HOLDING TO THE HOPE

HEBREWS 10:23–25

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful

(Heb. 10:23).

As the application section of Hebrews gets underway, the author gives us five exhortations in 10:22–25. The first, “Let us draw near,” we considered yesterday. Today we consider the second, “Let us hold to our hope.”

The hope spoken of here may take several forms, but it is ultimately Jesus Christ Himself. We draw near (the first exhortation) and lay hold of the hope (the second exhortation). In the book of Hebrews, the sabbath rest is one hope set before us. We are journeying through the wilderness of this life toward our sabbath, but Jesus has finished the course. He sits in heaven and extends grace to help us. Our hope, in which we can have firm confidence, is that we will remain faithful to the end. We cannot fall away if we cling to Him who is our anchor of hope.

The author of Hebrews tells us to make our hope certain by being grounded in sound doctrine so that we are confident in Christ (Hebrews 6:11). God offers Christ as the Hope, and we lay hold of Him (6:18). He, the Hope, is an anchor for our soul (6:19a). Our hope enters the throne room of heaven, where Jesus has already entered (6:19b). Jesus is the Better Hope, whose mediation gives us access to God (7:19). By faith we grasp and cling to this Hope (11:10), and the result is that we remain part of His house, His new and greater human tabernacle (3:6).

Our hope is firm because we trust Jesus, but beyond this the author of Hebrews says, “He who promised is faithful.” This is a masterpiece of understatement.

First of all, we are talking about God, whose faithfulness cannot even begin to be questioned. But second, the whole point of Hebrews is that all the promises God made during the thousands of years before Christ have now come true. The Gospel fulfills the smallest letter and the least stroke of the pen of every passage in the Old Testament. When we see how fully and magnificently all the promises have been faithfully kept, we can be certain that God will keep His promises to us in a manner just as magnificent and faithful. He has promised that if we cling to the Hope, we shall come to eternal rest in heaven. We can count on it.

CORAM DEO

Ezekiel 36–39

How is your hope? In our era it is easy to become discouraged by events around us. Each morning this week, remind yourself that God is in sovereign control and that Christ is at His right hand. Let this truth be your source of hope, a hope that will not fall and will certainly not disappoint us.

For further study: Job 11:13–20 • Psalms 25:1–7; 42

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