15  The Securities of God’s  Promise (6:13-20)

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you.” And thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (6:13-20)

There used to be a television program called “Who Do You Trust?” That is an important question. In our age we are well on our way to trusting no one. Many people have developed a kind of psychosis of distrust, commonly known as the credibility gap. Young people are being taught not to trust anyone but themselves and to learn everything by their own experience. Promises are often made lightly, with little intention of their being kept. A person’s word today can seldom be his bond. Lying has all but become the norm in much of society. The world is full of liars. That is a basic problem. The Bible says that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), and Jesus tells us the evil one, the devil, is “the father of lies,” that lying is the essence of his nature (John 8:44).

In the midst of the confusion and turmoil that lying always brings, people are looking for something they can trust, something they can bank their lives on. Some turn to religion. They may spend an entire life in a particular religious system, devotedly and sacrificially meeting all its requirements and standards, yet never find peace or meaning or satisfaction. They may spend years praying to and putting complete trust in a particular saint, only to be told that the saint was not really canonized. Or they may put their trust in self-proclaimed healers. A mother took her young son to a faith healer in the hope of having his crippled legs straightened. She was told to take off his braces and never to put them on him again. A few weeks of pain later, emergency surgery had to be done to save the legs from amputation.

Elmer Gantry-style evangelists have always been around to take people’s hearts, money, and trust. Not too many years ago in Los Angeles a minister conducted a television campaign ostensibly to raise money for missionary work. After collecting a considerable sum, he simply left town. People go to churches that claim to worship and honor Jesus Christ but that teach doctrines and ideas utterly contrary to what He taught. They learn nothing about the Jesus Christ of Scripture. False teachers, who are both deceived and deceiving, abound. Preachers with high academic credentials from prestigious seminaries teach philosophies and theologies that are totally unbiblical and heretical.

In whom can we trust? In whom can we really believe? Without being pessimistic or cynical, the Christian knows that the only one who can be trusted without reservation is God. Over and over, throughout its pages and in many forms, the Bible tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. No statement of this counsel is more beautiful than David’s: “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of you heart” (Ps. 37:3-4). Only in Him is there no credibility gap.

ABRAHAM’S EXAMPLE

As we have seen, the writer of Hebrews has been urging the Jews to completely abandon the Old Covenant. Everything from Judaism is to be dropped away and they are to commit themselves entirely to Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. The forms and rituals and ceremonies and practices are to be left behind. But, as the writer says very clearly here—and says even more clearly in chapter 11—the essence, the substance, even of the Old Covenant was faith, as far as man’s part was concerned. At no time were the forms and ceremonies the most important thing. Faith was always paramount.

Probably the most outstanding example, certainly from the Old Testament, of trusting God is Abraham. He, in fact, is called “the father of all who believe” (Rom. 4:11; cf. Gal. 3:7). And it is Abraham whom the writer now sets before his readers as a model of faith. He is saying, “Not only can you look around you at the true believers as examples; even Abraham, who lived thousands of years before Christ came to earth, is a model for your trusting in Him. Look back in your own history and see a man who totally trusted God.” In light of the Jewish persecution that these borderline believers 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. He went so far as to raise the knife to slay the very son who alone could fulfill God’s promise—because God had told him to sacrifice this son. That is how far he trusted God.

Paul also used Abraham as the great example of faith. The whole thrust of Romans 4 is that Abraham was saved—justified, counted righteous by God—because of his faith. And he not only was saved by faith before the Old (Mosaic) Covenant was given, but he was saved even before he was circumcised, which was the mark of the covenant God made with Abraham. Paul’s point is that salvation has never been by obedience to the law or by the performance of any rite, but has always been by faith. “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5; cf. James 2:23). Abraham, in fact, not only was the father of the Jewish faithful but of everyone, Jew or Gentile, who is faithful.

What sort of faith did Abraham have? Why was it so significant, so exemplary, that he would be called the father of the faithful?

Abraham, whose original name was Abram, was raised a pagan. He was a descendant of Shem, one of Noah’s three sons; but apparently for many generations, his family had worshiped false gods. He grew up in Ur, an ancient Chaldean city of Mesopotamia. For His own reasons, God spoke to Abram and commanded him first to go to Haran and then to Canaan. “By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb. 11:8). With no guarantee but God’s word that he would get there, Abraham believed Him and went.

The Lord promised Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan to him and his descendants and that through Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). Although Abraham was childless, and his wife Sarah was barren, God also promised Abraham that his descendants would be too numerous to count. For years after coming into Canaan, however, Abraham remained childless.

After Isaac, the promised son, was finally born and had become a teenager, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice this only son. Having no idea of the Lord’s reasons or of what would happen, Abraham obeyed. He obeyed because he believed God. Had not God miraculously intervened and provided a substitute sacrifice, Abraham would have slain Isaac on Mt. Moriah.

Yet Abraham’s faith was not blind. He could not see the consequences of his obedience but he could see God’s character. Abraham had gilt-edged security. 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 take Him at His word? Can He keep us from falling? Can He finish the work He has begun in us? Will He lose hold on us, or lose interest in us, at some point along the line? In short, is there really salvation and security with God? Abraham believed there was.

This passage in Hebrews gives us four reasons for trusting God: His Person, His purpose, His pledge, and His Priest.

His PERSON

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you.” And thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. (6:13-15)

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.

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 them, assures them that they can trust God to do just as He says.

In the opening of his letter to Titus, Paul reminds his young friend of “the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago” (Titus 1:2). Long ago God had promised eternal life to those who come to Him, and He cannot lie. In the early part of his epistle, James also speaks of God’s utter dependability. “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). God never deviates from His will or from His promises. He cannot.

Since, therefore, God has promised that all who come to Him through His Son will be saved, it is impossible for anyone who trusts in Christ not to be saved or to lose salvation once it is attained. God promises again and again that if men come to Jesus Christ they will know salvation. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

Just as surely as God has kept His promise to Abraham, He will keep His promise to those who trust in His Son. His basic promise to Abraham was I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you (cf. Gen. 22:17). A legitimate question, then, is, Has God kept this promise to Abraham?

Over fourteen million of the physical descendants of Abraham are still in the world today. Not only that, but many more millions around the world are Abraham’s spiritual descendants. God has indeed kept His promise to Abraham.

God has never failed, and He never will. Abraham was secure because of the Person of God, who cannot lie. He cannot possibly back out on His promises. We can trust God because He has no capacity for deception or failure in His nature. “The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed” (Deut. 31:8).

His PURPOSE-TO REDEEM A LOST WORLD

Saying, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you.” (6:14)

Abraham was secure 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 world through Abraham. Abraham had not asked God to send him to Canaan or to bless the world 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 Abrahamic covenant, with its promise, was unconditional. God did not tell Abraham he would be blessed if he fulfilled certain requirements, if he met certain conditions. God told Abraham to do many things, and Abraham was obedient. But it was not Abraham’s obedience, as important and fine as this was, that guaranteed the fulfillment of God’s promise to him. God’s promise guaranteed its own fulfillment. God expected many things of Abraham, but as far as fulfilling the promise was concerned, Abraham was but a spectator—watching what God was doing for him and through him, God had a predetermined purpose for Abraham. And this purpose was that Abraham would be blessed and that the world would be blessed through him.

Not long after God created Adam and Eve and put them in His beautiful garden, where every one of their needs was met, they decided to do the one thing that He had told them not to do. They ate from the tree of knowledge and fell, and the rest of creation fell with them. The whole earth was cursed. Our first parents lost their fellowship with God and were exiled from Eden. Very soon after that, the first murder was committed, when Cain killed his brother Abel.

Corruption, violence, polygamy, incest, lying, stealing, adultery, idolatry, and every other sin became common and increasingly worse. Mankind, in fact, became so terribly debauched that God destroyed all people, except for the eight in Noah’s family. Man’s nature was still sinful, however, and in the generations after the Flood, he continued to ignore God and sinned in every conceivable way. God had tried to reach people—including through Noah, who preached while he was building the ark—but they would not listen or change. Sin reached a climax when, with the tower of Babel, men literally tried to take heaven by storm. God thwarted their scheme by causing them to speak different languages and by scattering them across the world.

Yet God did not give up on man. It was in His eternal plan that those whom He had created in His own image would worship and serve Him. To do so they had to be redeemed. God could recover man only by drastic means. It was as if a great river had been blocked by a landslide. God had to cut a new channel. He chose a certain people to be the channel to bring the river of life to the world again. The father of that people was Abraham. From his descendants was to come the nation of Israel, God’s earthly, historical channel of revelation and redemption. The Old and New Covenants, the law, the prophecies, the priestly sacrifices—all came through Israel. The Messiah Himself was a Jew, the truest Jew of all. God’s plan of redemption was to be carried out through these specially chosen people. “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). And all Jews are from Abraham.

God picked Abraham. God predetermined the life of Abraham. God set His love upon Abraham to be the one through whom the channel would be cut. It was a matter of divine choice. Abraham was honored by God because of his faith and he was saved because of his faith, but he was not chosen because of his faith. Abraham was not chosen because of any merit or quality or virtue. He was chosen purely out of the sovereign will of God. “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers” (Deut. 7:7-8).

When the Lord made the actual covenant with Abraham, he had Abraham cut some specified animals in half and set the halves opposite each other. After Abraham fell into a deep sleep, the Lord spoke to him about His promise and then, in the form of a smoking oven and a flaming torch, passed between the halves Himself (Gen. 15). 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.

The point of this for Hebrews 6:13-20 is that God’s promise did not depend on anyone’s faithfulness but His own. Abraham, his descendants, and all the world through them would be blessed. God owed Himself the fulfillment of His plan.

PURPOSES FOR ISRAEL

What were God’s chosen people meant to be? What were they supposed to do—for Him and by Him—in helping fulfill His purpose of redeeming a lost world? They were supposed to do many things. But this nation, this channel cut through the landslide of sin that blocked off man’s fellowship with God, this channel through which God was going to send His flowing blessings, was given seven basic purposes.

To Proclaim the True God. Their job, in the midst of idolatry and polytheism and polydemonism and animism and all other ungodliness, first of all was to proclaim the true God. “The people whom I formed for Myself, will declare My praise” (Isa. 43:21).

To Reveal the Messiah. They were to reveal the Messiah, the Anointed One, who would be the great Savior of the world. He was to come through them, and they were to be a testimony of His coming. Just as surely as the prophets and psalmists were to proclaim His coming, so was the whole nation (see Ps. 110; Isa. 42; 49-57; Zech. 6:12-13; etc.).

To Be God’s Priest-Nation. As the Mosaic covenant was being given to her at Sinai, Israel was told by God, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6). A priest is a mediator between God and man. All of Israel was to serve as a mediator for God to the rest of the world. The Levitical priests were to minister to Israel. Israel was to minister to the world.

To Preserve and Transmit Scripture. Israel was the scribe and repository of Scripture, the agency of God’s Word. All of the Old Testament, and practically all of the New, was written by Jews (cf. Rom. 9:4).

To Show the Faithfulness of God. The Israelites were to be an illustration of God’s faithfulness. Over and over they failed God, but He never failed them. They were, of course, to testify to God by their faithfulness to Him. But, even had they been perfectly faithful, their faithfulness could never have matched His. Israel was to be a means of God’s showing His own faithfulness. God is still not through using her for this purpose. Speaking of the last times, Paul writes, “And thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,. . .  so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy” (Rom. 11:26, 31). Those who claim that all the unfulfilled promises to Israel are fulfilled in the church impugn God’s Word and His faithfulness. She has been, still is, and will yet be a living illustration of His faithfulness.

To Show the Blessedness of Serving God. “How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD” (Ps. 144:15). God’s chosen people were to show how blessed, how happy, those are who belong to and serve God. They not only were to be a channel of His blessing but also an illustration of it.

To Show God’s Grace in Dealing with Sin. The whole sacrificial system portrayed God’s gracious dealing with sin. Those sacrifices could not in themselves remove sin, but they were a beautiful picture of how God would remove it—through the blood of the perfect, effective sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:11-14).

Israel was strategic in God’s purpose. He did not have to choose her, but, once she had been chosen, He had to use her to fulfill the purpose for which she was chosen. He could not stop using her without violating His unconditional promise to Abraham, which would be impossible because it was contrary to His nature. Just as sure as His promise to Abraham, therefore, is His promise to those who put their trust in His Son.

The promise to Abraham and the promise to everyone who trusts in Christ are as secure as God Himself. “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand” (Isa. 14:24). “The counsel of the LORD stands forever” (Ps. 33:11).

As believers we are secure in Christ because God purposed before the world began to conform us to the image of His Son, and if He failed in that promise He would fail in His eternal purpose. God’s promise to those who believe in Christ is, in fact, an extension of His promise to Abraham. “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; . . . That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants” (Rom. 9:6, 8).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:3-4). Nothing is said about our part—our work, our faithfulness, our anything. This is the sovereign side of God’s plan and is alone the basis of our security. God has purposed to love us and purposed to conform us to Christ and nothing can violate that. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30). The promise is so certain that Paul puts it in the past tense—even for future believers.

His PLEDGE

Since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, ... For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath. (6:13b, 16-17)

The third security 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.

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 men, 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.

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 (arrabn, “pledge”) means engagement ring, an earnest 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, an earnest, on the oath.

In order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. (6:18)

The two unchangeable things are God’s promise and His pledge, His promise and His oath. They are immutable, without any possibility of change or variance. The term (ametathetos) 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 security is not in our never letting go of God but in His never letting go of us.

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.

The hope set before us is Jesus Himself, and the gospel He has brought. Paul speaks of his Savior as “Christ Jesus, who is our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1). In Colossians he speaks of the gospel as our hope (1:5).

His PRIEST

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (6:19-20)

God gave Abraham 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.

Jesus’ entering within the 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. Our anchored soul is, in God’s mind, already secure within the veil, secure within His eternal sanctuary. When Jesus entered the heavenly Holy of Holies, he did not leave after the sacrifice as did the Aaronic high priests, but “He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). In other words, Jesus remains there forever as Guardian of our souls. Such absolute security is almost incomprehensible. Not only are our souls anchored within the impregnable, inviolable heavenly sanctuary, but our Savior, Jesus Christ, stands guard over them as well! How can the Christian’s security be described as anything but eternal? Truly we can trust God and His Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, with our souls. That is good cause to come all the way to salvation and to enjoy its security.