
Support me in the raging flood;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand (Lauersdorf, R. E. (1986). Hebrews. The People’s Bible (66). Milwaukee, Wis.: Northwestern Pub. House.).
Jesus’ entering into the inner place behind the curtain/veil signifies His entering the Holy of Holies, where the sacrifice of atonement was made. Under the Old Covenant it was made yearly by the high priest. Under the New is has been made once for all time by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Hebrews 6:20 indicates that Jesus described as forerunner (prodromos), a word which occurs only here in the New Testament. The Greek word for forerunner was used in the second century A.D. of the smaller boats sent into the harbor by larger ships unable to enter due to the buffeting of the weather. These smaller boats carried the anchor through the breakers inside the harbor and dropped it there, securing the larger ship. Forerunner presupposes that others will follow.
Thus, Jesus is not only the believer’s anchor but He is like a runner boat that has taken our anchor into port and secured it there (Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (Heb 6:20). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.)
Our hope is pinned on Jesus, who has entered the heavenly sanctuary. An anchor lies unseen at the bottom of the sea; our hope lies unseen in the highest heaven.
Romans 8:24 [24]For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? (ESV)
• Our anchor of hope has absolute security in that Jesus in human form, now glorified, has entered heaven. And he has entered heaven in his humanity as a guarantee that we, too, shall be with him. This guarantee is indicated that he is our “forerunner.” He goes ahead and we follow. Also note that the name Jesus and not Christ (5:5) occurs—a distinct reminder of the earthly life of the Lord. Jesus ascended in his glorified human body to heaven and entered the presence of God. As Jesus’ human body has come into God’s presence, so our bodies will enter heaven. That is our hope (George E. Rice, “The Chiastic Structure of the Central Section of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 19 (1981): 243.).
Jesus “has become a high priest forever.” This rather short sentence is filled with meaning. Jesus has become a high priest. He did not become high priest when he ascended into heaven. Rather, he took his place at the right hand of God the Father because he accomplished his atoning work on the cross. He indeed was the sacrificial Lamb of God offered for the sin of the world; as the writer of Hebrews puts it, “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people” (Heb. 9:28). Jesus has become a high priest. The writer has called Jesus high priest in Hebrews 2:17; 3:1; 4:14–15; and 5:5, 10. He will explain the concept high priest in succeeding chapters, but in 6:20 the author stresses that Jesus entered heaven as high priest, as the one who atoned for the sins of God’s people. He opened the door to heaven because of his high-priestly work. Jesus has become a high priest forever. An Aaronic high priest served in the capacity of high priest for a limited duration. Jesus serves forever. The high priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year. Jesus is in heaven forever. “Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood” (7:24). Constantly he intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24). By his death on the cross, Jesus fulfilled the responsibilities of the Aaronic priesthood. But as a high priest he had to belong to a different order. The writer of Hebrews showed that according to Psalm 110:4 God designated Jesus as high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek (5:6, 10). (Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 15: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Hebrews. New Testament Commentary (177). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)
• Our confidence rests in the eternal high priesthood of Jesus after the order of Melchizedek, a priesthood secured by divine promise and oath (7:20–22, 28) (Whitlock, L. G., Sproul, R. C., Waltke, B. K., & Silva, M. (1995). Reformation study Bible, the : Bringing the light of the Reformation to Scripture : New King James Version (Heb 6:13–20). Nashville: T. Nelson.).
We are refugees from the sinking ship of this present world-order, so soon to disappear; our hope is fixed on the eternal order, where the promises of God are made good to his people in perpetuity. Our hope, based upon his promises, is our spiritual anchor. The figure of the anchor is not pressed; all that is meant is that “we are moored to an immoveable object”—and that immovable object is the throne of God himself, established (as is made clear in ch. 9) in the heavenly holy of holies... our hope is fixed there because Jesus is there, seated, as we have already been told, at “the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3). His presence there is a powerful corroboration of our hope.
Abraham rested his hope in the promise and oath of God; but we have more than that to rest our hope upon: we have the fulfilment of his promise in the exaltation of Christ. No wonder that our hope is secure and stable (Bruce, F. F. (1990). The Epistle to the Hebrews (Rev. ed.). The New International Commentary on the New Testament (154–155). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
Poem: we have reason to be optimistic—we have an anchor for the soul.
I can feel the anchor fast
As I meet each sudden blast,
And the cable, though unseen,
Bears the heavenly strain between;
Through the storm I safely ride,
Till the turning of the tide.
And it holds,
my anchor holds;
Blow your wildest, then, O gale,
On my bark so small and frail;
By his grace I shall not fail,
For my anchor holds,
my anchor holds
(Hughes, R. K. (1993). Hebrews : An anchor for the soul. Preaching the Word (179–180). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.).
(Format Note: Outline & some base commentary from MacArthur, J. (1996). Hebrews (159–169). Chicago: Moody Press).
