Hebrews 6:9 - Meaning and Application

The apostle has just spoken sharply to warn the Hebrews and stir up their diligence, so they would not fall away. Now he turns to their hope and speaks openly about the good he expects from them. He says, “Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you” (Hebrews 6:9). By this he means there are signs in them that go with salvation, signs that are never separated from it and lead on to eternal life.

These are better things than anything a hypocrite or an apostate ever has. They are better in their very nature, and they are better in where they end. It is right to hope well of people when nothing shows the opposite. At the same time, ministers must sometimes warn even those they have good reason to trust. And even those with strong hope of eternal life should still think seriously about how terrible it would be to miss it at last. That is why they must work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

He also gives them reasons to keep going in duty. God had put holy love and care into them, and this had shown itself in acts of service that God would not forget: “God is not unjust to forget your work and the love you have shown for his name” (Hebrews 6:10). Good works done out of love for God are pleasing to him, and nothing done for his people, as his people, will go unrewarded. What is done for the saints, as saints, God counts as done to himself.

Those who expect a gracious reward for loving service must keep at it as long as they have strength and opportunity. The Hebrews had served the saints and were still serving them, and the apostle wants each of them to keep that same earnestness. If they continue faithfully in diligent duty, they will come to full assurance of hope at the end. Full assurance is a higher stage of hope. It is not a different kind of grace, only a stronger degree of it. And this full assurance can be reached by steady diligence and perseverance to the end.

He then warns them not to be lazy. Sloth will dress a person in rags. They must not love comfort so much that they miss their chances to do good. They should also follow the example of those who went before them (Hebrews 6:12). Some believers have already gone from assurance to inheriting the promises. They first believed the promises, and now they possess them. They have safely reached heaven.

The path they took was faith and patience. These graces were planted in their hearts and then worked out in their lives. If we want to inherit as they did, we must walk the same road. Those who keep on that path will come where they came and share the same blessedness.

The apostle then gives a clear account of why God’s promises are so certain (Hebrews 6:13 and following). They are confirmed by God’s oath, and they are grounded in God’s eternal purpose. Because of that, they can be trusted fully. God did not only give his word, his hand, and his seal. He also added his oath. And the oath he gave to Abraham, the father of the faithful, still stands in full strength for all true believers.

When God made a promise to Abraham, he swore by himself because there was no greater name to swear by. He said, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you” (Hebrews 6:14). God’s blessing is the happiness of his people. Those whom he has truly blessed, he will keep blessing until he brings them to perfect blessedness. He swore by himself, meaning he pledged his own being and honor to keep the promise. No stronger security can be given or asked for.

Abraham received the promise in due time, after he had patiently endured. There is often a gap, sometimes a long one, between promise and fulfillment. That waiting time tests believers to see whether they will persevere. But those who wait patiently will certainly receive what was promised, just as Abraham did. The purpose of an oath is to make a promise sure and to encourage the one who receives it to wait patiently until the time of fulfillment comes (Hebrews 6:16). Among people, an oath settles the matter and ends dispute. If God was willing to give such confirmation to his people, then he will surely honor the meaning of that oath.

The promises of God also rest on his eternal counsel, and that counsel never changes. God’s promise of blessedness to believers was not a sudden or careless thought. It came from his eternal purpose. That purpose was settled in counsel among the eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. And because God never needs to revise his plans, his counsel is unchangeable. Nothing can surprise him or require him to alter what he has determined from the beginning.

So the promises that rest on God’s unchangeable counsel and are confirmed by his oath can be safely trusted. In these two unchangeable things, his counsel and his oath, it is impossible for God to lie, because lying is against both his nature and his will. This great security belongs to the heirs of the promise, those who have a right to the promise by new birth and union with Christ. By nature, we are all children of wrath, and the curse is what we inherit from birth. Only through a new and heavenly birth does anyone become an heir of promise.

It also belongs to those who have fled for refuge to the hope set before them. Under the law, cities of refuge were provided for people who were chased by the avenger of blood. The gospel offers a far better refuge, open to all sinners who truly flee to it, even to the worst of sinners.

God’s purpose in giving these strong assurances is that believers may have strong comfort. God cares about the comfort of his people as well as their holiness. He wants his children to walk in reverence for the Lord and in the comfort that the Holy Spirit gives.

The comforts God gives are strong enough to hold his people up in their hardest trials. The comforts of this world are too weak to carry the soul through temptation, persecution, and death. But the Lord’s comforts are neither few nor small.

Believers should make proper use of the hope and comfort God has given them, that deeply refreshing hope of eternal blessing. This hope must be, for them, an anchor for the soul, sure and firm (Hebrews 6:19). We are in this world like a ship at sea, tossed around and always in danger of being lost. Our souls are the vessel, and the comforts, hopes, graces, and happiness of our souls are the precious cargo aboard.

Heaven is the harbor toward which we sail. The temptations, persecutions, and troubles we face are the winds and waves that threaten to wreck us. So we need an anchor to keep us steady and safe, or we are always in danger. Gospel hope is that anchor. As the helmet protects us in battle, so hope holds us firm in the storms of life.

This anchor is sure and firm, or it could not keep us steady. It is sure in its own nature, because it is the special work of God in the soul. It is a good hope that comes through grace. It is not a false hope, fragile like a spider’s web, but a true and solid work of God.

It is also firm because of where it holds. It is an anchor that has taken a strong grip. It enters the place that is within the veil, and it is cast on the Rock of Ages. It does not try to fasten in shifting sand. It goes within the veil and fixes there on Christ. He is the object of the believer’s hope, and he is the anchor’s hold.

As believers hope for unseen glory within the veil, they also trust in the unseen Jesus within the veil. The free grace of God, the merit, that is, the worth and saving power, of Christ, and the powerful work of his Spirit are the grounds of that hope. So it is a firm hope.

Jesus Christ is the object and ground of the believer’s hope in several ways. First, he has entered within the veil to speak to God for us, based on the sacrifice he offered outside the veil. Our hope rests on his sacrifice and his intercession, that is, his present work of pleading for us. Second, he is our forerunner, one who has gone ahead of his people within the veil to prepare a place for them and to assure them that they will follow him. He is the first sign and sure beginning of believers, both in his resurrection and in his ascension.

Third, he remains there as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, a priest forever. His priesthood will never stop or fail until he has completed its whole work and purpose, which is the full and final happiness of all who have believed in Christ. This should move us to make sure we truly belong to Christ, so we can fix our hopes on him as the one who has gone ahead for us, for our sake, and for our safety, to guard our highest interests.

Let us love heaven all the more because of him, and long to be there with him, where we will be safe forever and satisfied forever.