Hebrews 6:18, commentary and pictures

God staked His purpose on two unchangeable grounds, His promise to Abraham and His oath confirming that promise to the heirs of promise. Lying is impossible for Him because His character is straightforward, unchanging truth and righteousness, more immovable than the mountains. To flee for refuge is for the transgressor of the law to flee to Christ as the manslayer fled to the city of refuge, finding in His shed blood a sure retreat from guilt, condemnation, and the second death. The hope set before us is salvation and eternal life centered in Christ who has entered within the veil, an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast that holds amid tempest and temptation. Laying hold of it is man's own part by personal, living faith in Him who promised, and those who so flee and hold firmly receive strong consolation, comfort, and peace.

Two Unchangeable Grounds

The two unchangeable grounds are God's promise and His oath confirming that promise, given to Abraham as His counsel to the heirs of promise. Because both the promise and the oath are unchangeable and it is impossible for God to lie, those who flee to God for refuge may hold firmly to the hope set before them with strong comfort. That hope is a sure and steadfast anchor reaching within the veil where Jesus has entered as high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

He gave both to show the heirs of promise that His purpose does not change. He gave them to remove all cause for doubt and questioning arising from human fear and weakness, to take hold of the trembling hand reached up in faith, and to help trust by multiplied assurances and securities. He meets people in their own understanding, because people think even a recorded pledge from others still needs a guarantee, so He confirms His promise with an oath that faith may be strong and have strong consolation.

He makes this a binding agreement on condition of obedience, and nothing more could be done to strengthen faith in His promises. His promises give strong consolation to those who faithfully do His Word, who can confidently lay hold of eternal life because He is faithful to fulfill His promises when their stated conditions are met. If His people are true to their covenant with Him the blessing is certain, as certain as His oath can make it.

With God it is impossible to lie because His character is straightforward and unchangeable truth and righteousness, unlike Satan's deceptive and crooked character. His promises are immutable, even more immovable and enduring than the great mountains which He set fast and keeps in place by His power. With Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning, so He cannot fail His word, and His promises and His word stand forever from generation to generation.

The promise and oath given to Abraham prove that the Abrahamic covenant, afterward sealed as the second or new covenant, was already valid in Abraham's own day. That covenant made with Adam and renewed to Abraham existed by promise and was accepted by faith, though it could not be ratified until the death of Christ and the shedding of His blood by which it was afterward sealed.

This hope rests on God's sure, unchanging word and on the Word of eternal life, not on changing feelings or emotions and not on false premises. The light and evidence He has provided are given to encourage faith and to strengthen and confirm it, giving strong comfort and confidence to those who are tempted despite Satan's efforts to unsettle it.

Fleeing to Christ Refuge

To flee for refuge is to flee as a transgressor of God's law to Christ, just as the manslayer fled to the city of refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him. The same merciful Saviour who appointed the temporal cities of refuge has by shedding His own blood provided this refuge as a sure retreat from the second death.

Christ is the sure Refuge for those fallen and deserving God's wrath, where hope and life are available even under sentence of death. Through repentance and faith in His full expiation and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, sinners find safety from guilt, condemnation, divine wrath, and the second death. His blood washes away sin, no power can take out of His hands those who come to Him for pardon, there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, and Christ who died and rose again intercedes at the right hand of God for pardon.

The flight must be without delay, leaving all else behind and refusing to slacken pace. As the manslayer risked death until reaching the city, the sinner stays exposed to eternal death until finding hiding in Christ, with Satan on the track of every transgressor, so loitering, delay and indifference bring ruin and can cost the only refuge. Flight begins when danger is understood and need of help is felt, when knowing oneself a sinner brings contrition and desire for pardon, peace, and healing.

The danger driving this flight is Satan, a personal, cruel and cunning adversary who constantly watches steps and plots to lead astray. He is busiest where his existence is denied and gains advantage where his presence is least suspected, so that many yield to his power without knowing it. Physicians who recognize the temptations of their calling, and all who see their peril, must therefore flee to God for refuge and grasp the hope set before them in the gospel.

Safety continues only by remaining within the refuge by faith and obedience, abiding in Christ. Jesus is the refuge prepared for people, to be looked to and run to in order to be safe. Coming to this refuge calls for turning from error to truth, bringing desires under God's authority, and cultivating God-given faculties and character for eternal life. That hope then supports faithful, consecrated, prayerful service and the carrying of responsibilities in dependence on God.

Content of the Hope

The hope placed before us in the gospel is salvation and eternal life, nothing less than this. It embraces forgiveness and immortality purchased for sinful, perishing souls, God's favor confidently received both in this world and in the heavenly world, happiness in the kingdom of God, cleansing by the blood of Jesus, free pardon, adoption with the privilege of calling Him Father, grace to help in weakness, leading into light, and peace. Nothing short of this blessing will satisfy the Redeemer, and it is to be laid hold upon by faith, with the promises of God appropriated and the abundant blessings provided in Christ received.

This hope is centered in Christ who has entered within the veil, and is secured through Him. It is purchased by His merits, atonement and intercession, His shed blood and righteousness, and His resurrection, ascension and mediation. Through Him the fallen transgressor may receive the Holy Spirit and be cleansed, purified, sanctified, and fitted for the inheritance of the saints in light, with the heavenly treasure and everlasting portion made sure and the completeness of His salvation trusted day by day through communion and entering the holiest by His blood.

It includes the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. It looks to the Life-giver raising the dead immortal, never again to suffer pain, sorrow or death, with the grave but a short rest. Those who join themselves to Christ, place influence on His side, and overcome evil in His strength through His blood will wear the crown of life and in the great day of His coming join the song of joy and triumph raised by the overcomers, while remembering heavenly citizenship rather than seeking selfish interests and worldly honor, for His return will bring conviction to every heart.

Held as constant expectation by faith, this hope is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil where the Forerunner has entered as high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. It steadies the soul like a ship anchored and immovable amid tempest, moral peril, corruption, temptation and suffering, holding firm under all circumstances by relying on Jesus every moment and drawing strength from Him. So held it keeps believers steadfast and unmovable in every hour of conflict, not driven on the rocks nor drawn into the whirlpool nor making shipwreck of faith, while self-trust and looking only to human effort bring danger and unbelief.

This sure refuge and gospel hope is offered to all who seek to meet God's requirements, regardless of status or wealth. Outcasts who take hold of it may enter the kingdom of heaven, while those given great opportunities and light who fail to use them will be left in outer darkness. Laying hold of it is a privilege all are to have and open at all times, exercised especially when disheartened and when discouragements arise.

Laying Hold by Faith

Laying hold is man's own part by choice and by living faith in Him who promised, grasping the promises and blessings in Christ before they can be appropriated, for no one is driven to it. It is unwavering personal faith that Jesus is a personal friend and Saviour who loves me, closing the door to distrust, discouragement and unbelief and opening the door to faith. By that faith the abundant provision is received, including forgiveness and immortality purchased for sinful, perishing souls, and God's favor confidently accepted both in this world and in the heavenly world because of the price paid, nothing short of this satisfying the Redeemer.

It means turning to Jesus at once with subdued, broken and contrite heart while reason and strength remain, because it is not too late for wrongs to be righted. This hope calls for penitence, confession, repentance, conversion, and forsaking sin so that sins may be blotted out while probation remains. Mercy draws the sinner to Jesus, God receives and does not reject or despise the broken and contrite heart, and this salvation saves from sin by breaking sin's power without weakening God's law.

It means turning a grateful heart, even trembling with uncertainty, to Christ and laying the guilt of the past at the foot of the cross, believing His spoken pardon and resting in His love without dishonoring Him by doubting His love. There Jesus takes sin, speaks pardon and peace, restores self-respect, strengthens the weakened will, and removes remorse for sin because He bought the sinner with the price of His own blood. God gives free pardon, adopts into His family with grace to help weakness, and Jesus leads on step by step when the hand is put in His to let Him guide.

Keeping hold requires continuance in belief through a living connection with God day by day, talking with God, following on to know the Lord, communion, and entering the holiest by the blood of Jesus. It is binding the soul to the Mediator, trusting His merits and believing fully in the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice, with life hid with Christ in God, led by His Spirit, becoming a partaker of the divine nature and a laborer together with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling because God works both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit enables preservation of faith in Him and in His word and rests upon believers making impressions on mind and heart so that believing is not hard, but unless the hold is continued and the teachings of the Word kept just as written, a person will drift away from truth on the tide of skepticism, infidelity and satanic delusion, let go and fall away.

Holding to the hope calls for faith, courage, perseverance, and pressing toward the prize of the high calling, climbing successive steps of spiritual growth and obedience to the commandments toward the heavenly kingdom and everlasting life. It means measuring by the Word of God and not by the world's standard, refusing carelessness about that great work, resisting Satan instead of placing oneself within his reach, setting guard against his attacks, clinging to Christ the Mediator, separating from the world, and continuing in watchfulness, prayer, faith and effort with sacrifice because eternal life is worth everything, with access for everyone through Christ's blood at Calvary who gives His Spirit. Those who are partakers with Christ of His sufferings will be partakers with Him of His glory, so suffering is to be expected.

It means fixing the eyes upon Christ with undivided attention, giving up all self-indulgence, and taking hold of the hope offered in the Word, beholding Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour until the heart melts and is subdued and the beholder is changed into the same image from sinner to child of God. It means working right where you are with no time to doubt and no time to lay off the armor, living merely as agents in God's hands controlled by His Spirit, with courage and faith and perseverance that will not fail nor be discouraged, advancing by faith and attaining more excellency of character. It requires leaning heavily on God rather than human help, bracing up the soul in God to endure as seeing Him who is invisible, receiving fresh supplies of strengthening, quickening grace through daily change of heart and turning the face to the Sun of Righteousness, giving correct direction to thought for trials and duty.

Laying hold is proved by action, talking the hope and working it out before others, including giving up every foolish habit that wastes money so means can be used for God's work such as Christian schools. It means becoming one with Christ with far higher and purer ambitions, holier joys, ennobling motives and endearing sympathies, no longer leaning on and confiding secrets to His bitterest enemies nor going into their secret chambers or entering their councils. It demands a decisive, sincere turn now to become earnest, true to God and duty, loving and practicing known truth instead of wearing the Christian badge as a hypocrite, repenting and being converted and seeking with the whole heart to live as a Christian day by day, comparing life with God's great moral standard to get ready for judgment and striving to enter the strait gate, for merely seeking will not suffice and to know the way and not walk in it leaves one worse than the open sinner and lost if probation closes and the heavenly gate shuts and salvation's invitation ceases.

This trust is to remain steadfast in Christian obligations even when standing alone. Laying hold is a privilege open at all times, exercised by those converted and in right relation with God especially when disheartened and when discouragements arise, watching unto prayer and believing God will help them speak words that cheer and encourage those around them and increase faith. The afflicted should go to the heavenly Father who knows all they endure in full assurance of faith, making every possible effort to lay hold of His promises by believing. Christ invites the burdened and discouraged to lay hold of the hope set before them as a sure refuge to grasp, trusting His strength to overcome sin and weakness and lead them.

Strong Comfort in Trial

By the two unchangeable things, promise and oath, in which lying is impossible, strong consolation and comfort and peace are given to those who flee for refuge and hold firmly to the hope set before them. This assurance is for all who seek to meet the requirements, regardless of status or wealth, calling for strong faith and confidence in the One who stands behind the promise rather than worry, discouragement, anxious care, or unbelief. It gives reason to trust God with every worry, burden, trial, and trouble, bringing them to Jesus in prayer and leaving them with Him. Those who trust Him can rest in His hands believing He will do all things well, for Christ is near, understands human weakness, and gives strength for each day.

The disciples illustrate this comfort, for after passing through the deepest trial possible in the death of Christ, when to human sight all was lost, they received strong consolation and sure hope in keenest sorrow and deep disappointment. They saw the word of God triumphantly accomplished in His resurrection, with prophecies and Scriptures testifying of Him, and Christ's victory in defeating Satan and breaking his power confirmed the hope they could hold firmly. Their uncertainty, anguish, and despair gave place to perfect assurance and unclouded faith that held the soul like a sure and steadfast anchor. Nothing afterward could daunt their faith or chill their love, giving them confidence to endure suffering, sacrifice, and martyrdom and to carry the gospel work forward.

That same hope sustains through sickness, loss, distress, and death, so that death can be faced with confidence that the grave is only a short rest until the Life-giver raises immortal, never again to suffer pain, sorrow, or death. To the tempted it gives strong comfort and confidence because it rests on God's sure, unchanging word and is not built on false premises, despite Satan's efforts to unsettle it. To those struggling to overcome it gives a strong hope of laying hold of eternal life, so that temptation and past failure need not define the future, for they can resist and overcome through Jesus' help by trusting Christ's pardon and love rather than dwelling on guilt and fear. It is laid hold of by unwavering personal faith that Jesus is a personal friend and Saviour who loves me, closing the door to distrust, discouragement, and unbelief and opening the door to faith, and believing this through the atonement and righteousness of Jesus Christ and His shed blood rolls back despondency and gloom and gives triumph and melody in the heart.

In the struggle against temptation and discouragement, laying hold of this hope as a sure refuge enables overcoming and praise to God, while losing hope allows the enemy to come between the soul and God. Held as constant expectation centered in Christ and purchased by His merits, atonement, and intercession, this hope is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, entering within the veil where the Forerunner has entered, keeping believers steadfast and unmovable in every hour of conflict. So Satan is not allowed to cast his hellish shadow across the pathway and eclipse the view of the future reward. Believers are therefore to cling to that hope and hold fast their confidence in Jesus despite efforts to discourage or hinder them, clinging to Christ the Mediator, separating from the world, and continuing in watchfulness, prayer, faith, and effort with access to the heavenly sanctuary through the blood of Jesus.

Those whose faith is tested are to cling to the promises with full faith in the One behind the promise, looking away from discouraging appearances and present difficulties. Contemplating the joy of that hope, the gift of eternal life, and fixing the mind on unseen things helps keep human praise and worldly honor from producing pride. This hope as a refuge fled to and grasped gives reason to speak joyfully of Christ, the living Advocate who saves completely all who come to God through Him, and to praise God rather than exalt self, with faith, hope, and confident praise rather than despondency.

Every provision has been made for strong hope tied to taking hold of Jesus Christ's power for Christian work, especially in the home, where Christ works with parents and families helping them represent Him and prepare for the immortal life ahead. Looking to Jesus as Redeemer develops patience, and patience produces a true, well-grounded hope. If His people are true to their covenant with Him the blessing is certain, as certain as His oath can make it, and so great that it will be a full and sufficient reward for all self-denial and self-sacrifice shown for Christ's sake here below.

Urgently Sharing the Hope

While probation still remains and the four winds are held back, the gospel sets a hope before people for them to lay hold of, and that opportunity belongs to everyone from oldest to youngest because Jesus died on Calvary's cross for them. Sharing that message is urgent because eternal destiny hangs in the balance, with souls to become either subjects for the kingdom of God or slaves to Satan, ready to perish through theoretical errors calculated to counterwork the gospel. That hope calls for repentance, conversion, and forsaking of sin so that sins may be blotted out. Grasping it means placing influence on Christ's side, joining to Jesus Christ, and overcoming evil in His strength through His blood, and those who do so will wear the crown of life and join the song of joy and triumph raised by the overcomers at Christ's coming.

Those living in sin need an urgent warning to flee for their lives and escape perdition by laying hold of the hope offered in the gospel. Hundreds are waiting to hear this warning, and souls need a preacher in order to hear and lay hold. The message must therefore go without delay and with all capabilities, proclaimed earnestly and in the power of the Holy Spirit with clear, decided, stirring tones as evidence of the power of Christianity and of true religion as a faith and power authored by Christ with His word as the divine oracle.

It must be done now because the heavenly gate will soon close and the invitation of salvation will cease. It requires striving to enter in at the strait gate, for merely seeking to enter will not be able, and making a decisive turn to become a sincere, earnest Christian true to God and duty, loving and practicing known truth instead of wearing the Christian badge as a hypocrite. To know the way and not walk in it leaves a person worse than the open sinner and lost if probation closes in that condition.

Souls are led to grasp redemption through Christ by unfolding the Scriptures with all God-given powers instead of devoting ability to commonplace earthly things, since one soul is worth more than all the gold and silver heaped up on earth. Reading God's promises to those battling temptation can awaken higher desires and holier impulses and bring grateful joy. Laying hold comes through encouragement and endearing sympathy and patient help, through words free from bitterness of rebuke and blame and condemnation that would sever the last thread of hope, by holding out the promises of God's Word with patient effort until with grateful joy the trembling hand grasps redemption, learns to reach upward and live respectably, and then best understands how to help other prodigals lay hold. Medical missionary work for the sick should lead souls to grasp it by helping them feel the worth of their souls, meeting sufferers where they are and pointing them to the home above, as Christ the greatest medical missionary healed the sick and forgave sins where guilt burdened the mind.

Believers teach and show neighbors so they understand it and grasp it for themselves, doing their very best to see people converted and to bring those in their own ranks to a decided stand to labor, wanting heaven, honoring God, and presenting Christ who gave His own precious life that they might be saved. Laying hold is proved by action, talking the hope and working it out before others, including giving up every foolish habit that wastes money so means can be used for God's work such as Christian schools. Exemplifying anchor-strength that holds firm like an anchor cast within the veil makes a believer a witness for Christ, seen in a pleasant and cheerful home, with confidence that what is asked in sincerity will be given and that seeking Him with the whole heart will find Him. Those who believe with unwavering personal faith that Jesus is a personal friend and Saviour who loves them help others to flee to Christ in the same way, rolling back despondency and gloom to give triumph and melody. Sinful and polluted people are invited to come just as they are and take hold of the hope offered in the gospel while Jesus is present and passing by in their midst, resisting evil angels where both angels of God and evil angels are present, to share the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world through lust.

Its purpose is moral renovation and preparation of character to stand in God's presence, which calls for full consecration to become laborers together with God. It means working right where you are as agents in God's hands, controlled by His Spirit, with courage and faith and perseverance that will not fail nor be discouraged, leaning heavily on God rather than human help. It leaves no time to doubt and no time to lay off the armor, but calls for more faith, advancing by faith, aspiring constantly to follow Christ, attaining more and more excellency of character, giving correct direction to thought and bracing up for trials and duty, enduring as seeing Him who is invisible and receiving fresh supplies of strengthening, quickening grace through daily change of heart and turning the face to the Sun of Righteousness. Remembering that citizenship is in heaven, believers are to hold firmly to this hope rather than seek selfish interests and worldly honor.