Wherein God, willing to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, intervened by an oath,
God gave Abraham a promise, and then He swore an oath on top of it — and this verse tells us why He did it. God's word never needed propping up; the heirs of the promise needed convincing.
God's word was already certain, so His oath added nothing to it. What the oath added was reassurance for the people who inherit the promise.
Notice first that His counsel cannot change: change is absolutely impossible. The oath adds nothing to the Word; it only confirms it. But it shows the abundant goodness of God's heart. He is willing to give the heirs of the promise every encouraging assurance.
God gave this oath in Genesis 22, after Abraham had been willing to give up his son Isaac and had received him back. The extra assurance came to a man who had just been through the hardest test of his life.
He had added His oath to His promise: a blessed confirmation for those under trial, even though they were far from contradicting Him... When the conscience is in earnest, we feel our own weakness, and the way of Christ looks hard, dangerous, and unattractive. So the gracious wisdom of God gave His oath as well as His promise, as we may read in Genesis 22:17-18. It was a precious encouragement to a man who at that very moment received his son back, as if raised from the dead.
Where the ESV says "purpose," older translations read "counsel." The word does not mean advice. It means settled intention. The first readers of this letter had left Judaism for Christ, and others pressed them hard to go back. They needed to hear that God's intention toward them could not be revised.
The word "counsel" really means purpose. Who would know better than God how much these hearts needed strengthening? They had turned from Judaism and accepted Jesus as their Lord... So God led the apostle to tell them that He had an unchangeable purpose, and that He had bound Himself with an oath to carry it out. That purpose had their eternal blessing in view.
The verse does not say God swore the oath for Abraham alone. He swore it for "the heirs of the promise" — everyone who believes.
God did not give this twofold solemn guarantee for Abraham's sake only, or for those who came right after him... So He stepped in with an oath. He wanted to lift the eyes of all who believe away from present, visible things to that hope which rests on His word, confirmed by His oath. What love, that He stoops to those who march through enemy country!
The two unchangeable things are God's word and God's oath. Both come from one side only. That is the whole point. A promise rests on one party keeping it. An agreement between two parties fails if either party fails.
Where the principle is promise, the blessing depends on only one... Now in this matter of our eternal salvation, God wants us to have absolute certainty, sure and steadfast. So He gave us two things in which it was impossible for Him to lie — His promise and His oath... As with Abraham, God confirmed the promise of Genesis 12 when Abraham received Isaac back from death as a picture, in chapter 22. So the promise is fulfilled to us in the actual death and resurrection of Jesus. What certainty! What strong encouragement!
The image here comes from Israel's cities of refuge. Someone who killed a person by accident could run to one of these cities and be safe there. That is the picture behind fleeing to Christ for refuge.
So there are two unchangeable things: His Word and His oath. In both of them it was impossible for God to lie. Through them He gives strong encouragement to all who have fled to Christ for refuge from judgment. They can take hold of the hope set before them, instead of turning back because the way is hard. The picture is the city of refuge, where a person who had killed someone could flee.
- Purpose. God's purpose is settled. The verse says it cannot change at all.
- Promise. God gave that purpose to Abraham as a promise. A promise rests on one party alone, which makes it safer than any two-sided agreement.
- Oath. God added His oath after Abraham was willing to give up Isaac. The oath added nothing to His word. It showed His goodness: He stoops to reassure people who feel their own weakness.
- Heirs. The two unchangeable things were not for Abraham only. They lift the eyes of every believer off what is seen and on to the promised hope.
- Refuge. The result is strong encouragement for those who have fled to Christ, as people once fled to the city of refuge. That is a reason not to turn back when the road is hard.
that by two unchangeable things, in which [it was] impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us,
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which we have as anchor of the soul, both secure and firm, and entering into that within the veil,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec.
Hope in this letter is not a feeling. It is an anchor that reaches into heaven itself, and it holds because a Person has already gone in. The verse gives Him two titles there: Forerunner, and high priest forever. Both raise one question. What does His arrival secure for those still on the way?
The title comes from an everyday scene, and Christ turns that scene around.
The word is used as a picture of Christ, who has gone in behind the veil as the forerunner of His people. It points to men of high rank in the East, who have runners go ahead of them to clear the way and to announce who is coming. With Christ it is the other way round: the Lord has run ahead of His servants. But the word must mean that there are others following after Him.
The first readers knew a high priest who entered the innermost room of the tabernacle once a year, alone, behind the curtain. A high priest who goes in as a forerunner was new to them.
Here we learn that He is our Forerunner, a title used nowhere else... Aaron went into the innermost sanctuary once a year. He went in for a people. He stood for them before God, but they themselves could never set foot inside that curtained-off room. The sanctuary our High Priest has entered, though, will one day ring with the footsteps of a countless crowd — His heavenly saints, redeemed by His precious blood... For if He is the Forerunner, His people will surely follow Him. What did Judaism have to offer compared with this?
The words "on our behalf" say He did not go in for Himself alone. One writer finds a new role here, added to His work as High Priest.
The Lord Jesus is here brought out in a new character. We see Him in heaven, not only for us as our High Priest, but to secure a place for us with Himself. ...Jesus is now in heaven in the glory of a Forerunner — a High Priest — the One who has purged our sins.
The letter does not leave the reader with words alone. It also points to a Person, and to what He does for us on the way.
The Forerunner implies that there are others coming after. So we have not only the Word of God, but Jesus, a living Person in glory. He is the everlasting witness of the glory we are going to, and the guarantee that we will be there. Until we reach the rest of heaven, Christ is our great High Priest to keep us going on the way... Here we have the Word of God as the firm foundation of our faith, and the living Christ as the anchor of our soul. He is the One who links us with heaven and holds the soul calm through all the storms of life.
Melchizedek was a king and priest in Abraham's day. Naming him marks out a priesthood unlike Aaron's, though the way Christ serves now still follows Aaron's pattern.
As Priest after the order of Melchizedek He is the great Sustainer of everything for God. Clearly He is exercising that priesthood at present after the pattern of Aaron, yet He is not of Aaron's order. Aaron's was a priesthood that changed hands, tied to a material and visible order of things. Christ is unchangeable and eternal, outside man's family lines and reckoning of time. That is why Melchizedek, the mysterious king-priest of Abraham's day, has become the picture of His order.
Some have asked whether Christ entered heaven during the time between His death and His resurrection. The wording of this verse decides the question.
Other scriptures speak of His entering, not in that in-between state, but when He had become high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Compare Hebrews 6:20 in particular... But the word here is that "by means of His own blood He entered once for all into the holy places, thus securing an eternal redemption." This is simple, plain and decisive.
- Runner. "Forerunner" comes from the men who ran ahead of a great man to clear the road. Here the great One has run first. The title only works if others are coming behind.
- Room. Aaron went behind the veil alone, for a people who could never set foot there. The sanctuary Christ entered will one day echo with the footsteps of a countless crowd.
- Reason. He entered on our behalf — not only to serve as High Priest, but to secure a place for His own with Himself.
- Rope. Two things hold our hope. The Word of God is the foundation. A living Person in glory is the anchor that steadies the soul in every storm.
- Rank. His priesthood is of Melchizedek's order: unchangeable and eternal, outside human family lines. His place never changes hands, and He holds it forever.