This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 06:19-20, NKJV).
Hell is a place of infinite separation from God, unrelenting agony, and perpetual restlessness.
It is the default destination for every human being who dies in unbelief. All roads save one leads there, and while it may be possible to purposely head in that direction, most individuals arrive there by not thinking about eternity at all until it is too late. They drift along in life until at death they are pulled inexorably down into the irresistible whirlpool of judgment that is the promised end for all who reject the gift of salvation through faith.
There is only one remedy. Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
The writer of Hebrews reveals that this hope is the only means of escape from eternal punishment. It is the only anchor of the soul that will resist the inevitable tidal forces of judgment into which we would otherwise be pulled, like matter, energy, light, and time itself is sucked past the event horizon of a Black Hole.
And this hope, like all Biblical hope, is not mere wishing that something be so, but a guaranteed future outcome that is both sure and steadfast.
Interesting and significant are the divinely inspired word choices here. Sure is asphales (as-fal-ace'), which is the absolute negation of failure, rendering even the possibility of coming loose or breaking completely and utterly impossible.
Steadfast is bebaios (beb'-ah-yos), signifying foundational, immovable, like something that has its anchoring root in the center of the planet, or at the core of all existence.
Together the picture is one of unparalleled certainty.
But there's more, for we are now given the marvelous insight that the hope is not something that we drum up ourselves, but it is the Person of Christ, even Jesus, who, as our forerunner, our Captain, our Author, enters the Presence behind the veil.
This is a statement of unlimited access to the throne of God Himself, foreshadowed by the ancient sacrifice officiated by the hereditary High Priest of the Children of Israel, who could only approach the Mercy Seat of God in the Tabernacle, and later, the Temple, once a year, and then only after making ritualistic atonement first for his own sins, and then for the peoples'.
And this human High Priest was fallible and mortal. He was a priest only by virtue of genetic inheritance, and only until he inevitably died. As a vessel of hope, thin and fragile, the antithesis of an immovable anchor, since any failure on his part would render the all important once-yearly propitiation of God's anger against sin null and void. Not only for himself, but for the people as well.
But God appointed Jesus as High Priest, not according to the genetic order descended through Aaron, but according to the mysterious order of Melchizedek, different and far older than that established within Israel. And this appointment, as we will see, was confirmed by yet another oath from God Himself.
And rather than a temporary, mortal priesthood, Jesus became High Priest forever.
Do you see the infinitely superior hope embodied in Christ and His one-time, once-for-all work of attonement on the Cross? Do you see how vastly superior He is as our sure and steadfast anchor?
Immovable, unfailing, eternal.
When we believe, He becomes our anchor who saves us from the unthinkable torment of everlasting Hell, and beckons us to come boldly to the Throne of Grace.
