`Looking away to Jesus the Author and Perfecter of faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured ... and is set

down at the right hand of the throne of God' (not AV JP).

The sequel expresses the need for continuance:

`lest ye be wearied and faint ... ye have not yet resisted unto blood' (Heb. 12:3,4).

The apostle urged his readers to become `imitators' of those who by faith and patience inherit the promises. He

says in 13:7,8:

`Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow (be

imitating), considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever

(unto the ages)'.

Amidst all the change and decay, the fall and the failure of things seen, the Lord remains the same. Our faith and

hope are within the veil. Our anchorage is there. While that remains we must endure.

We usually translate hupomone by patience, but this is not the word in Hebrews 6:12, which is makrothumia.

Patience is distinguished from makrothumia in 2 Timothy 3:10, te pistei, te makrothumia, ... te hupomone: `faith,

longsuffering, patience'. Again in Colossians 1:11, `unto all patience and longsuffering'. Longsuffering is ascribed

both to God (Rom. 2:4; 9:22; 1 Pet. 3:20; 2 Pet. 3:15) and to Christ (1 Tim. 1:16).

The believer reflects the longsuffering that God shows to a world of wickedness by quietly waiting with

uncomplaining spirit for God's good time. The spirit that chafes, murmurs, and complains, is in danger of forfeiting

the reward. One of the marks of the perfect is that he bridles his tongue (James 3:2). Murmuring lost the land of

promise to those who were redeemed out of Egypt. The epistle of the prize of the high calling urges all those who

would be perfect to `Do all things without murmurings and disputings' (Phil. 2:14).

Two related themes occupy the closing verses of Hebrews 6, viz., the Oath and the Hope.

`When (for example) God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself'

(Heb. 6:13).

`For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing

more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by (interposed

with) an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong

consolation' (Heb. 6.16-18).

On several occasions God made covenant and promise to Abraham, but upon one occasion only did He interpose

with an oath. The occasion was not that first initial act of justifying faith recorded in Genesis 15, but the crowning

act of faith given in Genesis 22.

The apostle had said `God is not unrighteous to forget', and the way in which the Lord responded to Abraham's

implicit trust is surely one element in that strong consolation which our hope in God gives us. The angel of the Lord

did not merely say to Abraham, `Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son from

Me', but `seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, THINE ONLY SON from Me'. God did not `forget'. He gives

prominence to the sacrifice that Abraham made and in His delight at this great act of faith goes beyond strict

necessity and `swears by Himself, saying, Blessing I will bless thee'.

God was willing `more abundantly'. It was, as we have said, beyond strict necessity. It is sufficient for God to

speak. A simple promise made by God should be enough to command our fullest faith. Yet so does He condescend,

that in this recognition of Abraham's trust, the Lord goes beyond this, and `swears by Himself'. The intention was

to manifest the unchangeability of His counsel. In the expression, `two immutable things', the word `things' is:

`Pragma, an `act or deed' such as we make and deliver, when we convey anything from one to another' (Owen).

Are we to understand by these two immutable things:

(1) The promise of God originally given,

(2) The oath super added afterwards?