Hebrews 6:17

322. – Then when he says, So when God desired to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his purpose, he interposed an oath, he states the reason why God willed to swear, namely, to show the immutability of His …

God interposed by an oath - Amazing condescension! He who is greatest of all acts as if he were a middle person; as if while he swears, he were less than himself, by whom he swears! Thou that hearest the promise, dost thou not yet believe?

Here observe, (1.) Who they are to whom God has given such full security of happiness. [1.] They are the heirs of the promise: such as have a title to the promises by inheritance, by virtue of their new birth, and union with Christ. We are all by nature children of wrath.

Wherein God, willing,....

Wherein--that is, Which being the case among men, God, in accommodation to their manner of confirming covenants, superadded to His sure word His oath: the "TWO immutable things" (Heb 6:18). willing . . . counsel--Greek, "willing . . . will"; words akin.

THE Lord's transactions with the Patriarch Abraham are frequently used in Scripture as types of His dealings with all the heirs of promise. The Lord found him in an idolatrous household, even as He finds all His people far off from Him and strangers to Him. But the Lord separated him by an effectual call and brought him out from his country and from his father's house, even as He does unto all His people when He visits them in mercy, and says, "Come out from among them and be you separate and touch not the unclean thing."

THE Lord's transactions with the Patriarch Abraham are frequently used in Scripture as types of His dealings with all the heirs of promise. The Lord found him in an idolatrous household, even as He finds all His people far off from Him and strangers to Him. But the Lord separated him by an effectual call and brought him out from his country and from his father's house, even as He does unto all His people when He visits them in mercy, and says, "Come out from among them and be you separate and touch not the unclean thing." The Lord, then, was pleased to give to His servant a very gracious promise, the likes of which, only yet more clear and bright, He is pleased to give to every heir of salvation. And after awhile, that the Patriarch's faith in the midst of his increasing trials might come to a fullness of strength, the Lord was pleased to make a Covenant with him and to confirm that Covenant by sacrifice of blood and by solemn oath. Even thus does He reveal Himself to us, unfolding the ancient Covenant of Grace which He has made with us in Christ Jesus and He bids us look upon the solemn seal of the Savior's sacrifice and of the oath of old which the Lord made unto His Son. As He led His servant, a stranger in a strange land, but yet surrounded and enriched with innumerable mercies, even so are we sojourners with Him, as all our fathers were, but yet endowed with boundless favor in the blessings of the right hand of the Most High. No doubt, the great end of God in this, so far as Abraham's life on earth was concerned, was to produce in Abraham a model of unstaggering faith. God takes pleasure in the persons of His servants. He takes a delight in the training and education of His children, in the creating of His own image in their characters. And especially if there is one thing in a saint which delights God more than another, it is the choice Grace of Faith.

FAITH is the Divinely-appointed way of receiving the blessings of Grace. "He that believes shall be saved," is one of the main declarations of the Gospel. The wonders of creation, the discoveries of Revelation and the movements of Providence are all intended to create and foster the principle of faith in the living God. If God reveals anything, it is that we should believe it. Of all the books of Holy Scripture it may be said, "these are written that you might believe and that believing you might have life."

FAITH is the Divinely-appointed way of receiving the blessings of Grace. "He that believes shall be saved," is one of the main declarations of the Gospel. The wonders of creation, the discoveries of Revelation and the movements of Providence are all intended to create and foster the principle of faith in the living God. If God reveals anything, it is that we should believe it. Of all the books of Holy Scripture it may be said, "these are written that you might believe and that believing you might have life." Even if God conceals anything, it is that we may be able to confide in Him since what we know yields but little space for trust compared with the unknown. Providence sends us many different trials, all meant to exercise and increase our faith and, at the same time, in answer to prayer, it brings us varied proofs of the Divine faithfulness which serve as refreshments to our faith. Thus the works and the Words of God cooperate to educate men in the Grace of faith.

The heirs of promise - All the believing posterity of Abraham, and the nations of the earth or Gentiles in general. The immutability of his counsel - His unchangeable purpose, to call the Gentiles to salvation by Jesus Christ; to justify every penitent by faith; to accept faith in Christ for justification in place of personal righteousness; and finally to bring every persevering believer, whether Jew or Gentile, to eternal glory.