Promises and Hope

Hebrews 6:13-20

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

There are so many amazing things God showed me about this passage this morning, and it is a passage that already had a bunch of underlines and notes in the margins.  I thought I'd share a couple with you if you are willing. If not, please exit the browser immediately. Thank you. 

We can trust and hope in God's promises. Why? Because He is God. His very character and nature is what we can hope in. God cannot tell a lie, and there is none greater than Himself. So when he makes a promise, He is saying, "I promise this to you because I am God and this is what I want to do. I cannot tell a lie and I promise it by my name, which is far greater than anything you could ever swear by. So it will happen, it is true. Because I said so." (God's the only one who can really say "because I said so" and never have anyone dispute it. It is an automatic argument win, not that he needs one...)

Have you ever heard someone say, "Don't put all your eggs on one basket"? That's bologna. Put your eggs in God's basket. We can have a SURE and STEADFAST hope in God, because He is God! We don't have to put our eggs in any other basket. We have a strong encouragement to hold fast to his hope because He promises on his name that He will never fail us, and he doesn't lie. 

Sin makes people lie. Satan uses people's sinful nature to convince other people that God's character is the same as human character, and that God will drop our eggs if we put them all in his basket. God's character is not like human character because He is sinless. We can hope in him; with all our eggs.

Now, if you are like me, you are probably thinking, "Why does God want to keep his promises to me, the horrible, wretched sinner that I am?" Good question! The answer? It has nothing to do with you or me. In fact, his promises are not even for those who are estranged from him because of sin. Sin creates a wall between us and God, breaking the relationship. Therefore, if we have a broken relationship with God, His promises are not for us.

This is horrible news. BUT WAIT! It's not over. Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins and restore the relationship between us and God. Jesus acts as the mediator between us and God because we can't go to God with the sinful hearts we have. That's what verses 19-20 are saying. We needed someone to pay the price, thereby making us righteous and able to come before God. He restores the relationship between us and God, and then all of God's promises become ours to hope in.  Does that make sense? Let me see if I can break it down.

Without Jesus, there is no hope. We have no relationship with God, and therefore his promises are not intended for us. 

With Jesus, we can hold fast to God's promises because Jesus restores the relationship between us and God, and then His promises are for us. 

God has made so many incredible promises to His children. Right now, I am clinging to the promises that God has a plan for my future, and it is an amazing one. I am clinging to the promise that He will never leave me or forsake me, even when I screw up. I am clinging to so many of the amazing promises He makes to me and I am praising God that His promise keeping has nothing, NOTHING to do with me.