2013년 6월 30일 주일 영어예배 설교
히브리서 6:13-20

The certainty of God’s promise
(Hebrews 6:13-20)

The Bible says that for human beings, the stop of human body’s biological function doesn’t mean the end of its entity. Here is the verse that directly indicates this point, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Heb. 9:27) Of course, other than the verse, the overall teachings of the Bible point out the fact. And when we sincerely follow the Bible’s revelation, we come to find the crucial truths following. First, men are all sinners before God in terms of both innate and acquired, and there is no exception. Second, the result of their sinfulness is death, or the eternal punishment, and it means that in fact they all already died spiritually. Third, nobody is able to overcome the death by and for themselves, that is, there is nothing to save them from their miserable sinful status. This is the fact underpinning this human world. In fact, there have been many people in the world who are not afraid of death disacknowledging the judgment of God after death. The reason that they have no fear of death can be various. It could be due to mental disorder or some firm belief or sense of loyalty toward some object other than God of Christianity. However, regardless of the fact that they don’t acknowledge God’s judgment and human’s total depravity and inability in the matter of sin, it is true that they should stand before God and nobody can avoid God’s judgment requiring the perfect condition to be free from the judgment.
Even if the perfect justice of God cannot overlook the least sin at the same time the perfect love of God cannot just leave his own chosen people at the heavy terrible sinful status. So God has been acting for salvation of his people through Jesus Christ with his unchangeable covenant. Today, we are going to be considering what the promise of our salvation is and why the promise has the absolute certainty.
In verses 13~16, “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.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.” First, we need to clarify what the promise to Abraham is, or the contents of the promise. The utterance, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you” is the promise from God to Abraham in Genesis 22:17. As today’s text, “Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise”, shows, the promise was initially accomplished by letting Abraham form one nation through his descendants. But we must pay attention to the interpretation of the Bible itself, especially the New Testament, on the ultimate meaning of the promise of God to Abraham. That is, in the promise, the descendants of Abraham doesn’t mean just ethnical blood descendants but indicates spiritual descendants. And the core of the promise is that God will save his own people all over the nations and ethnic groups in history through Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus came from the physical genealogy of Abraham and the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew begins from Abraham. And this is valid by faith. Among the teaching of the Bible on the point are Galatians 3:26~29, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” So the true nature of the promise of the blessed is the salvation of God’s chosen people through faith in Jesus Christ. God alone has been accomplishing this promise in history, and when completing this work of God, the end of the world and history will come. Only the people who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ are in the promise of God. Only the people who are in the amazing promise of God will be set free from the curse of death, or the judgment of God on their sins. And only the people who are in the promise of God through believing in Jesus Christ will enjoy the eternal life. This is the promise of God in the Bible and you and I are the very beneficiaries of the promise. The promise of God is the grace, mercy, and love of our God towards the sinners like you and I who once were very eager to be against God. This is the promise of God and the gospel of Christianity. And in strict and ultimate sense, even if we have the unchangeable guarantee for our salvation, we are still on the marching in this world into the final completion and destination of it. So the text encourages us to have patience exampling Abraham as a role model in verse 15, “And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.”
And today’s text shows us an interesting and critical fact that God swears in verse 13 and 16, “… since he (God) had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself… For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.” At that time, an oath was much more severe and critical than we think of it today. When people swore then, they did it at the risk of their life. If their insistences or promises by an oath turn out to be false, they should be killed. So when they swore then, they did it by something greater than themselves. Likewise, God wanted to show the certainty of the promise of his own, but there is nothing greater than himself in the universe, so God swore by himself. In verse 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.” God wants to show the certainty of his promise of salvation for his people. God wants to show that the fact that he himself surely will save all of His people from their sins and transfer them into eternal life, is true and real. God is eager to show the impregnableness and unchangeableness of the promise. To whom? In verse 17, “…to the heirs of the promise” like you and me. How marvelous God’s grace is! Yes, our sins are very severe, miserable, and terrified. The power of the sin says, “You shall die.” However, God’s grace is greater than all our sins. God’s love is much greater than all our hopeless sins. The promise based on the very grace and love will complete our salvation from the terrible our sins. God is saying this fact. God is saying the certainty of the promise of the salvation through the oath by himself.
In verses 18~20, “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. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The words, “two unchangeable things” indicates ‘the promise’ and ‘the oath’. The text mentions that the promise explained before and the oath for the promise is unchangeable because God cannot lie and God is the first and final authority in the universe. And the verse expresses us, believers as those who have fled for refuge. Here, the word ‘refuge’ means our final destination, or heaven where our Lord Jesus Christ is awaiting for us. It is the perfect place without any imperfection, risk, and worries where our ultimate salvation will be realized. The verse is saying that this hope is set before us, and we already have the strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope. By what? By the two unchangeable things, ‘the promise’ and ‘the oath by God himself.’ And the text is expressing this hope as ‘a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.’ By dropping anchor, ships are safely docked in the harbor even at high tides and rough waves. The verse tells us that our hope that we will reach the perfect refuge and our salvation surely will be completed is like the anchor, the anchor of the soul. Where is the anchor of the soul being dropped into? In verse 19, “the inner place behind curtain.” Here, ‘the inner place’ indicates ‘the most holy place.’ At the ages of Old Testament, there were two distinguished separate places inside the tabernacle of Israel people, the holy place and the most holy place. And there was a curtain between the two places. Only the high priest among the priests of the tribe of Levi was allowed to enter inside the most holy place only once a year to offer sacrifice for the people’s atonement. But today’s text is telling us like this, “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.” We can understand that the expression ‘the inner place’ means ‘the most high place in heaven.’ Our anchor of the soul, or the hope is being firmly dropped in the most high place in heaven. It means that our hope for the promise of God is unshakable at any tides and waves of this world. As the text is expressing, it is the sure and steadfast anchor dropped into the most high place in heaven. Then how did it become possible for us even if the place had been allowed only for the high priest of the tribe of Levi? The very following verse simply tells us the reason, in verse 20, “where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus Christ our Lord already entered there! On our behalf! And the curtain in there was torn, Gospel of Mark tells us like this, “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” (Mark 15:38) So it became possible for us, that is, the sure and steadfast anchor of our soul is being dropped in there. In other words, our hope for the promise of God entered there. So this our hope is absolutely stable and firm. Here the words, ‘a forerunner’ means pioneer, precursor, or advance guard. Jesus Christ our Lord in person entered the place where it used to be allowed for the extremely few people to enter so that he opened the way in order for the hope to be able to enter there for the sinful and unworthy people like you and me. The expression, “after the order of Melchizedek” should be translated into this, “as was the case with Melchizedek.” The mysterious personage, Melchizedek appeared in Genesis 14 was the priest of the Most High God but it was not by descent, that is, he was not of the tribe of Levi, and he has had the priesthood forever. As was the case of Melchizedek, Jesus Christ has also his own priesthood forever not as the descendant of the tribe of Levi, he was of the tribe of Judah, for all people all over the nations not only for the Israel people while the priests of the tribe of Levi were limited to during their lives in the priesthood function, and the position was only for the Israel people. You and I are the very beneficiaries of the Jesus’ priesthood ‘after the order of Melchizedek.’
Do you recognize the fact that we are deeply involved in the promise of God given to Abraham then? Gratefully and amazingly, we have not been left in our miserable sinful status. This is because God set the covenant with Abraham and God has been acting to keep the covenant of his own, the salvation operation of God. When we came to confess like this, “Ah! My name is also in the list of the spiritual descendants of Abraham.”, “Oh! The Bible’s declaration, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”, has perfectly applied to my life and saved me!”, we cannot but to say like this, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” And this promise is unchangeable, steadfast, and impregnable. It is because this promise is not based on a pitiable religious deeds of human beings, this promise is not based on a resolution of sinful human beings, and this promise is not based on the unworthy enthusiasm of human beings. It is because this promise of salvation of God is grounded on the oath itself by God himself and the hope, the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul being dropped into the most high place in heaven where Jesus Christ our Lord has gone into on our behalf as the eternal high priest. Nothing in the world can break the oath of God himself. No tides or waves in the world can shake the anchor being dropped in the most high place in heaven. The oath of God is for us, believers, for our salvation! The very one that we are holding fast to is the sure and steadfast anchor! This is the certainty of God’s promise for our salvation and for our marching journey into heaven. We are absolutely safe. We, Christian people are winners. The final triumphant victory is ours. Only we, Christian people are perfectly free from the curse of the sin, death. Keep marching towards the final completion of our salvation. Keep having fled for the refuge having strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. Keep living out the Christian life in this world continually glorifying our God.