Hebrews 6:17-20 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:… I. LET US REGARD THE NECESSITY FOR THIS HOPE. We have to show here that there are difficulties which render Christian endurance an impossibility, apart from the sustaining power of a hope that enters within the veil. 1. There is a veil over the spiritual world. By the spiritual world I mean all the unseen realities which surround us now. He who is in the highest sense spiritual, feels the world to be a Divine temple, because he realises God in it — His infinite presence shining from the deep sky above, and His love revealed in every flower. To him Christ is everywhere, hallowing, as of old, the relationships of life, and colouring by His sympathy its struggles and its sorrows. He can reverence men, not because they are rich, or successful, or powerful, but because they are living and immortal spirits; and his standard of life is not the expedient, or the pleasurable, or the popular — but the righteousness, the truth, the love of the eternal world. Still, that world is veiled: only the eye of a strong faith can see its beauty. We are so encircled and enchained by the fleshly and material, that we can only clearly realise the eternal in moments of meditation or prayer; while the transient presses incessantly upon us, and by its strong glare absorbs us — while passion, with its coloured light, blinds the vision of the soul. Is it not evident, then, that to be faithful to thy end demands a hope that enters within the folded veil which hides from us the spiritual world? 2. There is a veil over the discipline of life. Indeed, the meaning of human life generally is profoundly veiled. Here we have often to sow in tears while the reaping is veiled — just as in the natural world we cast the seed into the ground in utter ignorance of the manner in which it will he quickened into life. The sowing is seen, the leaping may be believed in, but the connection between the two" is concealed. The sower must trust to the dark laws of nature. He cannot see the marvellous forces that cause the seed to germinate; the mysterious influences of winter snows and summer rains; the silent electric currents by which the sowing is linked to the harvest that will wave in golden glory beneath the autumnal sky. So in spiritual life. We have to live for eternity. We have to work in faith. We feel the effort, realise the duty, see the thing to be done, but the laws which cause our toil to bear fruit are as hidden and mysterious as the laws of natural life. If, then, we could not rest on a hope which enters within the veil, and in its strength believe in the certainty of the harvest, how could we be steadfast to the end? 3. There is a veil over the heaven of the future. I know of course there is a veil over its employments, relationships, locality — which how earnestly we long to pierce I But here a great problem meets us. Taking the Scripture teaching that this life is the germ of the future life; that its present discipline is but the prelude to that " exceeding weight of glory"; that this is but the bud ,,f which the future life will be the flower, how is this earthly life to develop into the blessed life of heaven? But here comes in the hope which "enterets within the veil." Just as in the natural world the inscrutable activities which darken the seed-time, and create the fear of the seed's failure, do yet mature its fruitage; so in the spiritual life the Divine law of growth is at work, though it may be hidden from us. Our life here must be imperfect, because we live for eternity, and God is causing our life and work to move on an eternal scale. We, in this "time world " see but the minute commencement of that which reaches on into the everlasting. Every true effort must have its completion. II. But the practical question meets us — HOW CAN THIS HOPE, AS A POWER IN LIFE, RE ATTAINED? The words following our text give us the reply — "Whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever." They suggest — 1. Faith in Christ our Priest. Without that we should tremble at the drawing aside of the veil. Like the high priest of old we must be sprinkled with atoning blood before our hope can enter within it. 2. We must have fellowship with Christ our Forerunner. Don't let this become a vague idea, it leas a meaning for us which is intensely real. Remember that He is our example, inasmuch as He is a "High Priest who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, having been tempted in all points even as we are." Remember how He struggled against temptation — how He met it by instant, unconquerable resistance, arid then " angels came and ministered unto Him." So with us. After Christ like conflict we become "more than conquerors through Him that loved us," and are strengthened with angelic hopes. (E. L. Hull, R. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: |
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