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"Faith" and "patience" are the two words used in direct connection with inheriting the
promises. In Heb. 10: 38, 39 we have "living by faith" placed in contrast with "drawing
back", and the faith that inherits the promises is the faith that believes unto the
"acquiring" of the soul (Heb. 10: 39). This rendering we must justify when dealing with
chapter 10: The faith that inherits the promises is further expressed in Heb. 11: 1 as:
"the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
This enabled Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and the rest to overcome and to obtain
promises. The whole teaching concerning faith is summed up for us in chapter 12: 2:
"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."
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 Heb. 6: 12,
which is makrothumia. Patience is distinguished from makrothumia in II Tim. 3: 10,
te pistei, te makrothumia, te hupomone: "faith, longsuffering, patience". Again in
Col. 1: 11, "unto all patience and longsuffering". Longsuffering is ascribed both to God
(Rom. 2: 4; 9: 22; I Pet. 3: 20; II Pet. 3: 15) and to Christ (I 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 Heb. 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