God Cannot Lie

Hebrews 6:13-20 (ESV)

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The lead sentence into this is verse 12, where the writer called upon his readers to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Abraham is an example.

God made promises to Abraham, which were not immediately fulfilled. Abraham had to wait, trusting God’s timing. His wife wasn’t so good about the patience part of that. But Abraham waited patiently and obtained the promises.

Now, what was it about God – that caused Abraham to have such patience? Simply stated, GOD CANNOT LIE. Abraham had sufficient knowledge of God and confidence in God, he was willing to wait. The point is made in this section, “It is impossible for God to lie.” That was Abraham’s conviction.

After developing that argument from the Abraham narrative, the writer makes his application: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

This shows the writer coming back full circle to his affirmation that Christ is High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. One product of this is – believers have this anchor to hold us steady and keep us from drifting. The knowledge that God cannot lie, and our confidence in the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ. He is there for us and will eventually welcome His people into heaven.

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