GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 6:16-18
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PAUL is continuing in his purpose to strengthen us in the assurance that our faith is not in vain in the Lord, so that we will persevere in faith and patience right through this life until Christ calls us home to his everlasting glory.
The first thing that stands out in what Paul teaches under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is how much God wants us to have this certain assurance in believing. Paul tells us that so strongly did God want us to be sure of the promises of salvation, that he not only gave his word, but he gave it under oath. By this we have this strong assurance that God means us to get the message that he does not lie, and that his promised word is sacred and sure. The argument presented to us is that oaths are used in human life in order to silence all doubts as to the veracity of any promises or agreements that are being made. To silence our doubts, God accommodates himself to our human weakness, and condescends to swear under oath that he will never deny his word, and so his promises in Christ of eternal salvation are sure, and we need have no doubt that they are true.
This certainty is further enhanced by the knowledge Paul gives us that when God makes a promise he keeps it. For God to break his word would be to deny his holy and loving character. Not being content with simply giving his word, he sealed his word under oath, so that we may by two unchangeable things, the word of God and the sealing of his word under oath, have complete certainty that what has been promised will be fulfilled.
God's purposes are unchanging (v.17). This is a wonderful revelation. We may well have deduced it from the fact God is God, but it is wonderful to have it made certain by this declaration of it. God is not like us finite and fallible human beings. We can make a promise with every intention of keeping it, but there is no certainty we will keep it however trustworthy we may be. The truth is that we do not think things through, in order to determine every eventuality and ramification of the promise we make. So we are prone to make mistakes. We find it impossible to honour the promise in the future. Further our wisdom is finite and fallible, and so we may have made all sorts of mistakes in our thinking which makes our promise uncertain. It is also true that we have no control over the future, and so some eventuality in the future, which we know nothing about when we make a promise, will make it impossible to honour our word. We do not know this is going to happen, so in good faith we make a commitment, but in the end we are just not able to keep the promise.
God is not like this. He thinks things through and misses nothing, and so knowing all things, the promise he makes can not possibly falter. Further we may fail through lack of power to make our promise a realty. This is not true of God. There is nothing he can not do. He has simply to speak the word and it is done. In short there is nothing in heaven or hell which can make God forgo the promises he makes. So God's purposes can not be uncertain for their fulfilment.
It is impossible for God to lie. This is another statement that is made in these verses (V.18). If it is impossible for God to lie, then it is impossible for God to make a promise and then not keep it. If he has determined to do something, he will perform it, because there is nothing that can stop him.
Who are the people who can taken comfort and assurance from these facts. It is the heirs of what is promised. Why believers may have assured certainty of their salvation is because they have believed, not because they were more clever or fortunate than others, and not because they were wiser than others, nor because they may have made a more wise decision than others, but because God chose them to be heirs of the promises. Again our certainty of the hope of Glory is in the certainty of God himself and his unchangeable will and purpose.
We can be certain because we have fled to God and taken hold of this promise of life. This is another way of saying that we have fled to God in faith that his word is true, and that we have placed ourselves under his assured promise of salvation. This is the nature of Christian faith. We have seen ourselves without hope, and we have been led to see Christ as our only hope, and we have fled to him in faith and trust because of the promise that such confident faith will not be in vain.
Here is our assurance, and in this we can be greatly encouraged. God has confirmed his word to us by word and oath. God never lies. God purposes, and so his promises are sure, and unchangeable. We are safe in the arms of Jesus.