This may seem to be a lesson on theology because it speaks about God; but theology is usually a dead study, filled with the intricate hairsplitting doctrines of men who are devoid of deep spirituality and are only concerned about things academically. This is actually not a teaching on theology, though it deals with the Lord—the way He thinks and what He does.
Hebrews 6:11–20: And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end (the enemy works away at you, trying to destroy the hope and vital faith within your heart, doing everything he can to take the edge off until the full assurance of hope wanes and disappears), that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
You cannot afford to be sluggish, for the promises of God do not belong to sluggish people. They belong to those who are violent in their faith and aggressive in appropriating what God has for them. If you have a tired spirit, you need a spiritual tonic.
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you.” And thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.
In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
God’s viewpoint is quite different from men. What was God concerned about when He spoke to Abraham? He knew that in order to take the limitation off Abraham, He had to place limitations upon Himself. This is what a walk in the Spirit is based upon. We have a revelation of God limiting Himself in order that we can be unlimited!
Can God do anything? Verse 18 tells us that God cannot lie. Is that a limitation on God? Can you lie? Then you can do something God cannot do. Can the devil lie? According to John 8:44 he is a liar and the father of it. Therefore, the devil can do something that God cannot do. God cannot lie. Isn’t God omnipotent? Doesn’t that mean He can do anything? That is exactly why He cannot lie. If God can do anything, then the one thing that must be included in His abilities is the ability to limit Himself. If God could do everything except limit Himself, His omnipotence would not be absolute. With all the ability He has, He can still impose upon Himself the inability to be wicked, to sin, to tell a lie. God says in effect, “This I impose upon Myself. Because I can do all things, I can impose limitations upon Myself.”
Jesus, the Son, though He was in the form of God, felt that equality with God was not a thing to be grasped, and He emptied Himself (Philippians 2:6–8). His ability to do this is proof of His omnipotence before His incarnation. Born as a little baby, sucking at Mary’s breast, He was limited as a child to grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). The fact that He limited Himself to such an extent demonstrates His original omnipotence. He walked in great limitation as a servant of man and a bond-servant of God, obedient even to death on the cross.
Every time God speaks, something of Himself comes forth. Because He is all-powerful in the words that He speaks, He conveys His omnipotence; and yet because of what He says, He restricts and limits Himself.
The Bible is a book of limitations. Every time God speaks, He places a restriction upon Himself so that He can remove the limitations from His children… though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. II Corinthians 8:9.
Everything God is doing and everything He has done in His Son is a restriction upon Him. This leads us to the obvious conclusion: God is not doing much in the world these days independently of His Body. What an awesome truth: we frail insignificant people are the channels God has chosen!
What if we do not do it? It probably will not be done until God raises up someone else—not that we are indispensable or unexpendable, for God can get along without us, but He wants to get along with us.
Christ once walked with all the authority of the Father, but He went back to heaven so that He could move through a many-membered Body. If we do not believe to be channels of God, His purposes will not be accomplished.
Perhaps you are waiting for God to speak to bring an inspired Word that will reach your heart. Who is going to speak that Word? Who will proclaim it? Are you waiting to hear voices in the night or to have a dream? God is not moving that way. He has a many-membered Body; and when Christ limited Himself to move through that Body, He made it possible for you to move in His fullness and in His authority in an unlimited manner. Do you see what God is doing? Do you see Him tying His hands on your behalf?
What happens when God makes a promise and a commitment? Exodus 32 tells how Israel sinned against God when they made the golden calf, then danced around it and committed fornication. They were unworthy people, yet Moses prayed for them. God said, “Let Me alone, Moses, so that My anger may wax hot against them. Then I will make of you a great nation.” Moses stood before God and reminded Him of His promises to Israel. In this argument with God, the only thing Moses could stand on was what God had said, because He had committed Himself. His word will not return void, but it will accomplish His purposes (Isaiah 55:11). How immutable are His counsels. He works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11). He commits Himself by everything He speaks.
He is infused in His word. Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). They are not like human words. When God says something, it is spirit. God is a Spirit. He Himself goes into His words. His words are living; they cannot do anything but produce. Therefore He says, “My word goes forth and it will accomplish the purpose for which I send it.” It is the same as the process He uses when He makes the earth bring forth fruit after the rain. It is beautiful to see God committing Himself to His very word.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. John 15:3. His words have a purging and imparting effect. He sent His word and healed them. Psalm 107:20a. He spoke the word, and they lived. All God had to say was, “Let there be” (Genesis 1) and the ages were created. Things that are seen were not made of things which do appear (Hebrews 11:3). God ordered the ages. He brought forth everything by His words. Every time God speaks, He removes a limitation for us and gives us an unlimited access to Himself. That in itself entails a limitation laid upon Him. All we have to do is stand on the word of God.
God’s faithfulness is more important than ours. If it were dependent on our faithfulness, we would surely fail. Every time God speaks a word, He has to be faithful to it. He is stuck with it. When He speaks a word over you through a prophet, and that word is confirmed by two or three witnesses, you cannot reason about that word as you would about something man says. You have to think about it from God’s viewpoint.
Suppose God sends a word concerning you and then you fail. You stand before the Lord and say, “Lord, forgive me.” The devil will sneer. “The Lord is not going to forgive you.”
“Oh yes, He will. He knew what I was and what was in me before I fell, before He ever spoke a word over me. Now I repent of this sin with all my heart and ask God to have His will in my life.” We know what His will is because He has already revealed it.
The long-suffering of God is part of His nature. He is long-suffering and full of grace. How can we accept the doctrine which pictures the recording angel with a long eraser on the end of his pencil, rubbing people’s names out of the book of life every time they commit a small offense? It just does not work that way. We are not condoning sin, nor are we saying that people can walk in rebellion against God without suffering serious eternal consequences. But you must see the positive side, too. It is a good thing that God is holding on to you. It is good that He is not looking at your unfaithfulness. Perhaps you do not have a very good record, yet God in His love and mercy chose you and brought you into grace in your unworthiness. How many times have you stumbled? How many times have you wavered before the Lord? You had better thank God for His faithfulness. Ask the Lord to be faithful to His word and produce His faithfulness in you.
God is constantly limiting Himself on your behalf so that you can walk in greater freedom. That is why He sent His Son to take upon Himself flesh and blood—not temporarily for only thirty-three years, but for eternity. He will have that flesh and blood in a glorified body throughout eternal ages. He limited Himself to become human so that He could bring many sons to glory; they will walk in His deity. That is how much He loves you! Doesn’t this make you want to stand up and praise the Lord with all your heart, to reach out and say, “Lord, I love You! I love You, Lord.”
Will we ever fully comprehend how much God loves us? Can we understand how He has linked His permanence, His eternity, with our transient impermanence and frailty? God cannot lie because He has limited Himself to be the truthful God of integrity to us. When He makes a promise, He is bound by it. He cannot break it, because He has declared in His own omnipotence that this cannot be done. He cannot break His word once it has gone forth: Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89.
Hebrews 6:18 says that we have fled to the Lord; we have strong encouragement—the kind of encouragement that comes when a small child sees the packages at his birthday party. His eyes get big as saucers, and he jumps up and down, clapping his hands. …we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. (Do you have that hope set before you? Do you have hold of it?) This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us.… Hebrews 6:18–20.
Where is your anchor? It is in the heart of Jesus, in the holy of holies, in the presence of the Father. Have you seen the storms coming? the circumstances? the winds that are blowing? Hang on to that hope set before you. Nothing will shake you loose if you are thoroughly anchored. You must have that living hope in all that God has said. God cannot lie and He loves you. With an anchor both sure and steadfast, anchor yourself to Him in the holy of holies where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us. A forerunner is the first one. Keep hanging on to the hope and you will get there, too!
On an ordinary ship the anchor is reeled in when a ship moves on; but with God it does not work that way. Everything around us is changing and transitory. When we set our anchor in the Lord and keep hanging on, instead of our pulling the anchor in, the anchor pulls us in, because Jesus is there as our forerunner, the pioneer to bring us all into it. In His faithfulness, He will make us faithful!
Teach us how to hang on to that anchor, Lord, for it is Your commitment to us. Let the confused and bewildered heart be lifted to see Your love and Your faithfulness, to see that every word You have spoken is a commitment to the sons of men. O God, how You have limited Yourself to set us free!