Hebrews 6:13-20
…so that by two unchangeable things… (v.18a) The two unchangeable things are God’s promise to Abraham (God cannot lie) and the oath that He swore in vv. 13-14, For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise … we … might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (vv. 17-18) Taking apart these two verses together, what we see is that the audience to whom the author was writing (the heirs of the promise) have encouragement (because of the promise and the oath) of the hope set before us (them). That is, Abraham’s Jewish descendants have hope of entering into the Holy of Holies through Jesus who has gone before them and opened the way to them (vv. 19-20), and even though we’re not Jewish, that’s us!! GLORY!!
Slava Bohu!
I am meditating on hope. In v. 18, we are to seize the hope, our trust in God’s promises. A chicken and egg question, do we hope based on faith before or after we believe? Yes. Either way, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, like faith. Or is it a fruit of the spirit? Yes.