CERTAINTY
"For
God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you
have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the
saints, and do minister." (Heb. 6:10) What a comfort and
assurance to know that our efforts to serve the Master in our service
to one another does not go unnoticed. While our motivation to serve
is not for public recognition, and we realize that it is only
acceptable before God if it is the genuine response of love, we
surely do care that the Lord is pleased.
The
Hebrew writer urged his readers to "show the same diligence to
the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become
sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit
the promises." (vss. 11-12) Perseverance is the result of
focused effort in pursuit of a goal that hope holds out to the one
who seeks it. What better example than Abraham could the writer give
as one whom we can imitate in our effort to obtain the promises of
our inheritance? However, while Abraham is a great example of patient
endurance in pursuit of God's promises, it is self-evident that the
effort expended to acquire them could be no greater than the
assurance
of the promises themselves. Therefore, he said "For when God
made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater,
He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely
blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.'
and so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."
(vss. 13-15)
Why
would we spend our lives using it up in pursuit of that which we only
suppose
will be acquired at the end, especially considering all of the
challenges and distractions along the way that beat against that
hope? Realizing this to be so, the writer explains that "men
indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them
an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly
to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it
by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible
for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us." (vss. 16-18)
We,
as heirs of God's promise, have the undeniable assurance that He will
give what He has promised. Our assurance is based on two
unchangeable (immutable)
things: His promise and His oath. His counsel (or advice, which is
based upon the certainty of His will to accomplish that which He
says) is backed by His oath, so that the strength of both the promise
and the oath are founded upon the fact that "it is impossible
for God to lie." While men may take an oath, staking their
reputation and character upon their word, we are fallible and often
unable to carry out what we promise because of our limitations to
effect the circumstances that might prevent its outcome. (See Mt.
5:33-37; Jas. 5:12) But with God this is not so. His counsel is
immutable. This is the assurance of our hope.
Therefore,
the writer concludes, "This hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind
the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having
become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
(vss. 19-20) As surely as the anchor of a ship can keep it from
drifting away amidst the winds and waves of a violent storm, so does
our hope anchor us in the face of all opposing odds. The reason this
is so is because the anchor of our hope is "grounded firm and
deep in the Savior's love." It is founded in the heavenly realm
where His throne stands, and we tenaciously hold to the end of the
chain of faith to which it is fastened. That to which our hope is
anchored is immovable and unchangeable.
Peter
describes this hope as a "living hope" because it is
founded upon the assurance of "the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead." (1 Pet. 1:3) Because He ever lives, our hope
can be directed "to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
and that does not fade away, reserved
in
heaven for you." (vs. 4) We can depend on His promise because
it is "reserved" by the One who "cannot lie" and
whose word (counsel)
is "immutable" (unchangeable). This greatest of all
blessings, like "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is
no variation or shadow of turning." (Jas. 1:17) As Creator of
light and the light of the Sun, He is rightfully called its Father.
But unlike the shadows that are cast by anything that comes between
us and the light of the Sun, the giving off of His Divine light is
never interrupted to cause a moment's shadow. He is eternal
light, and we have been blessed to bask under the brilliance of His
blessings.
The
unchangeable nature of God is seen in the fact that "Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8),
thus we can stand
on the solid ground of His word and "not be carried about with
various and strange doctrines." (Heb. 13:9) His word is as sure
and unchangeable as is its Divine Author. We can trust what He has
said and stand upon it in the face of every false teaching. Amidst
the false doctrine of his day that claimed that "the
resurrection is already past" which did "overthrow the
faith of some." (2 Tim. 2:18), Paul emphatically declared these
words: "Nevertheless the
solid foundation of God stands,
having this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are His,' and, 'Let
everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' "
(2 Tim. 2:19) Therefore, because "the solid foundation of God
stands," so can we also stand, who have "been built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the Chief Corner Stone." (Eph. 2:20)
Every
teaching of the Son of God is sure and reliable and will not change
with time nor circumstance. We can confidently rest our faith upon
its certainty, even as Jesus called those to do who heard His sermon
on the mount. "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,
and does
them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."
(Mt. 7:24-25) Not many things in life are certain, but God's
promises are. As Jesus gave His life, we can stake our life on it.
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Gary V. Womack - November 2003