Heb 6:9-12 - Christ - The Preserver Through Our Perseverance

Heb 6:9-12 - Christ - The Preserver Through Our Perseverance

Heb 6:9-12 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.




The stick and the carrot. After the stern words of warning comes the word of encouragement and hope. Preferring to believe the best of these professors of Christ, the writer tells them just that. They are not yet done for. There are evidences of fruit in their lives and, therefore, evidences of true salvation. And if they are truly the real thing then the writer can be confident that God is at work and will not ignore the fruit that is evidence of His own great power at work in them; so neither should they ignore it.

They not only participated in serving the body of believers in the past, but they continue to do so to one degree or another. Some are still earnest about it. Some need to stir themselves from their torpor. The writer is preaching to them the doctrines of the preservation of the saints through that perseverance on their part which comes from genuine faith in the God Who is at work in them.

All Christians both must and will endure to the end. But they will do so not by gritting their teeth and applying the energy of the flesh to hold onto a salvation that is a gift to begin with. They will do so by holding fast to the belief that God is at work in what they are doing because He is sanctifying them. It is God who is faithful and not us. What He commands to His true children He also grants to them by grace. They will seek it and walk in it, but ultimately only due to God, and only through faith in Him.

The writer once more turns to the history of the Jews and to their own scriptures to illustrate his point, as we shall see.