An Anchor for the Soul

Hebrews 6:13-20

April 8, 2001

 

An anchor has the ability to steady a boat in surging waves or shifting tides. It keeps the vessel from losing its way or rushing into peril. Anchors are not always used but they are to be always ready in time of need.

 

Sometimes we need an anchor for the soul. By soul I do not imply only the immaterial aspect of our being, rather as our text uses it, the soul refers to the whole man-all of you. You are a living soul and as such you face your own surging waves and shifting tides as you journey through the seas of life to the golden shore. Life is not always smooth sailing. Storms and tempests threaten to dash your life upon the rocks of doubt and the reefs of apostasy. Be encouraged, the Lord has given you an anchor to keep you steady as you travel toward the Celestial City.

 

The whole epistle offers encouragement to believers on the journey into eternity, knowing that perils wait at every bend. If you ever find yourself struggling to keep pressing on as a believer or assailed with doubts or tempted to throw everything down and give up as a disciple of Christ or sluggish in responding to adversity with a disciplined life, then you have found your kindred brethren in this first century church. And the same help and hope offered to them is yours as well. All of us, at some time or another, will find ourselves needing the stabilizing anchor for our souls. 

 

It is for this reason that the anchor has been a symbol of Christian hope through the centuries. One of the well-known catacombs has over 60 anchors etched into its walls as reminders of how these believers endured persecution with a firm hope in Christ. In the southern part of France early Protestants used the anchor as a symbol of their hope. On various documents and carvings the anchor has a prominent spot. A marvelous example of one who laid hold of the anchor for her soul was Marie Durand. On her wedding day as an eighteen year old during the early 18th century, Marie Durand was arrested for her allegiance to Christ alone as her redeemer. Her new husband was killed for his faith in Christ and Marie was cast into the Tour de Constance in Aigues Morte until she would recant her faith in Christ alone. But she had an anchor that held her soul steady through the stormy gales blowing upon her. For the next 38 years Marie Durand was a prisoner of those who opposed faith in Christ. The Tour de Constance, which means "The Tower of Steadfastness," could not imprison her faith and hope. She clung to the anchor that enabled her to persevere for 38 years, resisting the tyranny and temptation to abandon her faith. That is the kind of anchor for the soul that I want to lay hold of in the day of trial and testing!

 

What is the anchor for the soul? Consider God's work in steadying the saints through the storms of life.

 

I. God's promise

 

Hope is one of the clear themes running throughout the Bible. The Psalmist would be downcast until he was able to "hope in God." Jeremiah was able to endure untold misery because of his hope in the Lord (cf. chapter 17). Habakkuk paints a scene of famine and drought that he can endure because of his hope in the Lord (3:16-19). Peter counsels the persecuted believers of Asia Minor to live in hope. And John's Revelation is a book of hope. William Lane explains, "In Hebrews, the word 'hope' never describes a subjective attitude (i.e. 'our hope' or 'hopefulness') but always denotes the objective context of hope." Kent Hughes adds, "Our hope centers on the objective promises of God, which are fleshed out for us in the ultimate blessing of the world through Jesus Christ" [Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, 177]. Our hope is found in union with Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and an eternal home in heaven.

 

The great danger facing Christians is to lose sight of any aspect of our hope. When we become so encumbered with the stormy blasts of life that we forget our hope, then we face the slippery slope of sluggishness, doubt, and even worse, the possibility of hardening our hearts against the gospel. So, to remedy this danger, our writer reminds us of the promise of God.

 

1. Confirmation through an oath

 

Abraham is a favorite character of this writer as well as other New Testament authors. Here the pastoral author brings to mind the scene of how the Lord encouraged Abraham to continue on in faith. You will recall that Abraham was called out of paganism to follow after the Lord. And he did just that, believing the promise of the Lord that He would bless him and make of him a great nation and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). When he struggled with God's fulfillment of the promise, the Lord gave him assurance and Abraham "believed in the Lord" and that faith was accounted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). It was over a decade before Isaac, the son of promise, was born to Abraham. And then God told him to do the hardest thing imaginable, to offer his son as a sacrifice upon Mount Moriah. Isaac was the immediate fulfillment of the promise, yet Abraham believed that God could raise him from the dead to continue to fulfill His promise to him (Gen. 22). It was after this testing of his faith that the Lord confirmed through an oath that he would fulfill the promise given to him: "For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one grater, He swore by Himself, saying, 'I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.' And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute"

 

Why did God make an oath to Abraham? It was certainly not due to any unreliability on God's part. Rather the oath was due to the sinfulness of man. Philip Hughes rightly comments, "That God should bind himself by an oath is a reflection not on the divine credibility but on the perversion of the human situation" [Hebrews, 229]. Abraham already had God's promise; that in itself should have been good enough. But we see that Abraham did not ask God to swear to him; God chose to do it as an encouragement to Abraham.

 

The strength of an oath is found in the character of the one offering it as well as the value placed upon the oath. If a habitual criminal makes an oath then you probably will discount his reliability. But if he makes an oath on a Bible or swears by something he holds valuable, then you might have more cause to believe him. For he would be saying, if I were lying, then the Bible upon which I swear is a lie. Or if I am lying then my deceased mother upon whom I swear is a liar. "The degree that you value and esteem the basis of your oath, to that degree your word can be trusted" [John Piper, www.soundofgrace.com/piper96/11-10-96.htm].

 

By what would God swear? One swears by something greater, something of more value than himself in order to give credibility to his oath. God could "swear by no one greater," so "He swore by Himself." God could go no higher than himself. Nothing can even come remotely close to exceeding the value and preciousness of his own worth. So here was what God was telling Abraham. He would be more likely to despise Himself than to break the promise made to Abraham. What do you think that did for Abraham as he waited and waited for the fulfillment of all God's promise? It strengthened his resolve to keep pressing on!

 

2. Expectation of a promise

 

Abraham could not just wait but he also expected God to accomplish what he had covenanted to do. "And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise." Patient waiting involves perseverance and longsuffering. This means that Abraham kept going forward in spite of the obstacles, setbacks, and failures on his part, and the difficulties before him. And why could he do this? God had not only promised to fulfill His Word, but He also swore to him by His own great name. So Abraham lived in hope of God completing what He promised to do. He looked ahead, believing God, and therefore found his faith strengthened and resolve bolstered to persevere.

 

Have you noticed that the New Testament often gives us the example of an Old Testament saint to encourage us? That is precisely what is happening in our text. The pastoral writer is reminding his embattled congregation that Abraham, who was living with much less light of revelation than themselves, continued on in faithfulness because God is faithful to accomplish what he has promised. And we too are to be encouraged in looking at these believers, who struggled as we do, yet persevered by the help of the Lord.

 

II. God's desire

 

To make this clearer the writer moves from past tense to present tense. It is one thing to see what God did in the past; but what is He doing now? "In the same way," brings the illustration from biblical history into our own lives in order that we might understand the great faithfulness of our Lord to His Word. "In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us." He is telling New Testament believers, God purposes to do even more to encourage you to persevere!

 

I want you to focus on the phrase, "God, desiring even more." "Desiring" is constructed to show God's continued intensity to encourage you (present middle participle). This is no passing thought or wishful thinking with our Lord. It is more than God simply 'wanting' this for you, as though He had good wishes but no ability to see it through. It is the exercise of His holy, sovereign resolve to accomplish this in your life. Kent Hughes calls it "the purposeful, deliberate exercise of his will" [176]. The writer is telling us that God is taking action for you! And who is this action toward? It is those "who have taken refuge" in Jesus Christ and His atoning death and resurrection. It is those who have abandoned their self-trust and rested their eternal hopes upon Christ alone. God is now purposing to give you encouragement "to take hold of the hope set before" you. "Even more" is a superlative adverb that is used to make the point more emphatic. Yes, the Lord worked on Abraham's behalf and gave him great encouragement to put his hope in the divine promise and continue pressing on. But even more so, God has resolved to give you greater encouragement so that you might persevere.

 

1. Mirrors His character

 

We should not be surprised by what the Lord is doing for He is only mirroring His character by His faithfulness to His promises in the gospel. Here is the situation at hand. The Lord had graciously saved this small band of believers, snatching them from the fires of eternal damnation by the abundance of His mercy and grace. Now they are embattled on all sides. Persecution looms before them under the maniacal direction of the emperor Nero. Doctrinal confusion surrounds them as their Jewish neighbors try to lure them into the much older, established practices of ritualistic Judaism. But they must not fear; for the same Lord that saved them will enable them to persevere to the end. He that began a good work in them will continue it through thick and thin, good times and bad, persecution and acceptance. God's promises in the gospel are wholly dependable. And why can I make such an assertion, especially when there are professing believers who are struggling to continue on in the faith? Let me answer by asking a question: what has God promised to you through the gospel? Forgiveness of your sins, deliverance from guilt and condemnation, a new nature, a new relationship to God as His child, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, power and strength and grace to obey, and a dwelling in heaven are promised through what Christ has accomplished in his death and resurrection.

 

Now notice what he writes: "In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise [that's all of us who are believers] the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed [the word means "guaranteed" in a legal sense] with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie." The two things are first, God's Word or specifically in this case, the word of the Gospel and second, the oath concerning the finality, certainty, and reliability of the gospel. John 17:17 declares, "Thy word is truth," so that there is actually a redundancy in the oath that follows. For truth is truth. You cannot improve upon truth. But to encourage us, God swears by Himself concerning the complete reliability of Jesus Christ and the gospel, the sufficiency of Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King.

 

But the promise made is only as valuable as the one who makes it. So we are meant to be encouraged! For it is God who makes the promise and "it is impossible for God to lie." Here is the bottom line: you can have complete confidence in the sufficiency of Christ and the gospel, for the God who has promised to save you and to bring you home to heaven cannot lie.

 

2. Manifests His resolve

 

So what is God resolving to do through both His promise in the gospel and His guarantee of an oath concerning the gospel? He desires that "we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us." God is not saying, "Okay, you bunch of lazy bums, get out there and do what you need to do! It is not for you to know what is going to happen in the end. Just perform your duty!" Instead, God's resolve, for that is the meaning of "His purpose," is for us to see what He has promised, to consider the enduring value and dependability of His character, and be encouraged to hold firmly on the hope we have in Christ. This is a remarkable statement! We often find texts that tell us to encourage one another (e.g. 3:13). But now we are told that God has gone to great lengths to encourage us to persevere in the faith.

 

Let us unravel this for a moment. We have studied perseverance throughout Hebrews and in many other passages. We know that perseverance has two sides: on one side, we are enduring and pressing on in faithfulness to Christ, and on the other, we are being preserved and undergirded by the Lord. This text demonstrates both.

 

On one hand, as those who persevere, we are told, "to take hold of the hope set before us." This implies an action on our part. We are purposefully thinking and meditating upon what Christ has done for us. We are contemplating what is before us in heaven. We are thinking of those who have persevered in times past and finding encouragement through their example. For instance, in 1934, when China Inland Missions missionaries, John and Betty Stam were being marched by the communists to their execution, someone on the road asked, "Where are you going?" John Stam had anchored his hope in Christ and replied, "We are going to heaven" [Piper, www.soundofgrace.com/piper96/11-17-96.htm]. We might have to work through our doubts and even issues of our own personalities, but we "take hold of the hope set before us."

 

But on the other hand, we are enabled to "take hold of the hope set before us," because God has given us "strong encouragement." Here is the under girding action of God, "who is at work in us both to will and work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Here is the divine resolve, not a fickle wish, but "the unchangeableness of His purpose" or resolve, giving us the strong, unbending, unrelenting, enabling, strengthening encouragement to "take hold of the hope set before us." John Piper points out how this ability to hold fast was secured by the blood of Christ:

What Christ bought for us when he died was not the freedom from having to hold fast but the enabling power to hold fast.

 

What he bought was not the nullification of our wills as though we didn't have to hold fast, but the empowering of our wills because we want to hold fast.

 

What he bought was not the canceling of the commandment to hold fast but the fulfillment of the commandment to hold fast.

 

What he bought was not the end of exhortation, but the triumph of exhortation [11-17-96].

This is why the pastoral writer could tell them that he was convinced of better things concerning them, things that accompany salvation rather than apostasy (6:9). And this is why he tells them that the evidence of being a partaker of Christ is holding fast to the assurance that is in Christ (3:14). And this is why he explains that they can hold fast their confidence and boasting of their great hope in Christ because they are part of his household (3:6). God's resolve through the work of Jesus Christ is to bring all of His children safely through the stormy trials and temptations of life to the glories of His eternal presence. Strong encouragement and a grip on the hope before us: that is our perseverance anchored in the promise and character of God.

 

III. God's gift

 

 Salvation is a gift; so is our perseverance. The writer explains that God has given believers two gifts to help us remain faithful to the end.

 

1. Hope as an anchor

 

"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil." Now we come back to the anchor of the soul. He gives three descriptions of this anchor of hope. First, it is "sure." The word implies that it is outwardly safe. There is nothing that can topple the believer's hope. Paul had this same idea in mind in those wondrous words of Romans 8:38-39.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Apostle Paul picked out every imaginable external opponent and declared that none of them could succeed to separate us from Christ and the intensity and security of His love. We are safe with the anchor of hope.

 

We also find the anchor of the soul to be "steadfast." This points to the inward character and stability of this anchor of hope, that it is firm within itself. In other words, there is no corruption in it, no deceit, no wavering, and no weakness in hope as the anchor of the soul. We do not have to concern ourselves with hope going bankrupt or encountering a scandal of some sort. It is thoroughly established and firm.

 

The third description of hope as the soul's anchor demonstrates the place where the anchor rests. An anchor grabs onto the floor of the ocean and holds the vessel securely. But the shifting sands of this world offer nothing to secure us for eternity. So our anchor does not go down to the ocean below, but upward into the glories of heaven. For our anchor of hope is "one which enters the veil." The scene is that of the high priest who could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year and that with blood. He trembled as he entered knowing that he was in the presence of the Lord and that he dare not fail to carry out his duties. But once the duty was done, he walked out of the veil. But not our anchor of hope! It is firmly anchored in heaven, on one end, and firmly attached to the believer's soul on the other. An anchor does not do any good if it is solidly hooked onto the ocean floor but not tied to the boat! Our "anchor of the soul" is fixed securely in our lives through the work of Christ. And the pull of the other end is "within the veil" in the eternal presence of the Lord. That is God's gift to you.

 

2. Jesus as a forerunner 

 

One other gift is seen. The anchor of the soul is within the veil "where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." He gets back to the superiority of Christ's priesthood once again, but not before telling us that Jesus is a "forerunner" for us. The forerunner was one who was ahead of the troops, going before them, and awaiting their certain advance to the same position. Here's the message intended: we will be where Christ is, within the veil; for He has gone before us to prepare a place that we might be with Him forever (John 14:1-3).

 

Conclusion

 

Is the anchor of hope attached to your soul through faith in Jesus Christ? Then press on, my friend. God has provided all you need to stay faithful as His child.

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