«Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful» (Hebrews 10:23).
THE MOST TERRIBLE of all feelings is the feeling of having no hope,» said Federico Garcia Lorca, the great Spanish poet. «The end of hope is the beginning of death,» said Charles De Gaulle, who became president of France after the Second World War. How then can we keep hope firm and alive? Paul always emphasizes the glorious hope of the believer.
When hope is set on Christ and His faithfulness and we look forward to His coming, we hold fast to it, without fluctuating or oscillating, with patience, faithfulness, and perseverance. The generation of Israelites who left Egypt wavered at Kadesh Barnea, weakened their faith, weakened their hope, and failed to enter the Promised Land.
God is faithful in fulfilling His promises: both in liberating them from Egypt, as well as in accompanying them on the journey and entrance into Canaan; from deliverance from the power of sin to the entrance into the present and eternal blessings. There is no reason to fluctuate. His death secures our lives.
It was three o’clock in the afternoon of an eventful Friday. It was the time of the main prayer of the day, the hour of the evening sacrifice, when the Passover lamb was being slain. The One who had come to seek and to save what was lost, to bring life in abundance, bowing His head gave up His spirit. Mortals bow their heads as an effect of death, but Jesus bowed it before He died. Nobody took His life; He gave it voluntarily «Christ did not yield up His life till He had accomplished the work which He came to do, and with His parting breath He exclaimed, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). The battle had been won» (The Desire of Ages, p. 758).
Then the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. This veil, which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, was torn by an invisible hand, by a supernatural power. And that came to pass at the hour of the sacrifice, for Jesus’s sacrifice ended all other sacrifices. The veil prevented access to God’s presence. Christ’s death removed the veil. Thus, the access was free and direct.
The destruction of sin and Satan, as well as the redemption of man, were assured forever.
Let us holdfast the confession of our hope without wavering because the evidence of His faithfulness and the strength of our hope are sealed with Christ’s own blood.