Hebrews
Gods Promise and Our Hope
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons
Lesson: 12-33
Genre: Lecture
Track: 12
Dictation Name: RR198F12
Location/Venue:
Year:
Let us worship God. Oh come let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalms. Let us pray.
Our Lord and our God we come into Thy presence again, Thou hast commanded us to come joyfully, and to make a joyful noise unto Thee. Lord God Thou knowest how often the burdens of this world oppress us, and instead of joy we have gloom, instead of peace we have disquiet. Grant oh Lord that in the moments ahead our hearts be stilled, that Thy word grant us Thy peace, and Thy strength replace our weariness and our feebleness. We ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
Our scripture this morning is Hebrews 6:9-20. Hebrews 6:9-20, and our subject, Gods Promise and Our Hope.
“9But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
The problem among the Hebrew believers is by now apparent. First, Jesus was to them their messiah. This hope may have been dimmed by the turn of events since the ascension: “When would he establish His kingdom?” they no doubt wondered. Then second, the Hebrews still believed that they had a valid High Priest in Jerusalem. He was near. The ascended Jesus was remote. When Paul returned to Jerusalem the leaders of the church there urged Paul to go with others to the temple for purification. The temple ceremonies and sacrifices obviously still had validity for them. Only the destruction of the temple in the Jewish Roman war 66-76 A.D. ended that relationship.
Before the fall of Jerusalem, Rome itself did not see Christianity as another religion. It saw it simply as a dissident group within Judaism. Hebrews gives us the Theological reasons which required a clear cut separation. At the same time, Hebrews enables us to understand the continuity of Christianity with Israel’s faith.
Hebrews thus gives us blunt statements requiring separation while commending their continuity. We see this in verses 9 and 10, and they are in line with the Mosaic law, in their ministry to need, their readiness to help their Christian brethren in particular.
John Calvin spoke very strongly of the importance of charity in commenting on these two verses, saying in part and I quote: “For he intimates that God holds himself indebted to us for whatever good we do to our neighbors. According to that saying: “What ye have done to one of the least of these, ye have done to Me.” And there is also: “He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord.”” Of course, Calvin himself was remarkable in the amount of attention he gave to charity; to the elderly, the sick, the stranger, the wayfarer and so on. Aspects of His life and work you rarely hear about now.
The Bible from beginning to end has much to say about charity as revelatory of true faith. Here the apostolic fellowship commends the Hebrew believers as faithful to their Lord, because of their care for their brethren. This does not mean that charity acquires merit, but rather that it manifest our faith and our trust that Gods requirements are best for us and for all men.
This is a very important point that the apostolic fellowship makes. They place some confidence in these people, in spite of their waywardness with regard to some of their thinking. Why? Because they obey the laws of God with regard to charity. Now there are many marks of false groups, cults and whatever you want to call them, one is their absence of charity.
And that is why we have at Chalcedon no matter how difficult our financial situation, given attention to charity. Because God requires it, it’s so strict a requirement; this is why one of our staff members works in Africa, broadcasts into Armenia, and others are working here and there, all over the world.
Now, this assurance comes from the pastoral group who is writing this letter. Remember, when we began I said that while the name of Paul appears on this letter and I believe Paul was in charge of the group that wrote it, it was a larger group. It was an apostolic fellowship. We see this in verse 9: ‘We are persuaded, we thus speak.’ And verse 11: ‘We desire.’ And so on and on throughout the letter. Its only at the very last that you have the ‘I’ say, Paul himself.
It is the desire of this apostolic fellowship that all the Hebrew believers show the same diligence that so many already manifest, and that they persevere unto the end. This is to be done in the full assurance of hope, or faith. Interesting how Hebrews goes back and forth, speaks of faith as obedience, Hope as faith, and sees that these terms are inseparable. You have hope because you have faith. You obey because you have faith. So Faith, Hope, Obedience. These are inseparable. They are urged to be not slothful, but to follow those who through patience and faith inherit the promises as verse 12 tells us. More literally this reads: “Are inheriting the promises, even here and now.”
Then Hebrews turns to God’s promise or oath to Abraham. Oaths are made before God. For God who cannot lie to make an oath is a remarkable fact. He has to swear by himself. What He says in effect is: “I put my whole being on the line, I who cannot lie.” W.F. Molten wrote on verse 17, and I quote: “Confirmed it by an oath, literally, mediated with an oath. When a man confirms a promise or a declaration to another, by solemn appeal to God, between the two God is mediator, condescending to man’s weakness, that the certainty may be more abundant. God thus confirms His promise, at once the promiser and the mediator, God the promiser, if we may so speak, makes appeal to God the hearer and witness of the oath. We cannot doubt as we read the whole passage, that there is a special reason for the emphasis thus laid on God’s oath to Abraham. The writer dwells on the confirmation of the divine word of promise, not merely because it is the first recorded in sacred history, but because he has in thought the declaration of Psalm 110:4. To this as yet he makes no reference, although he has quoted from the verse repeatedly. It has been without mention of the divine oath, but throughout the section he is preparing the way for his later argument in chapter 7:21.”
An oath now has little meaning, but then as in most of history, it has meant the end of all doubt and argument because it invited the judgement of God if broken. For God to swear an oath to Abraham meant that God on His own placed His being on the line in support of His promise. God promised to bless Abraham, and Abraham assured of the fulfillment of the promise lived in full confidence that God would keep His word.
Verse 15 tells us that Abraham having received the promise, received the promised gift as a fact, and therefore endured many trials. For Gods promise by oath was to Abraham the same as the thing promised, God having said: “Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” Mans promises offer a hope that something will be done. Gods promises give the full assurance of actual possession of the thing promised, even if there is a time lapse in between. What God promises, he will most surely deliver.
In all things among men, an oath settles a matter, according to verse 16. The oath ends all controversy or strife. How much more so does not God’s oath totally settle the matter. Verse 18 refers to two immutable things: Gods promise, and Gods oath. God who cannot lie. We are given strong encouragement, and have found a refuge, altar, or sanctuary in Jesus Christ. We can therefore hold fast to the hope set before us. This hope is our anchor of the soul, and a sure and steadfast one. The veil refers to the veil of the temple, separating the most holy place from the holy place. By faith we enter into the inner shrine, and we are a part of the fulfilled promise here and now. By faith men of old were citizens of the city of God.
Of course, our forerunner, Jesus Christ, has already entered into the heavenly holy of holies, and He there represents us. He is there our great High Priest, forever according to the order of Melchisidec. Having Him, we have no need of an earthly High Priest now, because the reality has replaced the type or stand in.
Although the use here of the anchor as a symbol is new, it does not appear in the Old Testament; according to Weskit, Clement of Alexandria mentioned it. It was a device on Christian rings, and like ictus the fish, commonly used as a symbol of Christians. The anchor and the fish. The word hope in verse 18 is elpidos, (and its tem elpis?) It means expectation or hope.
According to Hoffman, and I quote: “In the New Testament the words for hope never indicate a vague or a fearful expectation, but always the expectation of something good. The paganization of language has led us to reduce terms. Juridical and non-juridical, to an emotional meaning, whereas often in the Bible their meaning is legal, we have here an oath, a legal fact, and the oath is our ground for hope or expectation. We have it upon Gods oath that what we expect will be done. We are therefore no involved in an emotional wish, but in a legally guaranteed fact.” As Hoffman also noted and I quote: “In many passages, Elpis, hope, denotes not the personal attitude, but the objective benefit of salvation, towards which hope is directed. As in Galatians 1:5, Colossians 5:5, and Titus 2:13.”
The fulfillment is eschatological, and it is certain. While we know this hope subjectively it is never itself simply a subjective thing. Elpis, hope, and Agape, Love; are essentially related in the New Testament. The God of Hope is the God of the future, because He has ordained it and totally governs and predestines it. This hope rests on Christ’s Kingship, and Christ’s high priestly status. And our standing in that hope is Gods ordination and our apprehension by faith.
If we make faith essentially subjective, that is, reducing it to what I believe, then we also make our hope in Christ subjective, and therefore problematic, uncertain. We can summarize the matter this way: first, Jesus Christ our last Adam, cannot be our King if He is not our High Priest who makes atonement for us, and then regenerates us to be His new humanity, His new human race. This is Gods doing, not ours. Second, because He is with the Father and the Spirit our Predestinator, our future does not depend upon us, but upon Him. We can therefore with Abraham regard our hope as the promise of the God who cannot lie.
It is therefore our certain and assured hope. It does not rest upon us, it is not our feeling. It is a certain and assured promise from God who cannot lie. Then third, as our high priest, Jesus Christ is even now actively at work to bring His kingdom into total power in and around us. Fourth, that kingdom requires much effort on our part, beginning as verses 9-11 tells us, with the simple requirement of Christian charity. 5th, we are not here on earth to get what we want, but to do what god ordains. And we must not be slothful but be devoted to those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. We have a calling that transcends ourselves.
Again, we can see why Hebrews is not popular today and is the least known book in the New Testament, because we have reduced faith and hope and other things to our feelings. And that is not correct, that misinterprets the scriptures. In all this, Hebrews strongly corrects and rebukes. It tells us that it does not depend upon us, but upon our high priest. It is His promis, and He will never fail us, so that our hope and our faith are his gift, His promise, his doing, not ours. Let us pray.
Our Father we thank Thee for this word, we thank Thee that Thy word is truth and that Thy word never fails. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or one tittle from Thy word shall pass away, until all things are fulfilled or put into force. Bless us as we serve Thee, make us joyful in Thy service. In Christ’s name, amen.
Are there any question now about our lesson?
Well as you can see, Hebrews goes very much against the grain of the modern church. This is why Hebrews is so important for us to study. We will next week study the doctrine of Melchisidec, what it means that he was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, and why it is important for our Lord to be a High Priest after the order of Melchisidec. Now, no disrespect is intended by the apostolic fellowship for the Levitical priesthood, because as they say, the Law was given by the Levitical priesthood, and therefore it has to be honored. But it goes on to declare that Jesus Christ as our great High Priest, is from another order of priesthood. Well, if there are no questions, let us conclude with prayer.
Our Father, we thank Thee for this Thy word. We rejoice in the plain speaking of Thy word. We thank Thee our father that Thy word is truth, a truth that never fails. The same today, yesterday, and forever, like our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, whose word it is. Bless us in Thy service, make us joyful in hearing and obeying Thee.
And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.