Jesus, Our Anchor of Hope

The psalmist David asked, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps. 11:3). What do you do when your foundations are destroyed by unexpected circumstances of economic reversals, severe sickness, unjust treatment by authorities, children’s rebellion, parents dying, or divorce? What would you do if you were tried like Job? When severe storms beat against the ship of your life, do you have an anchor that steadies your soul?

Our text provides us with such an anchor, even Jesus Christ, who provided purification for sins by his atonement, rose from the dead, and entered into heaven. As our anchor of hope, he is linked to us and to God, at whose right hand he is seated in the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary.

The pastor/author had previously exhorted the Hebrews to be diligent in obedient service to Christ so that they may be filled with assurance of hope and imitate those who by patient faith received God’s promises. Now he encourages them by examining the patient faith of Abraham, the father of all believers.

God’s Promise to Abraham

First, he speaks about God’s promise to Abraham. By grace God chose to reveal himself as Savior to Abraham while Abraham was an idol worshiper in Mesopotamia: “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ So Abraham left as the Lord told him” (Gen. 12:1-4).

God repeated this promise to Abraham in a number of other places (Gen. 13:14-15; 15:4-5; 17:5, 15-19). Later on, God confirmed it with Isaac (Gen. 26) and Jacob (Gen. 28:13). By sheer grace and mercy, the Lord was promising salvation to Abraham and to his descendants.

When God makes a promise, he will fulfill it. Therefore, we must trust this God who cannot lie (cf. Num. 23:19; Tit. 1:2). Jesus himself said, “Your word is truth . . . Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (John 17:17; Mark 13:31).

About a hundred years old, Abraham’s body was as good as dead, as was Sarah’s at about ninety. Yet Paul tells us, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness . . . Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and became the father of many nations” (Rom. 4:3, 25). He was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised,” this God who “calls things that are not as though they were” (Rom. 4:21, 17).

After twenty-five years of patient endurance, Abraham received the promised son, Isaac. After Isaac grew up, Abraham was faced with the most severe trial of his life. No one else has experienced such severe testing, which was not from the devil, but from God himself. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice as a burnt offering his only son, the son whom he loved, the son through whom God had promised that salvation would come to the whole world (Gen. 22). Abraham immediately obeyed and journeyed in faith to Mount Moriah, having reasoned that the God of glory could raise the dead. And, we are told, “figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Heb. 11:19).

God’s Oath to Abraham

God’s promises are inviolable, irrevocable, and immutable. In God there is no shadow of turning; we can fully trust in his word. Yet in response to Abraham’s obedient faith, God then gave an oath in addition to his promise, for the greater comfort and assurance of Abraham and for all the heirs of promise.

In this fallen world, sinful men make many promises and covenants, yet they are unreliable. Therefore, they sometimes strengthen their promises by taking oaths, particularly in the name of the Lord. Deuteronomy 6:13 instructs, “Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.” Such an oath, given by men, is the highest affirmation of one’s trustworthiness. It is designed to stop all disputes and guarantee one’s promise. If a man lies under such an oath, he violates the third commandment that says, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Abraham himself made such an oath before the king of Sodom (Gen. 14:22). The truth is, God has no need to take an oath. Yet he did, to give strong encouragement to Abraham and all the heirs of God’s promise: “‘I swear by myself,’ declares the Lord, ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will blessed, because you have obeyed me'” (Gen. 22:16-18).

Abraham received only partial fulfillment of this promise. Certainly, he received much wealth, and after a twenty-five year wait, he received Isaac. After another fifteen years, he received his son back from destruction, and lived to see Jacob, Isaac’s covenant son, who was fifteen years old when Abraham died. Abraham believed that salvation was to come through his son Isaac, and in some sense, he saw the day of the Savior, Jesus Christ, as Jesus himself said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Hebrews 11 says Abraham was not merely looking forward to Canaan, but to a heavenly city, whose builder and maker is God. Thus, we can say that by faith he was looking forward to the day of Jesus Christ for his salvation, but Abraham received only the first installment of the promise. He did not receive the fullness of it.

Hebrews 11 speaks of Abraham and others who came after him: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance . . . These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,” that is, in its fullness (vv. 13, 39).

The prophets themselves did not see the day of the Seed of Abraham through whom the blessings of salvation was to come to all the world: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things” (1 Pet. 1:10-12).

God’s Purpose

God wants his people to enjoy great assurance. After promising salvation through the seed of Abraham, he sealed his promise with an oath, though it was not necessary. What was God’s purpose in giving these two unchangeable things? Hebrews 6:17-18 tells us that God did so to demonstrate more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his decree to save a people for himself. He did so to encourage them in their faith.

God wants us to have a mighty, not a weak and nebulous, encouragement. He wants his people to be filled to overflowing with assurance of hope and have a powerful conviction and comfort when all other foundations fail. He wants us to be able to say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15) and with Paul, “Neither death nor life . . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:38-39).

Both Peter and Paul experienced such mighty encouragement when they were executed for their faith. For them, to depart from this life was to be present with the Lord. The question is, has God fulfilled his promise of saving a people for himself and for his great glory? The answer is yes. Paul writes, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.” In Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham, all the promises of God are fulfilled. Paul says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons” (2 Cor. 1:20)

Heirs of God

Who are God’s heirs? Are they just the Jewish people, or are Gentiles also included? The truth is, all who trust in Jesus for their eternal salvation are God’s heirs, whether Jew or Gentile. God has only one people without any distinction or difference.

Paul writes, “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. . . If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:6-9, 29). In Romans 4:16 he says, “Therefore the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring, not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”

Hebrews 2:16 tells us whom Jesus Christ helps: “For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.” We are Abraham’s descendants because we have trusted in his Son for our eternal salvation. It is for our mighty encouragement that God gave a promise and an oath. All other foundations will fail, but we can stand on the sure foundation of God-on his promise confirmed by his oath.

What do the heirs of God’s promise do? Hebrews 6:18 says we have fled “to take hold of the hope offered to us.” As Noah and his family fled to the ark of salvation to escape the flood of God’s wrath, we have fled from the wrath of God to Jesus Christ, our refuge and salvation. As Lot fled from the fire of God’s wrath, we fled to Jesus from the allurements of the world and its pleasures of sin for a season. In Israel, those who killed someone unintentionally could flee to a city of refuge and be safe. Even so, we who sinned against God, both intentionally and unintentionally, have fled by his grace from the avenger of blood to Jesus our Savior.

As heirs of God’s promise, we have turned from sin to serve the risen Lord. Having truly repented of our sins, now we hate wickedness and love righteousness. We have fled for refuge to lay hold of the promise of hope set before us.

Christian hope is objective; it is laid before us. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man, who died in our place for our sins, was buried, and was raised for our justification, who went through the heavens and is seated on the right hand of God the Father, and who is coming again. Our hope is based on objective reality, which leads to a subjective conviction based on this great objective hope. So Paul writes: “Jesus our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1).

The Hebrews writer says we took hold of Jesus our hope, and the Greek text implies that we continue to hold on to him. Moment by moment we are gripping and grasping him, and we will not let him go. (PGM) Every heir of salvation will do that, for we have no other hope and no other savior. It is only through Jesus that salvation comes to the world. He is the perfect high priest, the perfect victim in our place, the perfect altar, and the perfect atonement. He alone can say, “I will give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Not only do we grasp him, but he has also grasped us, and nothing can separate us from his grasp. Because he grasped us, we grasped him and are eternally saved.

The writer says that God gives his oath and promise that we may have mighty encouragement. It is in the present tense, meaning we are continually encouraged, but not by the security of health, relationships, power, beauty, or wisdom of this world. It is a mighty security that rests on God’s Son, the mighty security of God’s unfailing promise and oath to save us. He has saved us, he is saving us, and he will save us.

We experience this encouragement continually. Not only have we experienced it once, but we can also have it every day, especially as we face severe trials. We are people of hope. The author says: Look before you. There is hope, for there is Jesus who is the way. We see him in the word of God. When we lay hold of him by reading and believing the word, we shall enjoy great comfort, hope, and mighty encouragement.

Jesus Is Our Anchor of Hope

What is this hope we are grasping? It is not money or things or a country. Hebrews 11 says we are looking forward to a heavenly city and a heavenly country.

Our anchor of hope is Jesus himself, who died for our sins and was raised for our justification. The author says, “We have this hope”; it is in the present tense, meaning we have it now, continuously. When we face our university examinations, we have it; when we go to the doctor and hear our disease is terminal, we have it; at the hour of our death, we have it; when our spouse is sick or when our child dies, we have it.

We have Jesus, our hope, as an anchor “for the soul” (Heb. 6:19). This does not mean he is the anchor only for the immaterial part of our being; it means Christ is the anchor of our entire life, both body and soul. Our life’s ship is not immune to severe winds, rain, and mighty storms. But we are securely fastened, or moored, to Jesus, who is moored to God, who dwells in the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary.

Sailors do not see the anchor that grips the bottom of the harbor. But they are certain of their safety because of it. Even so, by faith our anchor, Jesus, though invisible to us, but visible to faith and hope, is in us as the hope of glory. But he is also with God. We have two chains linked together: one is promise, the other is oath. In Jesus our hope is linked to us and linked to God. He is in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). He is also with God, for he has entered the heavens and is seated on the right hand of God as our high priest forever to intercede for us.

We are told this anchor is sure. The Greek word means it does not slip. Jesus will not fall asleep and lose his grip on us. He also will not change his mind. Even when we slip and sin, our anchor still holds and grips the solid rock. Our anchor Jesus is steadfast and dependable forever. In the hour of our sickness, persecution, and death, when all other anchors fail, Jesus will hold us fast. As the hymnwriter says, “Heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails.”

When the storm arose and filled their boat with water, the disciples were afraid and cried out, “We are perishing. Save us, O Lord!” Jesus saved them by calming the storm. Even so, Jesus our anchor of hope makes great calm of all our great storms. The peace of God that passes all human understanding shall grip and guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (cf. Phil. 4:7).

He tells us, “Fear not, I am with you. Peace, be still, in all of life’s ebbs and flows.” Jesus, our anchor of hope, has died, risen, and entered the heavenly Holy of Holies as our forerunner, our scout. He arrived in God’s presence on our behalf, that he may bring every one of us to God’s presence, and he shall never fail in this mission. By his sacrifice, he made the way for us to God. He is our shepherd, who guides us and brings us to the Celestial City, to the Holy of Holies, behind the veil to God’s presence.

The mission of Jesus Christ is to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10) and he has done it. He is there already, and we will be there soon, one by one. In fact, Paul says that, in one sense, we are already seated with Christ (Eph. 2:6), for as branches are united to the vine, so we are vitally united with him.

Therefore, fear not, dear ones. Fear not the fiery trials. Fear not your own death. To us, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21). To us, to depart is to be present with Christ (Phil. 1:23). By faith and hope, fix your eyes, not on the storms of life, but on Jesus our hope, Jesus our sure anchor, Jesus in heaven, Jesus our forerunner, Jesus our high priest, Jesus our atonement.

How do we fix our eyes on him? We see him in the Scriptures. Paul tells us in Romans 15:4 that the Scriptures are for our hope. Those who read and believe the Scriptures will overflow with encouragement, comfort, and hope. And we must see him as Stephen saw him as he was being stoned to death: “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God'” (Acts 7:55-56). Christ was standing, ready to usher Stephen into the very presence of God. Then Stephen prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (v. 59). Just as Stephen was welcomed by Jesus into heaven, so Christ will welcome every child of God to into the presence of the Father.

Conclusion

Have you fled from the world of sin to Jesus for your safety and salvation? Have you believed in his oath-backed promise to save you? Is your soul moored to Jesus, who is moored to God, that you may enjoy the peace of God when all other foundations give way? Have you seized on the hope that is laid before you in the gospel, even Jesus Christ? Jesus said, “The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings speak of me, that Christ must die and be raised from the dead, that repentance and forgiveness of sins may be proclaimed to all nations” (cf. Luke 24:46-47).

How are you building your life? What is your foundation? Consider what Jesus said: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matt. 7:24-25). All earthly foundations shall fail. Hebrews 12:26-27 says that he is going to shake everything one more time, that the unshakable kingdom of God alone may stand.

Now consider the hope of John and Betty Stam, a young missionary couple in their late twenties, who were serving in the Anhwei province of China when they were captured by Communists in 1934. As their captors led them away to execute them for their faith in Jesus, someone asked, “Where are you going?” John Stam answered, “I do not know where they are going, but we are going to heaven.”

At the hour of your certain death, will you be able to say, “I am going to heaven, where Jesus my anchor of hope is waiting for me”? May God help all of us to trust in Jesus Christ alone and be saved, that we might experience this great and mighty encouragement that Jesus Christ is the anchor of our souls. And when we are buffeted by all the storms of life, may we know and be steadied by the peace of God that passes all human understanding.